Culture technology of muskrat

Muskrat, the only member of the genus Muskrat, is a large aquatic rodent native to North America and was introduced to Europe. They are called "swamp squirrels" in the mid-Atlantic. Adult muskrats are usually about 25cm long and have a strong tail about 20cm to 25cm long. Their bodies are covered with a thick, brown, waterproof fur. They have webbed hind legs and a pair of human-like small forelegs that weigh up to 1700 grams, about four times the weight of a ditch rat. Male muskrats can secrete muskrat fragrance through the glands of the reproductive system during the breeding period from April to September. Muskrat can not only replace musk as a valuable traditional Chinese medicine, but also as a raw material for making high-grade perfume.

Preliminary preparation for breeding muskrat

1. Cage preparation

At present, the vast majority of muskrats raised in captivity are raised in outdoor enclosures. the enclosures in which muskrats are raised in different places are flat enclosure, vertical enclosure, building enclosure, young rat enclosure and simple enclosure, etc. Some of them are raised in indoor cages. Outdoor enclosure feeding is more economical and practical, easy to be raised in rural areas, but it covers a large area, and the pool used for raising is easy to freeze in winter. The density of indoor cage breeding is high, so it is suitable for urban or experimental breeding.

When using outdoor enclosure breeding, there must be a breeding ground, there must be a fence around the site, the site should be covered with a simple shed to protect against rain, snow and sun exposure, and inside the shed there should be a cage for raising muskrats. Breeding grounds should be selected in places with sufficient water sources, leeward, quiet environment, free from human and animal interference, and far away from the road. In order to avoid mutual infection, the muskrat breeding ground should be far away from livestock farms and poultry farms, which is generally required to be more than 500m, preferably in the upstream of upstream or water sources. When raising at home, you can also make full use of the existing conditions and make use of the spare blocks in front and behind the house, but try to avoid roads, railways, machine rooms, barns and so on, so as to ensure a quiet environment. Breeding grounds must also be built where there are a wide range of feed sources, or where all kinds of feed can be purchased nearby.

The walls of the breeding grounds can be surrounded by bricks and stones, or by thin iron plates or barbed wire. The height of the wall should be 1.2m, because the muskrat can climb and escape along the wall, so the inner wall should be as smooth as possible without corners. A simple shed can be built into a herringbone or a slope, generally made of wood, angle steel, bamboo and covered with asbestos shingles, linoleum paper or quilts. The height of the eaves of the shed is 1.1-1.5m, the width of the single-row enclosure is 2m, and the double-row enclosure is about 4m. The length can be determined according to the feeding conditions, the number and scale of feeding heads and the size of the site. In winter, vegetable cellars or plastic sheds can also be used for raising.

From the overall structure, the enclosure is mainly composed of three parts:

(1) the nest room: it is the place where muskrats rest and give birth to cubs. It is divided into two parts: the inner chamber and the outer chamber, which are larger and smaller.

(2) playground: a place where muskrats move, eat and mate.

(3) Pool: it is a place for muskrats to bathe and mate, and it must be a watertight container. The upper cover of both the nest and the enclosure must be covered with barbed wire and set aside small doors or holes for feeding, capture or observation, and their size shall prevail for easy operation.

2. Feed preparation

Muskrat has a wide range of feed sources, which is cheap and easy to obtain. Concentrate is mainly cereal, such as corn flour, barley flour, bean cake powder, wheat bran, etc.; root types are carrots, radishes, beets and potatoes; melons such as pumpkins, horn melons; vegetables such as cabbage, cabbage, green vegetables; in addition, a variety of fresh aquatic plants such as horseshoe grass, catweed, Reed, paspalum and other weeds, wild vegetables, tender leaves can be used as green fodder.

Of course, rats in captivity should also add a certain amount of animal feed (fish meal, milk powder) and yeast powder, bone meal, salt and so on, in order to ensure the nutritional needs of each stage of development. Muskrat feed matching principle should be based on full-price nutrition and diversification, usually green feed in spring and summer, adult rats about 300 grams per day, concentrate supplemented by about 50 grams; overwintering food intake decreased sharply, the diet is mainly carrots and radishes, with vegetables and concentrate about 200 grams, but should supply hay.

Concentrate feed can be made into granule, block or nest head according to the proportion, or it can be made into semi-dry and semi-wet, but it must be cooked and fed. Feeding should be done at a fixed time and times.

Feeding and management of muskrat

1. Feeding and management in spring

Spring coincides with its mating preparation and mating period. The southern region enters the preparatory mating period in February and March, while the northern region enters the preparatory mating period in March and April. The key points of the management of each phase are introduced as follows:

(1) preparation for mating period: conduct a comprehensive inventory of the herd, check the condition of the breeding rats, provide early water supply to the pool, provide grass matting in the foot nest, and increase the temperature in the nest (10-12 degrees Celsius) to promote their oestrus. Check whether there is a male-female pairing in the nest. For the male and female mice born at the end of estrus last year, irradiate the light bulb 50-60 cm away from the pool cover for several hours at 6: 9 p. M. to promote their estrus. At the same time, give enough concentrate and roughage (mainly fresh poplar and willow branches, and supplement cabbage, carrots and other vegetable fodder) during the breeding period, and do a good job in epidemic prevention. Add 1 Gongshou flour or malt supplement to every 100 kg concentrate until the mating period.

(2) breeding period: in addition to the same management as the previous period, the main purpose of this period is to place branches or green grass on the playground to provide a hidden environment, and to supplement roughage and self-cushioning at any time.

(3) litter and lactation period: in this period, in addition to feeding concentrate during the breeding period, soya-bean milk or cow's or sheep's milk should be mixed according to local conditions to ensure the normal lactation of the offspring and the nutrition needed by the mother through mating. Feed roughage depends on the season to give enough fresh and tender grass and branches, in addition to ensuring that it has a sufficient amount of fresh and tender roughage to eat, it can also be brought back to the nest to block the mouth of the strict water hole, so as to prevent the young rats from falling into the pool because of blind crawling.

(4) breeding period: at 28-30 days after delivery, the offspring should be divided into litters in time to facilitate the birth of the second fetus and the mating and conception of the third foetus. Litter-divided offspring should be raised in the same litter and provide sufficient concentrate and palatable roughage. The bath water in the pool should be filled up at any time, so as not to cause the baby rats to crawl home and drown. The offspring can be bred in 3 months after being divided into nests.

2. Feeding and management in summer

The management technology in summer is almost the same as that in spring, but attention should be paid to hygiene and epidemic prevention, disinfection of field areas and tools, and timely prevention and treatment of the disease. Because muskrat is a herbivore, it should be prohibited to eat antibiotics to avoid digestive system diseases caused by intestinal flora disorder. In summer, the mating, parturition and tending of muskrats can be carried out at the same time. Because muskrats are multi-parity animals, they can accept re-breeding within a few days after delivery. At the same time, they also need to breast-feed their offspring, and may feed their offspring with more than two births. Therefore, the venue must be kept quiet and adequate and clean bath water must be provided.

3. Feeding and management in autumn

The management of autumn should prepare enough overwintering feed and store overwintering hay. In addition, the breeding muskrats were selected and matched, and the adult mice from different litters were matched with males and females to enter the overwintering breeding. If the nest is not enough, it can be raised in the same nest through the winter, and the seed selection will be carried out until the preparation of the mating period. Before entering the end of autumn and winter, the pool water should be changed every other day or several days until it freezes.

4. Winter management

The main management in winter is that the heat preservation of flocculent grass should be sufficient, the feeding of feed and vegetables should be timely, and observation should be adhered to. The main approach is to fill the pond with hay and let the muskrats make their own grass holes to live in an orderly way. Feed vegetables should be fed once a day, and their activities should be observed and recorded.