A Comprehensive Analysis of Key Technical Points for Muskrat Farming

The muskrat is a very lovable animal. In recent years, more and more people have begun farming muskrats. So how exactly should muskrats be farmed? What should be noted? Why farm muskrats? What is the prospect for muskrat farming? With these questions in mind, let's take a look together.

Muskrat Farming Technology Video

1. Preparation of Cages and Housing

At present, the vast majority of artificially raised muskrats are kept in outdoor pen-style housing. The pens used for artificially raising muskrats in various places include flat pens, vertical pens, multi-tier pens, pens for young muskrats, and simple pens, among others. A few are also kept indoors in cages. Outdoor pen-style housing is relatively economical and practical, and easy to use for household farming in rural areas, but it occupies a relatively large area, and the water pools used for raising them are easily damaged by freezing in winter. Indoor cage rearing has a high stocking density and is suitable for urban areas or experimental rearing.

When using outdoor pen-style housing, there must be a raising site, with a wall around the site, and a simple shed covering the site to block rain and snow and prevent exposure to the scorching sun, with the pens used for raising muskrats placed inside the shed. The raising site should be chosen in a place with ample water sources, sheltered from the wind, with a quiet environment, free from disturbance by people and livestock, and relatively far from highways. To avoid cross-infection, muskrat raising sites should be far away from livestock farms and poultry farms, generally required to be more than 500 m away, and preferably chosen on the upwind side or upstream of the water source.

When raising them at home, existing conditions can also be fully utilized, using idle plots in front of and behind the house, but try to avoid highways, railways, machine rooms, livestock pens, etc., to ensure a quiet environment. The raising site must also be built in a place with extensive feed sources, or a place where various feeds can be purchased nearby.

The wall around the raising site can be built with bricks and stones, or enclosed with thin iron sheets or wire mesh. The wall height should preferably be 1.2 m, because muskrats can climb along walls to escape, so the inner wall should be as smooth as possible, without edges or corners. The simple shed can be built in a gable shape or a single-slope style, generally using wood, angle steel, bamboo, etc. as supports, covered on top with asbestos tiles, felt paper, or thatch. The shed eaves should be 1.1-1.5 m high; the width should be 2 m for a single row of pens and about 4 m for double rows of pens; the length can be determined according to raising conditions, the number of animals raised, the scale, and the size of the site. In winter, a vegetable cellar or plastic greenhouse shed can also be used for raising them.

In terms of overall structure, the pen is mainly composed of three major parts: the nest chamber, which is where muskrats rest and give birth and nurse their young; it is divided into an inner chamber and an outer chamber, with the inner chamber larger and the outer chamber smaller. The exercise yard is where muskrats move about, eat, and mate. The water pool is the place where muskrats bathe and mate, and it must be a watertight container. Whether it is the nest chamber or the upper cover of the pen, there must be wire mesh covering, with small doors or holes left for feeding, catching, or observation, with a size convenient for operation.

2. Preparation of Feed

The feed sources for muskrats are extremely wide, cheap, and easy to obtain. Concentrate feed is mainly grain-based, such as corn flour, barley flour, soybean cake flour, wheat bran, etc.; root tuber crops include carrots, radishes, sugar beets, and potatoes; melons such as pumpkins and zucchini; vegetables such as cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and green vegetables; in addition, various fresh aquatic plants such as water chestnut grass, cattail grass, reeds, water barnyard grass, and other wild grasses, wild vegetables, and tender leaves can all be used as green feed.

Of course, in captive-bred muskrats, a certain amount of animal-based feed (fish meal, milk powder), as well as yeast powder, bone meal, salt, etc., should also be added to ensure the nutritional needs of each developmental stage. The principle for formulating muskrat feed should be based on full-price nutrition and variety. Usually in spring and summer, green feed is the main component, about 300 grams per adult muskrat per day, supplemented by about 50 grams of concentrate feed; during the overwintering period, food intake drops sharply, and the daily ration is mainly carrots and radishes, paired with vegetables and concentrate feed at about 200 grams or so, but green hay should be supplied.

Concentrate feed can be made into pellets, blocks, or steamed buns according to the formula and fed, or prepared into a semi-dry, semi-moist form, but it must be cooked before feeding. Feeding should be done at fixed times and fixed frequencies.

Necessary Conditions for Farming Muskrats

The muskrat, also known as the Qinggen mink or musk mink, is an amphibious herbivorous animal. Under market economy conditions, any project undertaken must be decided according to market conditions. If preparing to raise muskrats, one must thoroughly understand the biological habits of muskrats in order to raise them well. Farmers should adapt to local market conditions and their own technology, capital, labor, and feed conditions. Scale benefits should be considered, but one should not divorce oneself from one's own conditions and blindly pursue running a large-scale breeding farm. The breed of muskrat being farmed is the most critical factor; hybrid superior breeds must be selected.

Feeding Requirements for Muskrats:

First, when preparing concentrate feed mixtures, it is necessary to understand the various nutritional components and their contents in the green, coarse, and succulent feeds consumed by the muskrats using this concentrate feed mixture, so as to supplement the insufficient or lacking nutritional components in the feed and ensure that the animals take in sufficient nutrients.

Second, determine appropriate feeding standards according to the different biological stages of muskrats, and continuously improve and supplement them in combination with feeding practice.

Third, when formulating the daily ration, consider the types, quantities, and various physical and chemical characteristics and nutritional values of local existing feed resources, and strive to achieve comprehensive nutrition, stable composition, and good palatability.

Development Prospects of Muskrats

The muskrat is a highly efficient special economic animal. Every part of it is valuable, its uses are very broad, and it is very precious. Whether in the domestic market or the international market, it has broad development prospects, mainly manifested in the following aspects:

1. The muskrat is a precious animal perfume source. The animal perfumes needed for domestic and international high-grade cosmetics and related drugs all rely on the musk secreted by the muskrat and the civet musk secreted by the civet. Now the musk deer has become an endangered animal, and its musk raw materials and products have been banned. The civet is not only difficult to breed, but also produces very little civet musk, and it has many impurities, so its application range is subject to many restrictions. The muskrat has naturally become an important supplement to the nearly exhausted animal perfume sources. Medicines developed from it have very good curative effects on treating high and low blood pressure, coronary heart disease, excessive cardiac burden, cardiac hypertrophy, atherosclerosis, and other diseases. Health cosmetics developed from it have obvious anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects, increase skin vitality, and reduce lipid peroxide and lipofuscin content activity, giving them strong competitiveness among cosmetics in today's world.

2. The muskrat's fur is an excellent raw material for making high-grade fur clothing. Its underfur is thick, fine, and soft, with strong elasticity, a rich feel, and good luster. Its warmth retention and water-shedding properties are second only to otter fur. People in economically developed Western countries regard wearing muskrat fur as a symbol of status. Supply is tight, and the gap at home and abroad is about 70%.

3. Muskrat meat is a high-protein, low-fat, extremely nutritious game meat food. Its meat is tender and delicious, and can be processed into canned food, sausage, stir-fried dishes, etc. It is one of the best meat foods, and is especially loved by people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China, Taiwan, China, and even economically developed countries. The price is very high.

4. Muskrat feces have the effect of repelling mosquitoes and flies, and are the best material for making mosquito coils.

5. Because muskrats are odorless, have no stench, are clean and hygienic, and jump about on and under the water, they are delightful to watch and have high ornamental value.

I have finished organizing some relevant information about muskrats, so everyone probably has a certain understanding now. Because of their wide range of uses, muskrats can be developed and utilized in the cosmetics industry, meat processing industry, and others. Therefore, it can be seen that the prospects for muskrat farming are still very broad.