Starting a Business

After much day dreaming and thinking I actually think I know what I want to do for a living. But how to get started? I want to run my own animal food business. (And breed reptiles as a hobby of course!)

A little more info is needed I think. Ok, I have ferrets. These ferrets are raw fed (raw meat/bones/organs) and they do great on it. And one day soon I'd like to switch my dog and cats over to raw as well. I'll even throw some whole prey in there (rats, mice, etc). But with the prices of such things, it can be expensive to feed all of these carnivorous pets of mine. So much like www.hare-today.com I want to run my own farm and not only produce raw food for my pets but I could also sell to other people.

I want to raise things like insects for herps (super worms, dubia roaches, mealworms, etc). Rats, mice, and ASF for snakes and big lizards. And a number of other feeder animals (button quail, chickens, hamsters, gerbils, etc).

But how do I get started? I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and we literally have no savings. Of course, I will need an actual farm, but in Virginia, acreage can get expensive.

Have any of you ever started a business and have some advice for me?

I think the best way is just to get started is just to take the leap and go. It doesn't have to be a grand opening backed with 40k in savings. Buy what you can afford now and can keep in your apartment and just continually reinvest your profit back in.

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I want to raise things like insects for herps (super worms, dubia roaches, mealworms, etc).

This is perfect for an apartment dweller and doesn't need that much in start up funds and space (too start with). I have yet to find a consistently reliable, inexpensive insect supplier (besides crickets) and would happily buy from you if the price and quality are great. I'm sure many other local breeders feel the same way. The area pet stores need a good supplier too, I know some aren't happy with their present ones. Start selling online. It's easy to bump up production as your demand and customer base grows.

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Rats, mice, and ASF for snakes and big lizards. And a number of other feeder animals (button quail, chickens, hamsters, gerbils, etc).

That's a great idea too although you'd need more space like you mentioned. I'm not sure what you mean though about acreage in VA. Land is ridiculously cheap the farther you move out into the country Close to pennies on the dollar compared to land in the suburbs and cities. Save what you can for a down payment and look for a mortgage comparable to what you pay in rent (you'll be surprised what a better deal buying is for the same monthly housing bill).

I know little about the costs and projected revenue of preparing specialty raw foods but if you can buy the food, prepare it in your apartment, and sell at a mark-up, start there. See if local stores will start carrying it. Build your base up and expand.

If that's what you want to do then go for it. Do you what you can now and watch as you start expanding.

Let me add that for the raw meat supplier, Costco has incredibly low prices on high quality meat. They've even recently started selling Prime steaks for the same price I can get Choice for at the local supermarket. I bet you could cut your raw meat costs by at least half just by starting there.

Do your research. If you are serious, do as much research on every aspect of your business. Costs, logistics, suppliers, buyers, acreage etc... After you have done that, have a professional draw up a business plan. Spend the money on the business plan. A flawless biz plan will make getting your loans easier. I would recommend www.businessplansandconsulting.com. They are in Newport News.

Thanks for all the advice!!!!

The biggest problem you will have with your business idea is shelf life. With it being a raw natural diet there is next to no shelf life on your product. That pretty much eliminates all but very local customers. Also you have to figure out how to make appropriate size batches to meet local demand without having so much on hand that you lose all profits to spoilage.

I will have to give that some thought. With everything being whole prey, small mammals and poultry can be euthanized and frozen for later use. Would that not extend the shelf life?

It should but I would invest in a good vacuum sealer in that case. It's one thing for mice and rats as once a week snake food but if your selling food for people's dogs and cats, you'll want to ensure your packaging is as professional as possible. Although, I think I would vacuum seal frozen mice and rats as well if I was selling large scale. Nothing will kill your reputation and quality faster than freezer burn.

Yes, I've received freezer burned rodents before. Yuck! I was actually looking online for a vacuum sealer right after I posted and found a nice one. It uses 1qt bags, but I might need something a bit larger. I'll have to keep looking. Not to mention vacuum sealed looks better overall. Its nice and neat. I am in my animal room right now moving things around so I can set up an insect corner where I can set up several species of feeder.

Many of the vacuum sealers also come with a roll and you use what you need per use instead of individual seal-able bags. It's more work than an individual bag but its cheaper and less waste

Thanks for that info. I'll have to look into using the roll rather than the individual baggies. Now, with the insects, I'll need to find cups and containers to sell them in. I'll look for those later today and see if I can find a good source for them.

Does anyone know where to get containers like you get mealworms in? In purchasing superworms last night so I can begin breeding those, I realized superworms should not be bagged. They chew right through it. Heck they even chew through plastic containers they come in, but anyway.

I tried looking on google, but could come up with nothing. Where do feeder companies get them?

shipyourreptiles.com has fair prices on containers and lids. Len

Thanks! I'll check them out!

I just wanted to point out that there is a little bit of disagreement about feeding raw meat to dogs. I have known several "farming" families and they were very careful not to give the dogs raw meat scraps. What happens is the dogs start to get a taste for raw meat and it is difficult to keep them from killing the goats/rabbits/chickens and whatever other animals are on the farm. The family I am thinking of in particular had trained Australian shepherds, but they were still very thorough in only giving them meat scraps that had first been boiled.

In any case you also need to think about possible diseases and how to screen for spoiled/bad products. I am with Brian--I think you should jump into the insects and rodents thing first with your apartment or comparable acreage and later expand to include larger animals.

That is actually one of the biggest mythes of feeding dogs raw. What makes them more inclined to hunt is a lack of training and just the fact they are dogs. Dogs have a natural instinct to hunt. Take my dachshund for instance. Dachshunds were bred to hunt badger. Other small dogs are bred to hunt small animals. Larger dogs are bred to hunt deer, birds, and other game. It is simply in their nature.

Raw meat will not make them more inclined to hunt down livestock. If they are going to kill livestock they are going to do it regardless of what you feed them. I had huskies when I was younger and they were 100% kibble fed and they went and killed the neighbors chickens. Cats are fed a kibble diet and yet my mother law's 100% kibble fed cats would often bring in wild animals for food. Dogs are carnivores therefore they hunt. As soon as I have the money, my dog will be 100% raw fed. I had him on it before and he did great!

I do need to develop a way of screening meats. For parasites its easy. A few weeks in a deep freeze gets rid of parasites and safe handling techniques helps with bacteria. If I keep my animals healthy, disease should not be an issue.

Bugs should be easy to do in my apartment. I've already started with Dubia. I plan on increasing the size of the colony very soon. I've also started a small super worm and mealworm colony. I plan on increasing those as well. Next will be silkworms and hornworms. My husband and I are going to begin saving for a down payment on a house and try and find a house with a small amount of land (a few acres) and I will begin breeding small animals like rats, mice, rabbits, gerbils, etc. there. Wish me luck!

If you guys are looking for packing supplies any restaurant store has most every kind of container imaginable. The prices are way lower than U-line or any of the plastic companies. Everything u see at the conventions and shows is "usually" something you can get at restaurant depot or sam's club.

That is true, I buy all of our deli cups (except punched ones since they don't carry them) at CleanItSupply.com. They have much better prices if you order 500 at a time.