Breeding techniques of mink

Abstract: mink belongs to carnivora, Mustelidae and Mustelidae, which is a small and precious fur animal. There are two kinds of minks in nature: American mink and European mink. at present, American minks are mainly raised in captivity. China introduced standard minks from the Soviet Union in 1956 to establish three large state-run wild farms in Mishan County, Hengdaohezi and Durbert Mongolian Autonomous County of Heilongjiang Province.

Mink belongs to carnivora, Mustelidae and Mustelidae. It is a small and precious fur animal. There are two kinds of minks in nature: American mink and European mink. at present, American minks are mainly raised in captivity. China introduced standard minks from the Soviet Union in 1956 to establish three large state-run wild farms in Mishan County, Hengdaohezi and Durbert Mongolian Autonomous County of Heilongjiang Province. After that, it developed to three northeastern provinces, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and other provinces and autonomous regions. Later, the coastal areas of Guangdong have also been introduced and raised successfully.

The living habits of minks

Minks in the wild, mostly inhabit in the riverbed, lakeside, forest streams and other near water areas. Using natural caves as caves, the cave is covered with animal hair, bird feathers or hay. The cave is about 1.5 meters long and its mouth is on the shore or underwater. The holes on the bank are covered by weeds or trees, which are not easy to find.

In the wild, minks feed on catching fish, rats, hares, birds, amphibians and insects. The types of food vary with the seasons: fish, rats and other small mammals are dominant in winter and spring, and fish, frogs, snakes and insects in summer and autumn. Minks have the habit of storing food, and they especially like water, not only drinking, but also playing in the water, especially in summer. Under the condition of artificial breeding, minks are raised in cages, there is no need to give artificial waters for them to swim in the water, as long as they are given enough drinking water.

Mink wild strong, ferocious, aggressive, more in the night activities, their own enemy is less, only a small number of birds of prey, beasts as their natural enemies. It is also often caught by hunters during the breeding season. Minks have a life span of 12 to 15 years and a reproductive capacity of 8 to 10 years. In the case of artificial breeding, minks are generally used for only 3 years. That is, he was born in the first year and participated in mating in the spring of the second year. The time of sexual maturity of the young mink was 9 to 10 months, and the young mink was bred once in the spring of the third year and the fourth year. After changing hair in the autumn of the fourth year, it was transferred to the fur mink group and was no longer used as a seed. Every spring is the breeding season for minks, giving birth to one child a year, and changing hair once a year in spring and autumn.

Most of the wild minks are light brown with white spots on the jaw, and the artificial minks are darker, mostly dark brown or dark brown. After years of breeding and white varieties, the number of color minks is increasing.

The mink has a slender body, a well-developed head and neck, short limbs, a slender tail and fluffy tail hair; there are a pair of anal glands on both sides of the anus that secrete substances with a strong pungent smell. Mink is ferocious, aggressive, sleeps during the day and goes out at night, has a keen sense of hearing, runs and swims fast, and can also dive. Mink is a carnivore, which mainly feeds on all kinds of rats, snakes, amphibians, fish and shrimp, birds and insects. Minks reproduce once a year, mate in estrus from February to the first and middle of March, and give birth from April to May. The average gestation period is 46 days. Each fetus gives birth to 5 litters. They are sexually mature at the age of 9 to 10 months. They can participate in mating in the spring of the second year. The breeding life span can be as long as 8 to 9 years and the life span is 12 to 15 years. In the case of artificial feeding, the service life should be relatively shortened.

Types of feed for minks

1. Animal feed

① fish feed

Fish feed is one of the important sources of mink animal protein with extensive resources and low price. There are many kinds of fish, which can be divided into marine miscellaneous fish and freshwater fish. These fish can be used as feed for minks except puffer fish which are poisonous.

Fresh marine miscellaneous fish can be fed raw, which has strong palatability and high protein digestibility. Slightly deteriorated marine miscellaneous fish need to be cooked and fed after cooking and disinfection. A few marine miscellaneous fish and most freshwater fish contain thiamine toxic enzyme, which can destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine). It often causes vitamin B1 deficiency after raw feeding, and should be cooked and fed after cooking.

When all mink diets are fed with fish as animal feed, they can account for 70%-75% of the dietary weight, and a variety of fish should be mixed, and attention should be paid to the supply of vitamin B1 and vitamin E in order to ensure good production results. If fish, meat and by-products are matched, fish can account for 40% or 50% of animal feed. The content of unsaturated lipoencephalic acid in fish feed is high, which is easy to oxidize and rancidity, and the protein of fish is also easy to decay. The proportion of some essential amino acids is also significantly different from that of meat, so the effect of mink culture with fish is not as good as that of mixed fish, especially when the fish species is too single.

② meat feed

Meat feed is an important source of full-price protein feed. It contains the same amount and proportion of essential amino acids as minks, as well as fats, vitamins and minerals. There are many kinds of meat feed with strong palatability. As long as the meat of all kinds of animals is fresh, disease-free and non-toxic, it can be used.

Meat feed can account for 15%-20% of animal feed in the diet, and no more than 50% of animal feed. When using meat feed, it is necessary to go through health and quarantine, those without disease can be fed raw, the available diseased livestock and poultry meat or contaminated meat should be treated at high temperature and harmless before consumption, and those that cannot be used should be prohibited. In addition to high temperature and high pressure treatment, pox pork should remove part of the fat as far as possible. At the same time, increase the amount of vitamin E feeding, and with a certain proportion of low-fat fish, rabbit head, rabbit skeleton or fish meal.

The nutritional value of meat is higher, but the price is also higher, so it should be used reasonably. During the breeding period and the growth period of cubs, the proportion of meat feed can be appropriately increased to improve the biological value of protein in diet.

③ meat by-products

Meat by-products, including head, skeleton, viscera and blood of livestock and poultry, have been widely used in production practice. In addition to liver, heart, kidney and blood, these products have low protein digestibility and biological value. Therefore, the amount of mink fed with these by-products should be appropriate and should be matched with other feeds. Be careful not to feed hormone-containing by-products during the breeding season.

Meat by-products generally account for 30% or 40% of animal feed.

④ dried animal feed

The commonly used dried animal feeds are fish meal, dried fish, blood meal and feather meal, etc.

Fish meal contains 40% 60% protein and 2.5% salt 4%. Mink is fed with fresh high-quality fish meal. During the growth period of young animals, it accounts for 20%-25% of animal protein in diet and 40%-45% of animal protein in non-breeding period. Fish meal has a high salt content and must be thoroughly soaked in clean water before use. Change the water for 2 or 3 times during soaking.

The key to raising marten with dried fish lies in the quality of dried fish. High-quality dried fish can account for 70%-75% of dietary animal feed, but during the mink breeding period, it must be matched with 25%-30% full-price protein feed (fresh meat, eggs, milk and pig liver, etc.). During the growing period of young mink and winter hair, fresh pox pork or vegetable oil must be added to make up for the lack of dried fish fat.