Welcome to Baby the Nutria Rat's Page!

Here you will learn a little bit about Nutria Rats in general, and OUR Nutria Rat, Baby, in particular.

Nutrias are mammals in the rodent family (just check those teeth to verify that!) Specifically, they are of the order Rodentia, Family Myocastoridae: Myocastor coypus (Molina). They are commonly found in lakes, streams ponds, marshes, bayous and swamps.

Baby at about 6 months old.

Baby at about 5 weeks old.

The word "bayou" is the Cajun French word for "small stream" and originated from the term "bayuk". A bayou is a watercourse, generally found as an offshoot of a river or lake in a low area. Bayous are slow, lazy waterways that frequently flow through a swamp. A swamp is a low lying marshy wetland which is usually forested and frequently flooded. Both are favorite areas for nutrias as you can see from the pictures below.

Baby on the run. About 5 months old.

Toro, a disabled nutria rat.

When full grown nutrias are about 2 feet in length excluding the tail. The average adult weight is 18 to 25 pounds but our nutria's vet told us he treated a pet nutria that weighed in at 60 pounds! Nutrias closely resemble the beaver with a couple of notable variations: the tail of the nutria is round and nearly hairless like the tail of the common lab rat while the beaver's tail is flat; nutrias have a far better disposition than beavers do both in the wild and in captivity.

Nutrias have 2 upper and 2 lower incisors which are razor sharp. They use these to gnaw on plants. These teeth are naturally orange in color. They also have some kind of teeth inside the mouth towards the back... or OURS does, anyway. We can't elaborate on these as we've only FELT them, never seen them... Baby still likes to take a finger and put it into his mouth like a pacifier... that's when we've felt the teeth in the back of his mouth.

Nutrias are very docile animals, easily handled in captivity and curious in the wild. They are semi-aquatic rodents with webbed hind feet and appear to be equally at home in fresh or salt water, warm or cold. In the wild they are totally nocturnal. In captivity they seem to adapt their habits to those of their human companions.

An interesting fact about nutrias is that the mammary glands of the female are located high on the back, NOT on the belly. This facilitates feeding the young in their aquatic environment. Because nutrias reproduce so quickly (one female can produce up to 150 young in 16 months and they appear to breed year round), they quickly exhaust the food supply in their areas and have to move on. This rapid reproduction and resulting crop and levee damage accounts for the nutria's classification as "vermin" in Louisiana.

The nutria is NOT indigenous to the United States. 13 nutria rats were imported to the U.S. from Argentina in 1937 by Tabasco tycoon E. A. McIlhenny.

It's thought that he brought them here to establish a breeding colony from which to harvest nutria fur. In 1940 a hurricane destroyed the nutria cages, freeing them to the bayous of the Acadiana region of Louisiana. By 1955 these original 13 nutrias had multiplied to approximately 20 million nutrias in Louisiana alone. The fur industry cut this number from 20 million to an estimate of "several million" in Louisiana today. They spread from Louisiana and are now found in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon and other places. The very best habitats are thought to house 18 nutrias per acre. The feeding habits of the nutria cause millions of dollars of damage yearly in the bayous and marshes but they also compromise the integrity of Louisiana's levee system by burrowing into the levees. Both rice and cane farmers experience problems with this nomadic rodent and even home gardeners will find that cabbage, carrots and sweet potatoes may attract these hungry herbivores. To alleviate these problems Louisiana has a fur trapping season and has recently begun promoting nutria meat for human consumption. In 1998 Lafayette, Louisiana chefs participated in a "Nutria Cookoff" as part of the Cookin' Alive Festival. Among those chefs was our own local celebrity cook: Enola Prudhomme, sister of world renouned Chef Paul Prudhomme. Nutria is a versatile meat and can be used in a variety of ways including sausage, chili, BBQ, pot roast, chicken friend, baked and even nutria and andouille sausage gumbo. Nutrias were determined to be safe and healthy for human consumption by the Pennington Biomedical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana which found the meat to be high in protein (22%) and low in fat (1%). If you are interesteed in purchasing nutria meat you might try The Bocage Market in Baton Rouge at 504-927-2051.

BABY'S STORY

Baby came to us at the age of 4 weeks when a friend saw someone about to throw him into a dipsy dumpster. He was not weaned and required bottle feeding with Similac for about 2 months after his arrival. Once weaned it was not easy to find the appropriate diet for this total vegetarian. Today Baby's diet consists of rabbit chow, sweet potatoes, carrots, grapefruit, oranges, strawberries, grapes, bread, corn, beans, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, apples, pears and various lettuces. We estimate this diet costs about $25 per week. While nutrias will be attractive to anyone who likes rodents, they are definitely NOT a pet for everyone... they are expensive to keep and require a lot of space and attention as well as requiring a "chew proofed" cage. Feel free to email us if you'd like more information or if you find yourself in possession of one of these toothy little critters.

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