Breeding nutria at home – important points for beginners
What is needed to organize the cultivation of nutria at home? An acquaintance has a small farm, and he persuaded me to do it. In the fall, it gives us an adult male and several females, so to speak, for a start. Where is it better to keep them, on the street or do you need cages, given that we have severe frosts in winter? And if the cells, then what to make them from, because the animals have such teeth that a tree probably will not work?
Their meat is considered to be no less dietary than that of rabbits, and shiny skins can also be realized. Thus, you will receive a double profit and in just a year you will return all investments in the cultivation of nutria at home. These animals, resembling large rats with beaver teeth, feed mainly on plant foods. If you have a vegetable garden, then this is an added bonus, because nutria love both grass and vegetables, but they also gladly eat grains. Taking care that the animals do not freeze, eat well and, preferably, have access to water, you will provide them with comfortable conditions. This means that the animals will quickly gain weight, overgrowing with a chic fur coat. And they will actively reproduce and “work” to expand your farm.
In nature, nutria prefer to settle near water bodies, since they spend a lot of time in the water. But most of them still live on land, looking for vegetation for themselves. The total life span of animals is about 6 years, including in captivity.
Breeding nutria at home – where to keep animals
To keep the nutria at home, they need to provide a warm room for a comfortable winter. Although the animals can tolerate frost, they die from the prolonged cold. The temperature in the room should be at least 8 ° С warm, and where there are young animals and pregnant females – at least 15 ° С warm.
You can keep homemade nutria by specially equipped for this:
- Aviary. Ideal for summer maintenance, as well as for southern regions with warm and short winters. The aviary should have a pool, nest houses and separate compartments for animals of different ages.
- Cells. In warm regions, you can put it right in the aviary so that there is an open walk. In the middle lane, they practice year-round cage keeping with placing them indoors. The cells themselves should be made of strong material that the teeth of the nutria cannot damage. Optimal – weld them from metal.
- Houses, preferably brick or concrete. If they are insulated, then in winter the nutria will be able to live there. Around the houses they equip the walking area, blocking it with a net.
- The pit, having concreted the floor and sheathed the walls with slate. For the winter they put insulated houses there..
Since nutria are semi-aquatic animals, the presence of a reservoir is highly desirable. Without it, they do not grow so quickly and can get sick..
How to feed nutria
The main part of the diet of the animals is plant food, so it will be easiest to feed the nutria in the summer. During this period, nutria can be given:
- tops of carrots and beets;
- branch feed (fruit and some deciduous trees);
- grass from the swamp (reeds, reeds);
- green mass of leguminous crops;
- a vine of grapes;
- vegetables;
- fruits.
In winter, the diet of nutria should consist of harvested hay (dandelions, quinoa, coltsfoot), twigs, leaves and straw. They continue to give vegetables that are stored in winter: pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke, beets, carrots. To gain weight, nutria also need grain (barley, corn, oats, wheat, millet). But most of all, they love wet mash, based on soups, milk or whey. It is important that the winter diet includes all of the ingredients mentioned. Then nutria and weight will continue to gain, and the skin will have a beautiful skin. And by spring, healthy and strong, they will actively begin to mate.
