282 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



of preference: rolled oats, corn, apple, fresh lettuce, fresh carrots, 

 wheat, rice, and oats. 



"The muskrats are prone to taste many things and will nibble on 

 a great many plants and food which they will not eat as a steady diet. 

 They are also quite individualistic in their tastes, for some rats refuse 

 to eat carrots or apples, while others eat these eagerly. In captivity 

 we have found that they thrive very well upon a diet of corn and marsh 

 plants such as the paille fine and three-squares. 



EXPERIMENT I.— MUSKRATS FED PAILLE FINE 



Total number of ounces consumed by 1 muskrat over a period 



of 12 days 122.3 oz. 



Average per muskrat per day 10.19 oz. 



Average weight of 7 muskrats 30.0 oz. 



Percentage of weight consumed per day 33.9% 



EXPERIMENT II.— MUSKRATS FED PAILLE FINE AND CORN 



Total number ol ounces of paille fine consumed by 1 muskrat 



over a period of 14 days 102.2 oz. 



Total number of ounces of corn consumed by 1 muskrat over 



a period of 14 days 20.38 oz. 



Total amount of food consumed 122.58 oz. 



Average weight of 9 muskrats 26.1 oz. 



Average amount of paille fine per muskrat per day 7.3 oz. 



Average amount of corn per muskrat per day 1.47 oz. 



Average amount of food per muskrat per day 8.77 oz. 



Per cent of weight of paille fine consumed per day 27.9% 



Per cent of weight of corn consumed per day 5.7% 



Per cent of weight of food consumed per day 33.6% 



'An ample portion for a pair of rats is 20 ounces of paille fine 

 (Panicum hemitomum), underground runners and leaves, and three 

 ounces of corn per day. Experiments extending over a period of 

 twenty-six days have proved that each muskrat consumes on an aver- 

 age 33.7% of its own weight per day. When fed green food only 

 (paille fine) each rat eats on an average of 10.19 ounces per day. 

 When fed green food and corn, each rat consumed on an average of 

 8.75 ounces per day. 



"Muskrats are similar to a great many other rodents in that they 

 occasionally eat animal matter. While live crabs cause consternation 

 in their pens, yet we have seen them eat raw and boiled crabs, as well 

 as small dead fish. The animal matter consumed is evidently very 

 little. 



"It is a byword among trappers that muskrats habitually wash 

 their food before eating it. They do like to sit in the water while eating, 

 and any muck clinging to their foods naturally falls off. Intentional 

 washing, however, has never been observed. Their front paws are very 

 convenient as hands, and are used to hold the food while eating. Sit- 

 ting upon their haunches, they take a piece of grass in their front paws 

 and, biting it off at the required length with their incisors, eat It while 

 still holding or turning it in their paws. 



"In marshes where the water is constantly high, muskrats build 

 'feeding rafts' where they sit while eating. These consist of platforms 

 of debris, accumulated from feeding, and are really muskrat 'kitchen 

 middens.' 



