People are ambiguous about nutria, the breeding and maintenance of these rodents at home is repelled by many because of some similarity of these animals with rats. It is worth getting acquainted with the good-natured and smart animal, and you instantly change your mind, throwing away stupid prejudices forever.
Breeds of nutria
If you are interested in nutria, breeding and keeping them at home, you need to be able to understand the breeds of these interesting animals. Traditionally in nutritional farming, all pets are divided according to the color of their valuable waterproof fur. There is a large variety of breeds with colored colors among the nutrients, but many lovers prefer the content of hardy and prolific animals of the standard kind.
Colored nutria are divided into dominant and recessive breeds. The golden, Azerbaijani white and black animals are dominant. Pairing these rodents with standard individuals, you retain in most cases the original color. Recessive nutria - rodents of beige color, with pearly and smoky fur, white Italian breed. If breeding them at home, cross them with standard animals, then half the brood will inherit a "wild" brown color.
What are the species of nutria:
- Standard nutria. Breeding and maintenance at home began with this common breed, which resembles a wild variety. Brown furs in these pets can have different shades, it is possible to meet, both light brown individuals, and dark red. Individual specimens reach 12 kg, but the average weight of nutria is about 6 kg.
- Golden nutria. On the ridge they have the color of the fur the brightest, the saturation of the color is reduced closer to the tummy. The disadvantages of the breed include poor fertility. It is recommended to pair the golden nutria at home with standard pets, using the dominant feature of the species.
- Black nutria. home maintenance of this species has many advantages. The fur of her is thick, valuable, has an expensive look. Crossing these nutrients with standard individuals, we get 50% of black progeny and 50% of brown puppies with an effective dark brown shade of wool.
- Pearl nutria. This color is distributed unevenly across the body, on the back it is noticeably darker. When crossing with brown pets, the pearl shade is lost, so you need to constantly look for purebred partners for pairing.
- Lemon nutria. The breed is appreciated for its original orange shade of wool. In offspring, when breeding and maintaining at home, there are different notes of lemon color. When crossing with white males, silvery, snow-white and yellow puppies are born.
- Snow nutria. Crystalline white fur is not easy to obtain, you need to use for breeding and keeping in the home conditions of golden and silver rodents or Italian white breed.
- Silvery nutria. A noble silver shade is appreciated when dressing skins, on a fur coat, cap or mantle, it looks luxurious. The most valuable are the animals with a bluish-looking skin.
- Nutrii with a brown exotic color. Obtained by pairing black and golden individuals. Dark-brown coat in puppies grows lighter as they grow up.
How many live nutria at home?
If you properly observe the conditions of the contents of nutria, your pets can live up to 7 years. Active development of animals occurs up to six months, then it slows down, but with a good feed base, pets grow up to 2 years. It is believed that more than three years of age to breed these rodents is unreasonable, with time they noticeably lose their reproductive ability.
Contents of nutria at home
These animals have many advantages, they come from warm regions of South America, but are able to tolerate our frosty winters well in warmed cells or enclosures on a thick litter. Weak their place - a ponytail and gentle paws, if you are interested in the question of how to contain nutria at home, then pay close attention to these organs.
Cages for nutria at home
Nutrii are toothy animals, adored to gnaw wood, so summer houses are mostly made of metal. For breeding at home in winter it is required to make cages in the form of sandwich panels made of wood, insulation and mesh. When using wooden beams and boards, it is necessary to protect the inner surfaces with slate, sheet metal or a grid.
For convenient cleaning of feces, pull-out pallets are used. Feeders and shelves for the contents of nutria in the cage are made of metal, we attach them to the walls of the dwelling. The roof is mounted on the hinged joint. The flap panel makes cleaning in a cage and home care for nutria is much more convenient. The cell is better divided into two separate compartments - the nest and aft compartment.
How to take care of nutria at home?
These beautiful creatures do not require special expensive food, they eat the same foods as rabbits , sheep, cows or goats. Ideal is the maintenance of nutrients in the presence of a container with running water for water procedures. In this case, animals gain weight faster, meat and fur in them becomes better quality. As an alternative, many fans use troughs from the halves of thick pipes with a diameter of 200 mm.
What do you eat at home?
Full nutrition of nutrients at home includes the consumption of various types of products - coarse and green fodder, juicy vegetables, cereals or ready-made mixed fodders. The bulk of food can be grown on a garden garden, significantly reducing the cost of breeding and growing their pets. Eat twice a day, combining concentrates with succulent fodder in a 1: 4 ratio.
Kinds of forages for nutrias at cultivation and the maintenance in house conditions:
- Rough forage - straw with hay, branches of fruit trees.
- Green feed - edible tops of agricultural plants, roots and leaves of Jerusalem artichoke, alfalfa, motley grass.
- Juicy forage - cucumbers, pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, watermelon, beetroot.
- Mixed fodder - wheat, barley, corn, corn, concentrates in the form of granules, bran.
Breeding of nutria at home
For the reproduction of nutrients, it is required to have one sexually mature male at 5-6 females at home. It is desirable to acquire young individuals of two or three months of age to 1.4 kg. Females carry the offspring for a long time, the pregnancy lasts approximately 132 days. On average, they lead 5-8 pups. We must remember that in the question of how to breed nutria at home, seasonality does not play a role. The main thing is to keep the room in winter a positive temperature of 10 ° C, and in summer not to let the temperature rise above 40 ° C.