Zoo database

Nutria

Myocastor coypus

Natural diet Nutria

Grasses
Herbs
Leaves

The nutria is a herbivorous animal that mainly feeds upon stems, leaves, roots, bark and other aquatic vegetation. Their diet is often supplemented with floating objects such as logs.

Feeding advice Nutria

Feed quantity per day

10-15% of body weight

Sample percentage calculation

If an animal weighs 7 kg and eats 10% of its body weight, it will get

7 x 0.1 = 0.7 kg feed in total per day

Feed composition

10% Concentrates
20% Leafy and cabbage vegetables
20% Other vegetables
50% Grass, lucerne and other roughages

Proportions (fresh product)

0.1 x 0.7 kg = 70 g concentrates
0.2 x 0.7 kg = 140 g leafy and cabbage vegetables
0.2 x 0.7 kg = 140 g other vegetables
0.5 x 0.7 kg = 350 g grass, lucerne and other roughages

Diet suggestions

Not recommended

Fruits

Additional advice

Divide the “Feed quantity per day” over at least two feeding moments per day.
Make the diet wet before feeding it, since dipping their food in water is a behavioral trait seen in the wild.
Stimulate foraging behaviour by hiding, stacking or hanging their feed. Besides this, scatter feeding is also a good option (read more about feed enrichment and foraging behaviour).

Common diseases

An unbalanced diet may result in one of these more commonly occurring diseases/conditions:

Obesity
Dental disease

Feed quantity per day

Sample percentage calculation

Feed composition

Proportions (fresh product)

Rodent rat 12 mm

Natural Browser - 6 mm

Primate PT1 Pellets

Blackberry leaves - 10-20 kg bag

Walnut leaves - 10-20 kg bag

Birch leaves - 10-20 kg bag

Jannicke Kiezebrink

Director Operations