It's not everyone's cup of tea, but farming rats has paid off for former dairy farmer and fruit grower Cheryl Martin.
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"It's the most money I've made farming," she said.
"I guess if I spend a dollar, I get four back, but I don't count my hours in that."
The 57-year-old, from Woodlane, east of Adelaide, got into the rat business eight years ago after a stint working in a hardware store.
"I was looking for something a bit more that I could do from home because I like to work for myself," she said.
"I was looking for something a bit quirky."
Raising rats for reptiles
She said breeding rats to feed pet snakes and lizards took a bit of getting used to at the start.
"I actually said to [my wife] Fiona, I think I've made a mistake because it was quite smelly, and it put me off my food, but once everything was clean, it was fine," Ms Martin said.
She also had to overcome a common fear.
"I thought they were going to bite me," she said.
"Gradually, I learnt that they weren't going to jump out, and they were quite tame.
"There were only a few rogue ones that actually bit me to start with, but they were moved on pretty quickly."
Ms Martin said she sold 10 different sizes of rats, from one-day-old "pinkies" to "extra large jumbos", which weighed more than 500 grams.
With a gestation of 23 to 26 days, up to 18 pups in a litter and the ability to do it all again straight away, she said it was fast-paced farming.
"Over the years, I've learnt that I can ramp it up and ramp it down pretty quickly, which is way better than beef and sheep, which take a long time," she said.
Ms Martin said she enjoyed the flexible hours but was not so fond of constantly cleaning out rat poo.
She also said the processing, where rats were gassed with food-grade carbon dioxide, was particularly difficult.
"That's the hardest part of the job," Ms Martin said.
"I don't think killing anything is humane or, you know, a good thing. So I try to do that as best I can."
She said that included laying the rats out with their tails and feet tucked in before freezing and packing them.
"Presentation in the shop seems to be a big part of people buying a rat," she said.
"I don't want them to look stressed. I want to respect them."
Rats in demand
Snake handler and educator, Julian Craig, has bought more than his fair share of rodents.
He runs a business in Murray Bridge, where he houses about 80 of the world's most venomous snakes.
He said he had a couple of rat suppliers, including Ms Martin, but sourcing the rodents could be difficult.
"There are people living in country environments who really struggle to get a good supply, and they pay a real premium for it," Mr Craig said.
Ms Martin said demand for rats peaked during COVID lockdowns when a growing number of people bought reptiles as pets.
"I was quite stressed … stressed in a good way because I made a lot of money, I guess that year, but it was full on," she said.
She said she enjoyed the antics and personalities of her miniature livestock, with one even graduating to pet status.
"That was Dave," she said.
"He was really cute when he was little, and I thought, OK I'm going to keep one for COVID."
Ms Martin said she was used to lots of curious questions when people found out how she made her living.
"A big one is, 'Have you ever eaten rats'… which I have now," she said.
"It's got more flavour than chicken that we eat normally, but it's a lot of work for not much … a bit like eating quail."
Despite passing the taste test, she said she wasn't tempted to start farming rodents for human consumption.
She said she was branching out into mice to fill a gap that had opened up in the pet food market.
But she said she was not sold yet.
"They're a bit jumpy, and they're smellier," she said.
"The boys are quite smelly.
"I don't really like it, but I'm going with it at the moment."
Ms Martin said her decision to turn rats into a job had set her up for retirement … whenever that may be.
"Shifting a rat is much better than shifting cows and sheep," she said.
"It's something I can do well into my seventies if I needed to."
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