A university student from Worcestershire has earned £3,000 selling miniature artworks created by her rats, helping to cover her degree costs. Ella Woodland, 19, wondered whether her eight pet rodents possessed any creative talent and allowed them to experiment with paints in February 2025.
Inspired by a Facebook creator called TooGoods Tiny Paws, who sells her rats' creations online, Ella purchased watercolour and children's paint and encouraged her rats to scamper through them, using their tiny paws to create on small canvases. She began selling the pieces on Vinted in February 2025 and now lists 16 artworks weekly, with some fetching up to £50.
Funding her studies and driving lessons
The side venture is now contributing towards Ella's £6-a-day commute to the University of Worcester and financing her driving tuition. Ella, who is studying clinical psychology, from Droitwich Spa, said: "It's good because my journey from home into university is a ten-minute ride on the train which costs about £6 a day. I go in three days for my lectures and then the rest of the week to carry on making my paintings. I am also having driving lessons at the moment and they cost £80 a week for a two-hour session."
She added: "I've taken out student loans for my tuition fees which is over £9,000 a year and I get £6,600 maintenance loan for the year to cover my living expenses, so having this part-time job does help me out."
From pets to painters
Ella received her first three rats - Gubler, Rumple and Reid - as an early Christmas gift in September 2024 from her parents. In February 2025, she welcomed newborns - Hotch, Morgan, Rossi, Luke and Gideon - completing her collection of eight. She joined Facebook groups to learn how to care for her rats and discovered TooGoods Tiny Paws within one of the groups. Motivated, she set up a 'studio' for her rodents, featuring a playpen, watercolours, and a jar of baby food to entice them across an easel.
Ella explained: "I started putting them in a little playpen I'd bought for them. They walk around in the paint, which is laid on the floor. Sometimes I have to put my finger in a jar of baby food and let them follow it around, so they can walk around the canvas. The paint varies between watercolours and kids' paint, like poster paint."
She launched sales on Vinted for £10 apiece in February 2025, but now charges up to £50. She remarked: "I'm so happy I'm reaching so many people; it is kind of crazy. Last week, I sold 20 paintings on Vinted which has become a pretty average amount at this point. I am still so surprised by how much it blew up and how many people have been positive about it."
Global reach and viral fame
One of Ella's TikTok clips has attracted more than 150,000 views, while her Vinted account has almost doubled its following over the past year, now boasting 3,747 followers. She shared: "One of my nan's friends took one of my paintings back to America with her and I've convinced one of my friend's mum to get three rats of her own, she loves them. I'm glad people can see how cute they are as they should do because some people find them a bit scary."
The teenager received an unexpected welcome at university: "It was quite funny because before my university friends met me in person, they saw my videos on Instagram and they told me 'wow you're the girl with the rats who paint'."
Future plans
Ella has been channelling the income towards her rats' maintenance costs, university living costs, and driving lessons. She is now looking to expand her mischief of rats after two of them, Rumple and Morgan, died at the end of last year. She explained: "You have to buy them in pairs because they are really sociable animals who get sad if they're on their own."
Her enterprise has also inspired friends: "One of my friends has started getting her pigeon to paint, it's amazing." Ella insists she has no intention of abandoning her side business any time soon: "I really enjoy doing this. I want to keep doing this after I finish university."
