How to Raise Nutria? A Complete Guide to Breeding Techniques and Precautions

The nutria is valuable from the inside out. It can be used not only as food but also has medicinal research value, and its fur can be made into clothing, making it a popular choice in the breeding industry. So how exactly should nutria be raised? Let's learn about nutria breeding techniques and precautions together below.

The Breeding Value of Nutria

The reason nutria can develop into an important business in the breeding industry is mainly its extremely high economic value. This is shown in the following aspects:

1. Nutria meat has no off-odor and high nutritional value. It has low fat content, extremely high hemoglobin content, crude protein content reaching 25%, calcium and zinc levels higher than those of meat from the same kinds of livestock and poultry, and it also contains 18 kinds of amino acids and more than 30 kinds of trace elements.

2. Health-care medicines made from substances in nutria blood based on people's research can effectively treat gastrointestinal diseases.

3. Medicinal liquor made from nutria bones also has a relatively good effect on dispelling rheumatism.

4. With the deep processing of nutria products, some high-value-added products have now been developed, such as nutria oil, which can be used to make high-grade cosmetics.

5. Nutria fur is thick, dense, soft, and lustrous, with good water-shedding and heat-retention properties. Clothes made from it are good in quality and low in price, and are very popular among wage earners and in some Eastern European countries.

6. The tail of the nutria has the effect of nourishing yin and strengthening yang. After scientific processing, the tail tendon is made into absorbable protein suture thread for stitching wounds, with no need to remove the stitches.

Nutria Breeding Technique Operations

1. Preparation of the rearing site: There are four rearing methods for nutria, mainly: cage rearing, pen rearing, free-range rearing, and semi-free-range rearing. According to the different methods, site preparation differs. For cage rearing, the selected housing must ensure good ventilation, and the indoor environment should be dry and bright. Install cages at suitable distances indoors according to the size of the area; for pen rearing, plan the site size at one nutria per 1 sq m. There should be separate areas for activity and feeding, rest, and swimming. The pen walls should be enclosed with cement and wire mesh; for free-range rearing, the site is generally arranged in combination with natural waters; semi-free-range rearing combines the characteristics of pen rearing and free-range rearing, changing the rearing method according to seasonal changes.

2. Feed preparation: Nutria are plant-eating animals. For feed preparation, Chinese cabbage, spinach, radishes, and so on can be chosen. These feeds must be guaranteed to be non-toxic and clean, and attention should be paid to selecting quality before feeding. In addition to plant-based food, animal feed can also be combined to ensure balanced nutrition.

3. Feeding methods: The feeding of nutria needs different combinations according to the season. The types of feed should be diversified, with special attention to supplying protein feed, supplementing vitamins and trace elements, and also persistently feeding salt and bone meal to meet the needs for potassium, sodium, calcium, and phosphorus. For pregnant female rats, the nutrition and quality of the food must be guaranteed. If nutrition is insufficient during this period, it will cause stillbirth, weak offspring, or postpartum weakness and lack of milk and other undesirable phenomena. The focus of raising lactating female rats is to solve the recovery of physical condition and ensure normal lactation. During this period, more succulent or green feed should be given, with added feeding of soybeans and peanuts, which contain more protein, and more warm lightly salted water should be drunk, with appropriate addition of dry yeast tablets and vitamins A, D, and so on. Newborn rats will eat food a few hours after birth. Newborn rats develop very quickly, and growth during this period requires more inorganic elements and large amounts of protein and various vitamins. Therefore, in addition to ensuring breast milk, the daily diet should be appropriately supplemented with milk, bone meal, soybean powder, fish meal, and various vitamins, and green feed should be guaranteed for them to eat freely. Concentrate feed should be supplied at fixed times and in fixed amounts, otherwise it is easy to cause indigestion, which instead affects development. Around 50 days of age, they can be weaned and separated into nests, and supplied with fully priced, easily digestible feed.

Precautions for Nutria Breeding

1. Nutria cannot tolerate heat and lack the ability to endure direct light and stuffy hot weather. Coverings such as tree branches and straw curtains should be added on top of the pens for shade. In summer, to lower the temperature, the pond water can also be changed frequently to keep it cool. In winter, attention should be paid to cold protection, and nutria can be moved indoors for dry rearing.

2. Attention should be paid to maintaining the sanitation of the rearing environment. Water should be changed 2-3 times daily, and each time the water is changed, the dirt in the water should be promptly cleaned up. Because of their strong self-cleaning ability, nutria become uneasy in relatively dirty nests, so feces and leftover food in the pens should be removed promptly to prevent fermentation in the pens.

3. The life activities of animals are all related to vitamins. If vitamins are lacking, it will reduce the activity of enzymes in the body and hinder the corresponding metabolic processes, thereby affecting the growth, reproduction, and disease resistance of nutria.

4. To prevent disease occurrence, some broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin and other medicines, should be added to the feed.

The breeding techniques and precautions for nutria are introduced here for everyone. To successfully raise nutria well, it is necessary not only to master solid theoretical knowledge but also to carry out reasonable and effective practical operations.