It is not difficult to breed marsh beavers, as they are unpretentious in food. Nothing special is needed for nutria; they can be fed with the same feeds as pigs, calves, rabbits. The main thing is to make a complete and balanced diet, then the animals will quickly gain weight, and their skins will meet quality standards.
How to feed animals?
There is no strict menu for nutria, each breeder independently selects a feeding scheme and a set of products. The specificity of nutria nutrition is the same type. These animals eat about 200 kg of feed per year, and do not like their diet to change dramatically.
There are 4 nutrition options for nutria:
- Dry. Purchased dry food. Water - separately.
- Semi-moist. Combine grain or compound feed with fruits and root crops, green or rough dry food.
- Mixed. In the morning, the livestock is fed with dry food; in the second feeding, plant food is given.
- Separate. Different types of food give separately.
Using the omnivorous nutria, they can be fed with everything that they can gnaw on. And given their voracity and the strength of the incisors, they can nibble everything. Along with root crops, vegetables and weeds, animals can be fed with grain mixtures, corn stalks, and even young branches - to sharpen your teeth. Let us consider in more detail the feed that can be turned off in the diet of marsh beavers bred in captivity.
Green feed
The most nutritious grass is the one that bloomed and started to grow, it has the most vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, proteins, carbohydrates. Nutri can be fed:
- green parts of legumes and cereal plants;
- quinoa;
- cattail;
- water rice;
- sweet clover;
- reed;
- plantain;
- coltsfoot;
- sow thistle;
- pemphigus;
- Ivan tea;
- sedge;
- dandelion;
- clover;
- saber;
- buckwheat;
- seaweed;
- salad;
- sorrel.
In summer, adult nutria should receive 800-1000 g of green food daily. To prevent bloating of the nutria, greens must be washed before feeding.
Cereal crops
Three quarters of the nutrient supply is cereal feed. Water rodents with pleasure eat grain, which, for the convenience of eating, is pre-milled and soaked for a couple of hours. You can feed nutria:
- barley;
- millet;
- rye;
- oats;
- wheat and wheat bran;
- corn (except for pregnant and female mates).
For better growth and development, nutrias are given germinated grain, previously soaked for two days. The daily norm of cereals for adult nutria is 100-150 g.
Dry and coarse feed
Dry and roughage is a source of fiber. The rate of delivery depends on the season, and ranges from 50 to 150 g. As coarse and dry feed, you can use:
- bark;
- branches
- needles;
- hay;
- straw;
- dry cake and bagasse - waste from wine and sugar production;
- shredded meal from soy, hemp, sunflower, flax.
These types of food give nutria only in the winter. Billets are made at the end of spring or at the beginning of summer - during this period, plants contain maximum nutrients. Harvested for the winter food is dried under the sun. Herbal flour is considered a valuable feed - it is recommended to mix it with other feeds.
Vegetables fruits
About 200 grams of root crops, vegetables, and fruits are given daily to nutria. They can be fed:
- boiled potatoes;
- raw carrots and beets;
- Tomatoes
- cabbage;
- zucchini;
- boiled pumpkin;
- Jerusalem artichoke;
- turnip;
- watermelons;
- melons
- apples.
Compound feed industrial
Fodder for industrial production is a feed mixture and an excellent substitute for grain. They collected all the nutrients needed for nutrias. In animal husbandry farms, only granular compound feeds are used - they are ideal for feeding water rodents. 100 g of feed contains 290 kcal, 16 g of protein, calcium, phosphorus and other useful substances.
For nutria, the industry produces special compound feeds, but instead of them you can use compound feed produced for other domestic animals - rabbits, pigs and calves. Compound feed before feeding must be diluted with water.
The advantages of industrial feed:
- saving time on the preparation of feed;
- balanced composition;
- longer stored than compound feeds of home cooking.
Nutrials should not be given compound feed for birds, since they contain crushed shell and chalk. Compound feed for cattle is contraindicated due to the presence of urea.
You should never give compound feed, causing doubt, without having tried it on several nutria. Control animals are sowed from the herd and fed for two weeks. If a malaise appears or behavior changes, the test compound feed is discarded.
The industry produces granular feed with a diameter of granules of 3-6 mm. The length of the granules is up to 1.2 cm. The size of the granules is selected with the expectation that the nutria could not choose their favorite ingredients, and ate the whole food evenly. The composition of the feed for nutria is in table 1.
Table 1
The composition of the feed | % of the total mass |
№ 1 | |
Grass flour | 10-20 |
Corn and Barley | 33-43 |
Wheat and oats | 15 |
Wheat bran | 12 |
Sunflower meal | 8 |
Pea flour | 5 |
Fish meal | 3 |
Fodder yeast | 2,2 |
Bone meal | 0,5 |
Feed chalk | 0,5 |
Common salt | 0,3-0,5 |
Multivitamins | 0,3-0,5 |
№ 2 | |
Herbal flour | 20 |
Flaxseed meal | 18 |
Wheat bran | 17 |
Crushed barley | 15 |
Dry beet pulp | 15 |
Malt sprouts | 5 |
Protein Hydrolyzate | 5 |
Crushed corn | 2 |
Fish meal | 2 |
Calcium phosphate | 0,4 |
Multivitamins | 0,2 |
Chalk feed | 0,3 |
Common salt | 0,1 |
Compared to other types of feed, granular have the following advantages:
- granules retain useful properties for a long time;
- no delamination during transportation;
- granule uniformity;
- the ability to automate the feeding process.
100 g of feed contains 96-104 feed units, as well as:
- crude protein - 16-18 g;
- digestible protein - 13-14.5 g;
- crude fat - 3-3.3 g;
- crude fiber - 7.5-10.5 g;
- phosphorus - 0.6-0.78 mg;
- calcium - 0.84-1.0 mg.
Compound feed home
Compound feeds for nutria can be prepared independently. For example, like this:
- put equally barley (wheat) and oats (corn);
- add meal - 1/10 of the mixture;
- add flour - bone, meat or fish, or feed yeast - 1/5 of the mixture obtained;
- add salt and chalk.
Giving home-made feed, as well as industrial, is necessary only after soaking. An example of the percentage of ingredients in the composition of home feed is in table 2.
table 2
Ingredients | % content by weight |
Wheat | 45 |
Corn | 40 |
Sunflower meal | 8 |
Yeast | 6 |
a piece of chalk | 0,5 |
Salt | 0,5 |
Vitamins | at the discretion of the farmer |
Additional feed
There are times when vitamins and mineral supplements are crucial for nutria. Their shortage can be observed at the end of winter and with uniform feeding. First of all, animals lack vitamins A and D. Due to vitamin deficiency, immunity decreases, nutria starts to hurt. It is especially difficult for pregnant and lactating females - they have vitamin deficiency can lead not only to diseases, but also to abortion, cannibalism.
In order to avoid vitamin deficiency and other health problems, nutrias are recommended daily to give:
- Fish oil with vitamins - up to 1 g.
- Multivitamins - up to 1 g.
- Vitamins A, D, E, prepared on the basis of oil. They are mixed with milk or fat, giving out to animals.
- carotene - 1 g to puppies and 3 g to adults;
- retinoacetate - 0.34 mg.
Animal carotene can be provided by giving raw carrots. There is a lot of vitamin E in the sprouted greenery of grain - it is given 20 g per day.
- Calcium and phosphorus. There is a lot of it in meat and bone meal and fish meal, in chalk, limestone, travertine, feed precipitate, tricalcium phosphate.
In summer and winter, nutria needs salt - 1 g per individual.
Adding vitamin and mineral supplements to concentrated feed, the mixture must be mixed well. Otherwise, the animals will receive nutrients unevenly - some ingredients will be eaten more, others less.
Water
Nutria should have constant access to clean drinking water, for this, drinkers are installed in the cells. This is especially important if the nutrition of nutria consists of dry food. Water should not be a source of infections, bacteria, intestinal parasites, so it can not be taken from reservoirs and other dubious sources.
Water is poured into drinkers twice a day. Nutria can receive part of the water along with grain mixtures, or you can do without drinkers at all if you pour water into the grain feeders - then the animals will eat the feed along with the water and the litter will remain dry.
What is forbidden to feed nutria?
The omnivorous nutria is associated with the type of feed, but not with their quality. If you feed animals with substandard or toxic foods / feeds, they may die. There are also a number of feeds and plants that are contraindicated for nutria.
It is strictly forbidden to feed the swamp beavers:
- sprouted and greened potatoes;
- green potato and carrot tops;
- rotten, moldy or fermented feed;
- viscous cereals;
- compound feeds for birds and cattle;
- raw meat and fish;
- cotton cake;
- oats (can be given from 4 months of age);
- green feed treated with chemicals.
Nutrias are forbidden to give hot water - this is dangerous for their body.
When feeding nutria, you need to understand botany. We will have to study the descriptions of herbs, so as not to feed the animals by inadvertently celandine, digitalis, dope, tsikuta, poisonous milestone, wrestler, aconite, sleep-grass, hellebore, milkweed, black root, hemlock, buttercup. But if these herbs are dried, they become safe for rodents.
Nutria love acorns, but they must be given with caution - they can cause constipation. The maximum dose of legumes per individual is 25 g. There are also separate contraindications for pregnant females and females prepared for mating. They should not be given corn. It is not recommended to lactate females with sugar beets. Beet tops are also undesirable - from it there are disorders of the digestive system.
Kalanchoe is a popular medicinal plant, deadly for nutria. It causes paralysis in animals.
Seasonal Feeding
The diet of nutria is adjusted depending on the time of year. Since water beavers hunt different kinds of food, seasonal feeds can be added to their diet. The summer diet is filled with green foods, vegetables and fruits. In winter, you have to use root crops and other products rich in vitamins prepared for the winter.
Spring Summer
In the warm season, breeders make maximum use of the gifts of summer - this is both free food (for example, grass or weeds from the garden) and a source of vitamins. In the summer diet, nutria is fed with all permitted types of plants - from cattail to dandelions.
If in the spring, nutria lean on the grass, then with the onset of summer, the diet of nutria is replenished with fresh vegetables and fruits. Animals can be given cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes and other garden gifts. Even peeling vegetables, berries and fruits can go to feed. Summer diet for individuals of different ages - in table 3.
Table 3
Summer food | The daily norm for adult nutria, g | For young, g | |
up to 2 months | 2-6 months | ||
Green feed | 800-1000 | 150-400 | up to 800 |
Cereal | 100-150 | 35 | 80-100 |
Salt | 0,5-1 | 0,2 | 0,5 |
a piece of chalk | 1,5 | 0,5 | 1 |
Whole milk | 15-20 | 10-15 | 10-15 |
Meat fish | 7-10 | 5-8 | 5-8 |
The composition of green feed in% ratio:
- willow leaves - 10%;
- meadow grass - 30%;
- oatmeal grass - 30%;
- green fodder beans - 15%;
- roots of cattail - 10%.
If possible, in summer the grass can be replaced or combined with vegetables and fruits.
Autumn winter
In winter, when there is no grass and other greens, it is more difficult and more expensive to feed nutria. The winter diet should consist of dry and succulent feed. Dry food for winter:
- straw grass meal;
- hay;
- sedge and water rice brooms harvested in summer.
Hay is given every 2-3 days. Part of the hay goes to the litter. The branches give occasionally - so that the animals gnawed the bark.
The main succulent feeds and vitamin suppliers in the winter are carrots and beets. It is advisable to give nutria both one and the other, mixing them in approximately equal parts. The daily norm of root crops is 0.5 kg. But even if you give the animals a carrot-beetroot mixture every day, this will not give their body all the necessary substances. In the winter diet, it is also recommended to introduce:
- Potatoes. It is boiled and added to the mash.
- Pumpkin. It is also given in boiled form. The vegetable has a unique composition and can replace root crops. The main thing is not to give a spoiled pumpkin - mold or rot can provoke serious diseases.
In winter, when there are no fresh vegetables, fruits and green grass, animals should be given mixes based on crops. Liquid wastes — borschs, soups, dairy products, and cereals — are added to the mixers made from ground corn, wheat, bran, or compound feed. There you can enter boiled potatoes, peeling, boiled pumpkin. Herbal flour in the mix should be no more than 10-20%.
Hookers should be quite thick. She will be able to eat nutria if she manages to make a ball out of it that she can hold with her paws.
Winter diet for individuals of different ages - in table 4.
Table 4
Winter food | The daily norm for adult nutria, g | For young, g | |
up to 2 months | 2-6 months | ||
Roots | 400-500 | 150 | 300 |
Cereal | 100-150 | 35 | 80-100 |
Hay | 100 | 50 | 100 |
Branches | 150 | 50 | 150 |
Salt | 0,5-1 | 0,2 | 0,5 |
a piece of chalk | 1,5 | 0,5 | 1 |
Fish fat | 0,5 | 0,3 | 0,5 |
Root crops fed to nutria, in% ratio:
- carrots - 20%;
- beets - 25%;
- rutabaga - 10%;
- cabbage - 25%;
- raw potatoes - 15%;
- cabbage and carrot silage - 5%.
Features of feeding nutria
The nutria menu depends on their age, physiology, and the goals for which they are bred. Nutrient feeding rates, depending on their condition, are given in table 5.
Table 5
Physiological condition | Grass or root vegetables | Concentrates | Hay or grass meal |
Adults | 200-300 | 150-200 | 30-40 |
Mating preparation | 180-270 | 120-200 | 20-40 |
Case and the first half of pregnancy | 200-300 | 150-240 | 25-40 |
For fattening
Animals grown for meat are kept on a dry type of feeding. The diet should be balanced in energy, protein, fiber and minerals. Nutria gain good weight on a combination of concentrates and succulent feed - 1: 4. Or give concentrates with protein content up to 15% and 7% of animal protein. The feed should contain 3.5-5.5% fat - it is given 5-10 g per day. Vitamins of group B must be present in the diet, as well as A, C, E, D, K.
Recommendations for feeding nutria:
- In summer, cereal feed is soaked, in winter - steamed. In the winter season, you can also give germinated grain.
- Root crops are best given in the afternoon, green food - in the afternoon, roughage (hay) - before night.
If you follow the technology of feeding, slaughter yield reaches 50-53% of live weight. The carcass of an adult nutria weighs 2.2-2.3 kg.
Pregnant Nutria
Pregnant females require enhanced nutrition in the second half of pregnancy. By the end of the first half of the term, the females are housed in closer cages so as not to waste energy. The feed volume is first increased by 10%, and increased further, gradually reaching 35% of the original amount. The female in the 2nd half of the term should eat:
- root crops - 330 g;
- compound feed or grain - 250 g;
- hay or grass meal - 45 g;
- protein foods and vitamins.
The weight of the pregnant female should not exceed 3 kg, body fat should not be. If the female gets fat excessively, the amount of food is reduced by a third.
Lactating females
A few days after the birth of the offspring, the female eats nothing - there is no appetite. When the female begins to take food, she must be provided with such food so that her milk is fatty and nutritious. If the milk is of poor quality, the puppies may die. A lactating female receives twice the nutritional norm of adult nutria.
The composition of the menu for lactating females must necessarily include such components:
- grain or compound feed;
- roots;
- legumes;
- fish flour;
- fresh grass, hay or grass meal;
- common salt.
Grain and root crops are the basis of the diet of a nursing female. Grass should be 20% of the total.
During the lactation period, the female should not lose more than 10% of the weight.
Young growth
Newborn babies drink one milk first. But already on the second day of age, they can be given a mixture of root crops and animal feed. Two weeks later, the cubs eat the same food as the female, the difference is only in volume.
When the puppies turn 1.5 months old, the amount of food is calculated as follows - six cubs are given as much food as one female. Water should be clean and freely available. The diet of young animals must necessarily include:
- soaked grain;
- roots;
- hay or fresh grass.
If the female refuses to feed the offspring, or dies, the calves are given warm cow milk with the addition of glucose. Feed with a pipette. Frequency of feedings - once every 3 hours. From 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Seven days later, semolina, grated apples and carrots are introduced into the cow's milk. And after 2 weeks the youngsters eat porridge and soaked compound feed.
Amount of feed for young animals:
- 1st week - 1 g of milk at a time.
- 2nd week - 5 g of milk at a time.
Weak puppies are additionally fed. After 45 days, the young are removed from the mother, and gradually transferred to the diet of adults. At 4 months, young animals eat the norm of an adult.
What do nutria prefer to eat in their natural environment?
If breeders have the opportunity, their natural types of feed can be introduced into the diet of nutria. In nature, these animals live in water bodies, feeding on what can be found on the shore or caught in the water. Nutria are almost omnivorous, but the basis of their nutrition is reed and cattail, their stems, leaves and rhizomes. They can also eat:
- reeds;
- tree branches;
- water lilies;
- rdest (water plant);
- water chestnut.
If plant food is not enough, swamp beavers can eat animal food - mollusks or leeches.
Feeding Reviews
Nutria is voracious and ready to eat a variety of foods. It is not surprising that breeders are experimenting with optimal feeds and nutritional options. Let's see what nutrioides say about feeding nutria.
Vasily Penkov, 51 years old, Kostroma region My pets really like carrots, but they don’t favor it. I give it to the rabbits. They don’t want raw potatoes, they need to boil. Apples can be eaten, but without much hunting. They respect the watermelon peels, gnaw the cabbage foliage, but scatter it more. Gave branches - aspen, so they do not want to nibble. Willow brought from the river - eat. The leaves are eaten, and I give the rods to rabbits. Germinated grain is eaten without enthusiasm. They don’t even look at hay, I don’t know how I will feed it in winter. The bulrushes tore - so played and threw. And they write that in nature they worship him for a treat.
Arseny Rychka, 46 years old, Ivanovo region My nutria is not picky. I give grain mixers to which I add bread, carrots, beets. I feed grass and hay for dessert. There are no food problems. It is interesting that before the whole carrot to sit down, the animal will certainly wash it, cleanly, then it sits and gnaws.
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Thanks to the omnivorous nutria, it is not at all difficult to make a complete diet for them. The main thing is to comply with nutrition rules, sanitary standards and not give animals poor-quality feed.
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