Some people run screaming into the night if they run into a rat, but Heath Verhey is seeing rodents in a whole new light – he has started farming them. You might have a few rats in your backyard, from time to time, but Heath has thousands and thousands in his – and all of the time.
IF life is a rat race, Heath Verhey is working hard to make sure he wins.
In northern Victoria the producer has found a niche in the livestock market and has launched Reliable Rodents as a critical link in the food chain for Australia’s thriving reptile market.
He already has 300 breeders, each producing on average 1200 kits a year – we’ll do the maths for you, that’s 360,000 in total.
And it is just the beginning. Heath is being mentored and supported by a retired breeder who ran 5000 females – or a staggering six million offspring a year.
For Heath, the end game is to have supply contracts with the big zoos and fauna parks on top of his ‘domestic’ trade to pet shops and private snake owners. Some of his owner customers have as many as 30 to 40 snakes of all shapes and sizes.
After years of fly in/fly out in the mining industry, Heath wanted to build a business opportunity which would enable him to stay home.
When the rat idea came up, he wasn’t in the least squeamish, as you might expect from some. Instead, he spent 18 months researching the potential industry before he “bit the bullet” as he puts it.
“I had mates with snakes, that’s where it all started, and they have a bit of everything, from pythons to the seriously venomous – and they all need to be fed,” Mr Verhey said.
“And I discovered fairly quickly they all had some issues with their current supplies, a big one being freezer burn on the rats they received, so I set about working on that problem too.
“Instead of immediately freezing the carcase once the rat is processed through a CO2 system, I realised if you refrigerated them first, to below room temperature, and then started the freezing process you would remove the risk of icicles and frost burn.
“I have been running my business – Reliable Rodents – for 12 months now and we already have a solid client base and are starting to expand.”
All snakes are carnivores – but what kind of meat they consume is connected to their species.
Reliable Rodents is targeting the warm-blooded prey varieties. Snakes swallow their food whole and the big boys – the constrictors – thrive on hamsters, gerbils, small birds, mice, even rabbits – and rats.
And since snakes swallow their meals whole, it is much easier to feed them nutritionally complete diets (and prevent many dietary-related diseases commonly seen in other reptiles). Meaning the rat Mr Verhey is producing delivers a balanced diet for a snake.
Smaller or younger snakes usually eat twice a week, while larger, more mature ones typically eat just once every week, or even every two weeks.
Rats for food seems like a sound business plan, but what about food for rats?
That’s a different kettle of fish, as it were, and yet another area where Heath has done his research to make sure his rats are in the best possible condition.
“In the end I tracked down a setup called Cummins Milling on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia,” Mr Verhey said.
“They have been able to produce a specialised pellet to meet the nutritional needs of the rats, and I get in a regular order of 1.2 tonnes of feed.
“It contains all the supplements and minerals I need to keep my rats, especially the breeders, in peak condition – that is important because some of the snakes owned by our customers can be worth as much as $30,000 or $40,000 – each.
“We run two females to a stall, with one male between them, and the gestation period is 21 days, and we get around 20 kits per litter. The females are back in heat in the next three or four days. We monitor that closely, with each stall date stamped when the male goes in and stamped again when we check the female’s progress at the 17-day point.”
Reliable Rodents runs white rats with red eyes and while Heath initially sourced his breeding stock locally, he is now bringing in new genetics from Queensland and NSW as well as Victoria.
His pilot operation is a state-of-the-art facility set up in an insulated, temperature controlled 40-foot container lined with stalls containing his breeders, each one supplied by an automated feed and water system.
Right now, Mr Verhey is in the process of building up his frozen inventory as orders from bigger clients can be significant, and he is committed to guaranteeing supply.
“One of the first things I noticed about the industry is bigger volume buyers have been shopping at multiple locations to fill their orders,” Mr Verhey said.
“And many of the existing suppliers require a minimum order of 200 or 300 rats.
“That’s a little prohibitive for the domestic buyer, which is why I included the word ‘reliable’ in my business name – I will supply anyone with any numbers or sizes of rat at any time and they will be best quality.
“There are a number of markets for rats, from domestic snake owners to pet shops, and from zoos to wildlife rescuers, and I want to be able to help them all, wherever and whenever they need it.”
Nor is there a one size fits all kind of rat.
Mr Verhey markets his rats in a range of sizes to suit snake ages and species.
Starting with pinkies, only and hour or two old, through to fuzzies, hoppers, small weaners, large weaners, sub adults, medium adults, adults and the aptly named jumbos, which start at 250 grams and go higher.
Whatever you order, Mr Verhey can have it delivered, still frozen, to your doorstep within 48 hours in Victoria – and he’s working on the rest of the country to find solutions to the usual tyranny of distance with which we all deal from time to time.
He said his rats come in Styrofoam containers, wrapped in special frozen packaging, to get them there.
And while Mr Verhey reckons he is happy to “crawl before he walks” he still has some exciting big plans on the horizon – including the Rat Run.
Which will be a refrigerated van he will pack to the gills with his rats and drive to central spots so his customers can come to him – giving it plenty of digital promotion before he sets off each time.
Yes, life can be a rat race, but Mr Verhey is going as fast as he can to stay ahead of the curve.
