Sean Cooper “Living The American Dream” As Northwest Wyoming’s Go-To “Rat Guy”

Sean Cooper of Wapiti is the go-to “rat guy” in northwest Wyoming, a title he wears with pride, feeding a growing demand for rats in the Bighorn Basin. 

What started as a logical move for one business turned into a flourishing second business built around selling the rodents to a growing clientele of people who keep hungry reptiles.

Everyone has those “go-to” people in their lives — their mechanic, butcher, hair stylist and even that favorite checker at the grocery store. They’re dependable, honest and never let you down.

Cooper is that for rats, and he loves it.

“I’m living the American dream,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Working for yourself, being self-employed and having that piece of the American pie. That’s what it's about, for me.”

Retail Rats

Cooper didn’t set out to be “the rat guy” for northwest Wyoming. He owns Planet Reptiles 307, an exotic reptile business he founded when he moved to Wapiti.

“I've dealt with reptiles my whole life,” he said. “I worked in the veterinary industry for over 25 years, and my big portion of that was dealing with exotics and reptiles.”

Cooper breeds ball pythons, emerald tree boas, Brazilian rainbow boas, and other snakes and reptiles. He owns more than 50 reptiles, including an escape artist sulcata tortoise named Sheldon, and needs enough food to feed his breeding menagerie.

Acquiring enough rats for his needs was difficult in Wapiti. When Cody’s suppliers couldn’t meet his demand, he started breeding rats to feed his reptiles.

“I thought the best way to take care of my problem was breeding the rats myself,” he said. “Then, of course, I produced more than I could use, so I started selling to pet stores and the local snake owners.”

When a significant rat supplier in Cody went out of business, people urgently needed a new rat guy. Cooper started promoting surplus rats and quickly built a “pretty good clientele” by offering a locally sourced, more economical resource for discerning customers.

“I knew I had to produce for myself, and then I realized I was producing way more than I could use,” he said. “So, I said, ‘Let's post something in Cody Classifieds that we have and sold rodents.’ And it’s grown from there.”

Rodent Returns

Cooper now owns Wild West Rodent Co., which sells live and frozen rats and mice. The company's logo is the famous bucking Steamboat with a cowboy hat-waving mouse in the saddle.

The business operates out of a 2,000-square-foot facility with racks designed for breeding rodents. Cooper said maintaining a breeding population of rodents requires the same maintenance as with any agricultural animal, just on a smaller scale.

“It's just like farming any other animal,” he said. “Whether it be cattle, chickens, rabbits or sheep — it's all the same. It’s supply and demand, cleaning, feeding, watering and letting them breed and do their thing.”

A California connection helped Cooper acquire the breeding racks he needed to produce enough rats for his reptiles, local customers and other entities requiring rats.

When the Cody supplier closed, Cooper visited the Draper Museum Raptor Experience at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. When he asked if they wanted locally sourced rats, they eagerly accepted the offer.

“I asked them if I could have their business, and they said yes,” he said. “They told me they’d rather support local business than buying elsewhere. I have a great relationship with them.”

Cooper also supplies rats to Ironside Bird Rescue in Cody and has plenty of interest from other businesses and individuals. Between breeding reptiles and selling rodents, it’s become a full-time business for Cooper and his fiancée, Debra Jones Clark.

“I got people from far out as Lovell down to Worland,” he said. “I also do a fair amount of business with pet stores in Montana. It's just a matter of getting more racks to breed more rodents to keep up with the demand. A lot of maintenance is involved, and my significant other plays a big part in that side of the business.”

Locally Sourced

Cody resident Dan Schultz is the proud owner of Mrs. Squeeze, a 13-year-old Kenyan sand boa. The 2-foot-long snake needs to eat one live small mouse or rat pup every two weeks.

Schultz has been buying from Wild West Rodent Co. for 18 months. It’s been a huge benefit for him and Mrs. Squeeze.

“Before I found Sean, it was really difficult to consistently find good quality food,” he said. “I’d order live rats and mice, and most of the time, they came in very unhealthy. And once we started feeding her live, she preferred it and it was hard to get her to eat anything else.”

Pet snakes have particular tastes. They will typically only eat live or dead prey, and it can be difficult to get them to transition from one to the other.

Schultz wanted the best for his snake, but that was hard to find in northwest Wyoming. With Wild West Rodent Co., he’s getting top-quality rodents and saving money since he no longer has to travel to Billings or pay for shipping.

“Sean's great in and of himself,” he said, “and he's got very healthy rats and mice. He brings a bucket to me, so I have different sizes, and he’s super amicable to last-minute calls and stuff like that.”

Nothing Bigger Needs To Be Fed

Running a good business means knowing your customers. As a lifelong reptile owner, Cooper knows what he needs to meet the varied needs of his clients.

“It’s a food chain-type thing,” he said. “Most people that buy rats are reptile owners. They have snakes that they need to feed and different-sized rodents to do that.”

Wild West Rodent Co. offers rats ranging from “pup-sized” to “jumbo” weighing up to 1.5 pounds. The maximum size provides a glimpse of what kind of reptiles are living in northwest Wyoming.

“I haven't had any requests for rabbits,” he said, “so that tells me nobody has reptiles that are big enough to eat rabbits. If I got a request for rabbits, that would indicate that there's something bigger out there that needs to be fed.”

Cooper estimates that 90% of the rodents he sells are feeding ball pythons, the nation’s most popular pet reptile that only reaches a maximum size of 6 feet. That’s a far cry from 30-foot Burmese, reticulated or African rock pythons.

“There are no anacondas in Cody,” Cooper said.

Growing, Saving, Educating

The unexpected success of Wild West Rodent Co. has opened enormous possibilities for Cooper. He could become a small part of a massive industry.

“The reptile industry is a multimillion-dollar industry across the nation,” he said. “My goal is to eventually sell frozen rodents online. I'm not quite there yet, but I have a facility on my property I can expand and get as large as I want. Going online could become quite the enterprise, and I'm excited about that.”

Meanwhile, the local clientele that make the backbone of his business are ecstatic that their reptiles are well-fed with high-quality rodents. Having a rat guy nearby is a big deal.

“Before Sean, it was really hard to get healthy live rats, and it was like pulling teeth to try to feed frozen rats to my snake,” Schultz said. “Working with him is painless and easy. He's just getting busier and busier, which is really good news. I got lucky that I found him before he got big.”

Cooper prioritzies the local touch. He enjoys educating reptile owners when they come to him, which allows him to advocate for native snakes while helping feed the exotic ones.

“Everybody wants to complain about their problems with mice,” he said. “If you'd stop killing your native snakes, you probably have fewer mice. If you have snakes around your property, you have a food supply. They won't be around your place unless there's something to eat, and I like to make people aware of that.”

It’s another of the myriad of serpentine services that have made a reptile breeder “the rat guy” of northwest Wyoming. Cooper loves the work and his rodent reputation.

“I have wonderful relationships with everyone I work with,” he said. “The best way to take care of my problems was breeding the rats myself, and I’ve found a demand for myself and the community.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.