Bamboo Rat Farming: Techniques, Conditions and Prospect Analysis
These past few days I have received calls from some farmers. Their bamboo rats gave birth normally last year, and the litter sizes were fairly good, but this year a large number of them have still not given birth. What is the reason? Winter is the high-yield season for bamboo rats, yet some bamboo rat farmers are not getting good returns. Apart from some cases caused by poor technique, most are actually caused by poor management. They think bamboo rat farming is "lazy man's farming" and manage it very extensively, which leads to low birth rates, low survival rates and slow growth in bamboo rats. But if you raise your bamboo rats the way you raise your own children, with meticulous management, your returns will certainly be different. Only when you treat your bamboo rats well will your returns be good.
Only when the female bamboo rats are raised well can the young bamboo rats grow well
Truly good management is when you look at your bamboo rats as you would your wife and children, giving them meticulous care and looking after them, then what bad situations could they still have?
Raise bamboo rats as if they were your own children
The main reasons affecting bamboo rat reproduction are
1. Breed problems. Breeding stock must of course be well selected. Some bamboo rats are born to produce few young, or even none at all; no matter how well you manage them, they still will not produce young bamboo rats.
Selecting breeding rats is crucial
2. Selection of female bamboo rats. Some female bamboo rats are visibly sick, extremely thin, or fat beyond all reason. Female bamboo rats that are too thin or too fat will have their estrus affected. Do you think they will produce young?
3. Selection and formulation of feed. Female bamboo rats can be said to be the key of keys for bamboo rat farmers' returns. If you feed them unreasonably and do not give them good food, how can they help you produce healthy young bamboo rats, and how can they help you nurse healthy young bamboo rats? If you give them poor or unclean food, and many farmers feed bamboo rats feed that has been stored too long or has become mouldy, do you think the females can have milk? Every farmer's concentrate formula is different. There is no professional bamboo rat feed on the market now; it is all mixed by oneself. I think the formula should be as simple as possible; if too many ingredients are mixed in, the risk of feed becoming mouldy increases.
4. Environmental management. Only a good environment can raise bamboo rats well. If the environment is dirty, messy, poor and damp, the bamboo rats certainly cannot be raised well. It affects the survival rate of young raised by female bamboo rats, and the young bamboo rats are also prone to diarrhoea, which directly affects growth. When bamboo rats have problems, the bamboo rat farmer is not tired half to death.
In such a damp environment bamboo rats easily get diarrhoea
The grass used as bedding for the bamboo rats can be wrung out with water
Raising bamboo rats depends on management. With good management you can save a lot of trouble and still make more money.
Editing: Xia Zhihua
In China, bamboo rats have already entered the large and medium-sized cities, towns and consumer markets of southern and western China, and demand is increasing at a rate of 3% per year. In coastal large and medium-sized cities such as Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Hainan and Shanghai, sales of commercial bamboo rats have always been strong, and prices have consistently remained firm, with a selling price of 80-100 yuan per kg. A 1 kg roast bamboo rat sells for more than 200 yuan. ⟦18 2. Especially around the Spring Festival, bamboo rat sales are even stronger, prices rise and supply is short. According to incomplete statistics, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Hong Kong, Fujian, Shanghai and other places consume more than 6 million bamboo rats each year, while at present the national production of bamboo rats is far from meeting the rapidly growing market demand. In the past two years, China's bamboo rat farming industry has gradually warmed up and shows every sign of spreading like a prairie fire. Many farmer friends have rushed to introduce breeding stock and start farming, which in turn requires the supply of large numbers of bamboo rat breeding stock.
2. Especially around the Spring Festival, bamboo rat sales are even brisker, prices rise, and supply is tight. According to incomplete statistics, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Hong Kong, China, Fujian, Shanghai and other places consume more than 6 million bamboo rats each year, while at present, the national production of bamboo rats is far from meeting the needs of the rapidly growing market. In the past two years, China's bamboo rat farming industry has begun to gradually heat up, showing a momentum like a prairie fire, and many farmer friends have introduced breeding stock to start farming, which in turn requires the supply of large quantities of bamboo rat breeding stock.