How to Farm Nutria? Detailed Methods and Key Technical Points

   Basic knowledge of feeding and farming management for nutria:
  A. Daily management of nutria.
    1. Feed concentrate on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts, feeding only until 7 to 8 parts full each time; green fodder should be supplied in sufficient quantity, and
    2. Ensure the feeding environment is quiet, gradually begin touching and handling them for taming, so that they are not afraid of people, do not bite, and will actively approach people to beg for food. Taming is very valuable for kindling, improving economic returns and pet appeal.
    3. Pens and equipment must be swept and disinfected frequently, and the bedding straw in the nests changed frequently, to prevent bites from flies and mosquitoes. The colony should be inspected regularly every day; if fighting and biting are found, separate the hostile animals promptly, mate estrous females at the right time, and isolate, examine and treat sick animals. If any animal is found escaping the pen, repair the pen wall promptly.
    4. The pool water should always be kept clean; in seasons when disease is common, preventive drugs such as antibiotics and vitamins can be added to the feed.
    B. Four-season management of nutria.
    1. Summer is hot and humid with many mosquitoes and flies and a high risk of disease, so special attention must be paid to heat protection, shading and cleanliness. Keep the feed fresh; increase green fodder in the daily ration and correspondingly reduce concentrate; reduce colony density. Change the pool water frequently to keep it clean. Pens and nests should be swept once a day and disinfected once a week.
    2. In autumn the weather is cool, but the temperature difference between morning and evening is large and midday is hot, so shading must be done well at noon and more bedding straw added to the nests at night. This period is an important season for the animals' growth and development; the feeding amount can be increased appropriately, with more succulent feed such as fruits and vegetables.
    3. Winter is cold, so the key is to do good insulation work: set up windproof and coldproof barriers around the pens, fill the nests with soft dry bedding straw and close the doors properly. Scattered grass in the exercise yard need not be cleared, to prevent the concrete floor from freezing and damaging the animals' paws. During the freezing period of deep winter, the pool water should be drained. The daily ration consists of hay, concentrate and supplementary feed, given in small amounts and more frequently. At the same time, group housing can be used, increasing colony density.
    4. Spring is a season when disease is common, so epidemic prevention and disease elimination work should be done well. Disinfect the pens regularly and add vitamins appropriately to the feed.
    C. Feeding and management of nutria during the breeding period:
    In late pregnancy, the female's feed nutrition must be complete, to meet the needs of normal fetal development and postpartum lactation. If nutrition is insufficient during this period, it will cause stillbirths, weak newborns, or poor postpartum condition and insufficient milk.
    The focus of feeding lactating females is to support recovery of physical condition and ensure normal lactation. During this period, give more succulent or green fodder, add more protein-rich soybeans and peanuts, provide more warm lightly salted water, and appropriately add dry yeast tablets and vitamins A, D, etc.
    Newborn pups weigh only 0.15 to 0.25 kg; they are born with a full set of teeth, and within a few hours they can eat and go into the water to play. Pups develop very quickly: by 10 days of age they can reach 0.35 to 0.38 kg, by 20 days 0.42 to 0.43 kg, by 30 days 0.6 to 0.65 kg, and by 40 days 0.9 to 1.0 kg. Growth during this period requires more inorganic elements and large amounts of protein and various vitamins; therefore, besides ensuring mother's milk, the daily ration should be supplemented appropriately with milk, bone meal, soybean meal, fish meal and various vitamins, and green fodder should be provided for free feeding. Concentrate must be supplied on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts, otherwise it easily causes indigestion and instead hinders development. At about 50 days of age they can be weaned and separated into nests, and given complete-nutrition, easily digestible feed.