To get a healthy and full-fledged litter of nutria, it is necessary to properly conduct the pregnancy of the female, providing her with appropriate care and nutrition. It is very important to pay attention to changes in the behavior of nutria at different stages of pregnancy, as well as after childbirth.
Propagation of nutria: features
The female matures for mating already at the age of five months, and the male at the age of seven months. It is worth considering the peculiarities of hunting an animal: the period when it is ready to conceive offspring lasts only a few days every month, so it is important not to miss this time.
Females who are planning to mate should be kept at a young age in a separate cage into which the male nutria are planted at the scheduled time. It is very important to monitor the purity and occupancy of cells.
They should not be cramped so that the animals feel more freely. Timely care for nutrias can not be called too expensive: it is enough that they have a balanced diet and regular nutrition.
When planning offspring, it is very important to pay attention to the estimated period of labor. It is believed that puppies born in winter will be the most healthy and hardy, therefore, very often mating is carried out in autumn.
If you wish, you can increase the chances of fertilization. For this, nutrient breeders use the family breeding method: a male and several females are placed in one cage (it is advisable to combine them together in advance so that they get used to each other).
Did you know? The number of puppies in the offspring depends on the breed of the animal. For example, golden nutria gives up to 3 cubs in total, while black - up to 10.
Pregnant nutria
It is possible to determine that the female is pregnant a month before the expected date of birth. The main sign is noticeable changes in the appearance of the animal: the nutria is very much recovering, and its body takes a spherical shape.
The average weight gain of nutria during pregnancy is 2 kg. When the female is in a calm state, then with prolonged observation, you can notice how the future offspring move in her stomach.
Also, in the last month of pregnancy, nutria can see an increase in her nipples. They swell and change in size almost twice. This method can be used only for females that are offspring for the first time, because after giving birth, the nipples no longer return to their original state, but remain enlarged.
To determine whether a female is pregnant or not is almost impossible at an earlier date: only breeders with extensive experience can do this (and that is presumably).
Timing: how much is the offspring
Nutria bears future puppies on average 4–4.5 months. Due to the fact that the gestation period is quite large, the offspring is born completely sighted and with hair on the body.
Care Features
When keeping a kitten female, it is imperative to reconsider her nutrition: in the summertime, the house should always have succulent food and water, and in the wintertime it should also have ice.
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Also, the animal can not be overfed, because obesity often provokes complications during childbirth.
An approximate diet of a pregnant female is as follows:
- grass (in summer) or beets (in winter) - 300 g;
- fish meal - 6 g;
- fish oil - 2.5 g;
- grass meal - 26 g;
- salt - 1 g;
- grain from barley or corn - 150 g;
- peas - 8 g.
It is very important to keep the cells where pregnant nutrias live clean. Before the birth itself, it is recommended that they be additionally cleaned and disinfected to maximize the safety of the offspring. Holes or broken partitions in the cells must not be allowed.
The cleaning process itself is best done slowly, without making sudden movements, so as not to disturb the pregnant female. Also, nutria, which should soon give birth, can not be scared, kept upside down for a long time or allowed to rest with other pets, especially dogs.
Important! If the female should whelp in the winter, then in the last two weeks before the expected date of birth it is necessary to keep her in a heated room so that the puppies are born healthy.
Behavior with a male, other nutria
During pregnancy, nutria behaves quite calmly in relation to other females. Until it becomes known whether the animal is pregnant for sure, it can be kept under the same conditions, but after confirming the pregnancy, the female should be provided with maximum comfort. Be sure to place the animal in a separate cage.
As for contacts with males, they should end immediately after mating. The only exception is that animals need to be seated not after one sexual intercourse, but in a day or at least several hours after it.
The fact is that the number of puppies in the offspring directly depends on the number of sexual acts performed by animals (they can be up to 8). It is possible to determine that sexual intercourse has come to an end by the behavior of animals: during breaks, they scratch their ears, head and stomach.
Puppy
Practice shows that nutria give birth to offspring quite easily. The main thing that is required from a person is to first create all conditions for the female (absolute peace and dry litter). It is quite easy to predict when the birth will begin: a few days before this, the future mother begins to behave uneasily, refuses food and creates a nest for posterity.
Video: how nutria gives birth
Nutria help, duration of labor
Delivery itself lasts for nutria an average of 30-120 minutes. The duration of the process is affected by the number of puppies in the offspring, as well as their size. Cubs are born with an interval of about 15 minutes. Immediately after the end of childbirth, it is necessary to replace the litter in the cage, as well as to remove the remnants of the afterbirth and dead puppies, if any.Cubs
Mother feeds the puppies and takes care of them for several months. During this time, offspring gradually become independent. Sometimes it happens that a frigging female from the first minutes begins to behave inappropriately and aggressively towards newborns.
In this case, the farmer needs to take full responsibility for feeding himself, acting on this principle:
- The first five days of such puppies need to be fed once every three hours from the pipette exclusively with cow's milk (the norm is 30 g / day).
- On the sixth day, you can begin to introduce complementary foods: carrots, apples and bread.
- After a week, the bread can be replaced with young grain or steamed compound feed.
If the nutria did not refuse to feed the puppies, then for several days it is necessary not to give them any other food, and then gradually start to introduce bread, cow's milk and carrots into the diet.
On average, nutria feeds the cubs a month and a half. After that, the mother is transplanted into another cell. When the offspring reaches four months of age, males and females are seated separately.
Also, immediately after birth, you need to examine the puppies, check them for the absence of any wounds or pathologies. On average, the female leads from 4 to 6 cubs, although there are cases when 18 individuals are born right away. With a large offspring, it is not uncommon for some puppies to be born dead. Most often, the female eats them.
Did you know? Nursing nutrias often lose up to 10% of their weight. This is because the body spends a lot of energy on the formation of breast milk.
Caring for nourishing nutria
In the first months after the birth of the offspring, nutria behave quite aggressively, protecting their offspring. Lactating females quite often rush at people, but it is worth enduring this period and in no case do not deprive them of the newborn offspring of the necessary care.
Diet
When feeding the giving birth to an individual, it is very important to take into account its energy expenditures in order to form the correct diet. Otherwise, the female may have a shortage of breast milk.
In the first month after puppy, it is recommended to increase the daily portion by 1.5 times.
It is very important that vitamin A is present in the female diet. In the second month, the amount of feed doubles. When the female stops feeding the puppies with milk, they should gradually return to the standard diet.
Sanitary care
The giving birth to a female does not require special care. She needs a dry litter and constant access to clean water. Also, after birth, you should carefully clean the cage from the afterbirth, if the nutria did not eat it.
Pathologies of the cubs
Quite often, young animals manifest such a disease as salmonellosis. Its main symptoms are tousled fur, weight loss and appetite, and immobility. Later young offensive stool appears in young animals (most often liquid), body temperature rises, and the spleen increases. It is difficult for such animals to walk; they are poorly oriented in space.
The diagnosis can be accurately established only by the results of clinical tests, as well as on the basis of the conclusion of the pathologist. After treatment of animals and their subsequent vaccination, it is imperative to quarantine them. Nutria is placed in well-ventilated and dry rooms with an adjustable level of humidity.
Vitamin deficiency is also a fairly common problem among young animals. This most often happens in the spring, when there is a clear shortage of green feed. Most often, animals lack vitamins A and D.
Signs of pathology are poor puppy growth, conjunctivitis and gradual clouding of the cornea, ruffled fur. To eliminate the problem, you need to introduce legumes, fish oil and carrots into the diet of animals.
Important! Animals with clear signs of illness need to be destroyed.
Also, animals that are kept in the pen often have respiratory tract pathologies, such as inflammation of the nasal mucosa or catarrh of the lungs. The animal ceases to eat, gray mucous secretions are observed from its nose, and this is also accompanied by frequent sneezing or wheezing.
To solve the problem, it is necessary not only to comply with the prescribed treatment, but also to eliminate all sources of dampness in the pen, as well as drafts.
Why nutria eat their offspring
It often happens that females gnaw their cubs.
This happens for the following reasons:
- childbirth with complications;
- the birth of a dead offspring (nutria eats the dead bodies of cubs, believing that this is the last);
- unbalanced diet of females.
Cases of eating live puppies are not so widespread. The reason for this behavior is a lack of vitamins in the body of the giving birth to a female (especially vitamin A).
Important! Sometimes pregnant nutrias abort, and reproduction does not occur. This happens due to lack of protein in the diet or obesity of the female.
Also, a lack of vitamin A often leads to the birth of a blind offspring or partial blindness of puppies in the early days of their lives. To solve this problem, it is worth paying enough attention to the diet of pregnant nutria, adding fish oil or vitamin A.
If the problem could not be avoided, and a dead offspring was found in the cage without bites or injuries, you should make sure that the puppies were born dead or died after birth.
Toddler Nutria quickly adapt to the outside world. Within a couple of days, the young, adopting the habits of their mother, begin to dive, swim and try plant foods, although within a month or two they will still be fed with their milk.
For diagnosis, use the proven method: you need to lower the lungs of a stiff baby cub into the water and observe the result. If the organ drowns, it means that the offspring was born dead, and if the lung remained on the surface, the cub was born alive and breathed for some time.
To avoid possible risks of pregnancy, it is advisable to choose for mating an individual no younger than 8 months old. Normally, its weight should be in the range of 4–4.5 kg.
Breeding nutria is a very interesting and relatively troublesome task, because for a comfortable life these animals need only nutritious food, fresh water and a clean cage with bedding. If you devote enough time to this business, then the lesson will also be very profitable.
