Muskrats are important animals for the aquatic communities, as they harvest food along with den sites, and create an open water path for ducks, shorebirds, geese and other wildlife in water. They are easily found near slow-moving waterways, like marshes, reservoirs, beaver ponds, marshy borderlines of lakes or rivers, and irrigation canals.
These dark brown, furry, and rat look-alike animals serve as pets to many, and pests to a few when they burrow and damage a water dam. Sometimes, their activity ends up damaging crops as well. Muskrats live in warmer regions, and where they can obtain food. Their webbed feet allows them to function in water, as the feet serve as peddles and digging purposes.
Muskrats eat plants, like cattails, bulrush, water lilies, pickerel, arrowhead, sedges, ferns, duckweeds, and pondweed. They also eat clover, water mussels, alfalfa, and corn. A small part of their diet is consumed through snails, frogs, fish, turtles, crayfish, mollusks, shellfish, salamanders and certain invertebrates. Muskrats tend to search for their food in a 150-feet radius. They eat on dead fish that is left by a spring melts. Mainly an aquatic diet is the primary food of a muskrat.
If you have a muskrat as a pet, feed them inside a cage or fence them in an area, and then place a board in it with different seeds and weeds. You can also try feeding them crushed fruits and vegetables. Provide a sufficient amount of food, as they are big eaters.
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