Bamboo Rats

Inside China's bizarre Bamboo Rat farms Shi Beidan has 2,000 bamboo rats that she plans to sell at market • She is fattening them up with bamboo to be eaten or turned into fur coats • Cash-strapped farmers in Guizhou Province are breeding rats for income • They can grow up to 50 centimetres in length and four kilograms in weight • Rat meat costs four times more than chicken or pork and twice that of beef • It is also believed to cure baldness in some parts of China •

By Matt Blake PUBLISHED: 11:03 EST, 19 December 2012 | UPDATED: 14:31 EST, 19 December 2012

When Shi Beidan spotted a rat the size of a small dog scuttling across her kitchen floor, the last thing she wanted to do was call in the exterminators.

Instead she caught the rodent, gave it a lunch of bamboo and put it in a box to breed more.

She now has more than 2,000 giant bamboo rats at her home in Congjiang, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, all of which she is fattening up to sell at market.

Fat rat: Shi Beidan holds up one of her specimens to the camera. She has spent months fattening it up by feeding it bamboo

They are a popular delicacy in some parts of china and are eaten in a variety of dishes, but the biggest ones can also be skinned and turned into fur coats.

It is a scheme that is sweeping across the region, with cash-strapped farmers turning to breeding the rats as a new source of income. And it is becoming big business.

Tasty dish: They are a popular delicacy in some parts of china and are eaten in a variety of dishes, but the biggest ones can also be skinned and turned into fur coats

Rodent family: She now has more than 2,000 giant bamboo rats at her home in Congjiang, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, all of which she is fattening up to sell at market

Just a baby... for now: Bamboo rats are a species of rodent that are found in the eastern half of Asia and can grow up to 50 centimetres in length and four kilograms in weight

Big business: Cash-strapped farmers are breeding the rats as a new source of income. A pair of well-kept breed bamboo rats can sell for between 600 and 900 Chinese yuan (£60 and £90)

Congjiang county already has 18 bamboo rat farms, and it is planning to expand that number to 20 in 2013.

Bamboo rats are a species of rodent that are found in the eastern half of Asia and can grow up to 50 centimetres in length and four kilograms in weight.

A pair of well-kept breed bamboo rats can sell for between 600 and 900 Chinese yuan (£60 and £90).

And they reproduce rapidly with three to four litters of two to five offspring a year.

Rat meat costs over four times more than chicken or pork and twice that of beef in China. Eating rat is even said to prevent baldness and is considered a winter dish.