9X engineer quits job to raise "night-eating, day-sleeping" animals, earning 200 million VND per year

"I was born in the countryside, my family has been farmers for generations, so I want to stay in my hometown for a long time. Therefore, I have to find a job to be my own boss, rather than living in the city with a high salary but still being an employee," Do Van Toan (32 years old) began the story of his entrepreneurial journey.

The 9X guy from Ninh Binh starts his day early in the morning when the rooster crows. After waking up, he cleans himself up, then goes to the cage to check each cage to see if any of the rats are refusing to eat or are sick. Only then can he feel secure about his daily work.

Kỹ sư 9X bỏ nghề về nuôi loài ăn đêm ngủ ngày, mỗi năm lãi 200 triệu đồng - 1 — The 9X guy's daily job is to keep company with giant mice (Photo: Thanh Binh).

Mr. Toan shared: "Dui is a rodent animal that eats at night and sleeps during the day. When you feed them at night, they sleep during the day. Therefore, you must check the cage early in the morning, avoid leaving it too late, which will affect their sleep, affecting their growth and development."

In 2015, Toan graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology with a degree in construction. After graduating, he traveled to many places, looking for many job opportunities in the city. Having a stable job, high salary, working in the right field as a construction engineer, but the young man still yearned to return to his hometown to start a business.

That's why, while working in the city, he also researched and learned about economic development models associated with agriculture in his hometown.

"Seeing that the bamboo rat breeding model is very special and has potential, I continuously researched this special breed that no one in my hometown has ever seen before.

This species is popular with a high price, and it is not difficult to raise because they eat only tree trunks and tubers of all kinds. The output is stable, so I decided to invest in starting a business with rodents that are no different from mice."

Having earned a little capital from working for hire, Toan decided to quit his job in the city and return to his hometown, much to the surprise of many people. The young man's luggage to start his business in his hometown was only 10 pairs of breeding bamboo rats, bought for 12 million VND with his savings and empty hands.

Kỹ sư 9X bỏ nghề về nuôi loài ăn đêm ngủ ngày, mỗi năm lãi 200 triệu đồng - 2 — Understanding the process of raising rodents, Mr. Toan pockets more than 200 million VND each year (Photo: Thanh Binh).

Coming home to build cages, at first without experience, Mr. Toan thought he had lost everything when the rats kept getting sick, getting weak and almost dying. He had not seen any success, only heard many people saying: "I wonder if it can do anything?", which made him discouraged at times.

While taking care of the bamboo rats, Toan learned techniques online. In addition, he directly visited bamboo rat breeding models in the localities to learn. After a year of raising and studying, he took care of the bamboo rats to grow quickly, healthily and successfully reproduced the baby bamboo rats.

"You might think that raising bamboo rats is as easy as raising mice, but it's not. This species is very picky, so the cage must be clean, windproof, and free of sunlight. They live in caves, so the place where they are raised must be quiet, warm in the winter, cool in the summer," Toan revealed.

According to Mr. Toan, the bamboo rat's living place is like that, the food must also be clean. It is just bamboo stems, sugar cane, corn... very simple but must not be spoiled and absolutely must not be contaminated with rainwater. Food contaminated with rainwater will cause the rat to have intestinal diseases, if not treated promptly, they will weaken and die," said Mr. Toan.

Since the beginning of 2023, the scale of Mr. Toan's family's bamboo rat cage has been continuously expanded. On the breeding area of more than 150 square meters, he arranged the cages, divided into areas such as breeding bamboo rat, commercial bamboo rat, breeding bamboo rat...

"Mother rats get pregnant 3 times a year, each litter gives birth to 2-4 babies. Therefore, the rats multiply very quickly. Currently, my facility is raising more than 150 mother rats for reproduction, and each year we sell thousands of breeding rats to the market.

Each pair of breeding rats costs 1.2 million VND. When the baby rats grow up and reach a weight of 1.5 - 2 kg, they are sold for meat at 600,000 VND/kg. Every year, after deducting all expenses, I earn a profit of about 200 million VND," Toan revealed.

Kỹ sư 9X bỏ nghề về nuôi loài ăn đêm ngủ ngày, mỗi năm lãi 200 triệu đồng - 3 — Each pair of breeding bamboo rats costs 1.2 million VND, meat bamboo rats cost 600,000 VND/kg (Photo: Thanh Binh).

Not only raising bamboo rats to develop the family economy, the 9X guy is also supporting and transferring the breeding model to 10 other households to get rich together. Mr. Toan provides breeds, technical support and output for the households.

"The current market for commercial bamboo rats is not yet in full supply. Bamboo rats are considered a specialty, so they are chosen by many gourmet diners. In the near future, I will expand the production scale and increase the herd to provide more breeding bamboo rats and commercial bamboo rats to the market.

At the same time, actively support cooperative members who want to develop the bamboo rat breeding model towards building a chain of links and trading commercial bamboo rats," Mr. Toan shared about his future plans.

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