American mink: the description, the content, and care recommendations

American mink - fur animal, warm fur is rightfully earned the honorary title of the most exquisite and expensive. Products made of mink fur combine the elegance, warmth and beauty with practicality. How and where to get the most valuable fur?

American Mink: Description

Flexible, graceful, lovely and very mobile animals are predators. They are great swim, climb trees, run fast. The small size of the mink does not stop her head. They are fearless and assertive, prefer to attack and not to hide and escape. For protection against enemies furry predators are other than sharp teeth and claws of special glands that emit a pungent odor. Unaccustomed enemy becomes ill from such a "deodorant".

European and American mink are a family of martens, but looks closer to the American marten. It is much more European cousin, stronger, her fur thick and above. It is this latter quality has led to greater popularity of the American mink from fur farm. Natural color - from dark brown to black, depending on the species. In the 19th century the "American" was brought to Europe for breeding kennels. Released into the wild, more powerful conqueror rather quickly pressed a European friend of her place of dwelling. Weaker European mink has got in the list of the Red Book.

Lifestyle Nature

Familiar mink day passes in food production, arrangement of housing and caring for offspring. American mink eats small rodents, frogs, fish, shellfish, birds. Can ruin a bird's nest and eat the eggs. She is very agile hunter and fisherman. Habitat - the banks of large rivers, where she equally feels at ease both in water and on land. Accommodation has its predator here, on the shore, in crevices or between tree roots. Can dig a burrow itself or adapt himself abandoned dwelling other water inhabitants: muskrat or beaver.

Habitat and subtypes of

The natural habitat of the American mink fur animal - North America. Artificially settled in Eurasia, it has successfully mastered the territory around the temperate zone of the continent. Depending on the habitat are three subspecies, which are slightly different appearance and fur:

• Mink Alaska is the largest and darkest. It extended to the territory of Alaska, the Canadian West.
• The most valuable American mink fur on the eastern, or Quebec, subspecies. Its edge - a silky, dark, different gray-bluish underfur.
• A very large and very dark mink Kenai lives in the south of Alaska and the West Coast of North America.

Breeding at home

American mink - an animal that feels great in the pen if it created the right conditions. Expensive furs are always in demand, and has a fairly high price, so that breeding mink - always a profitable business. Along with large fur farms breeding minks and amateurs engaged in the home stretch. For animal quite spacious enclosures, enclosed by a fine mesh, which must be deep foundations, as animal burrows easily and can easily escape.

To pitomitsy in the aviary feel at home, you need to take into account its natural habits: accommodation in a hole and love to water procedures. The cell must be a house and a large tank of water. Movable animal never sits still, even in a cage it in constant motion: running, sniffing, floats. Feed them what they eat in nature: fish, meat waste. Less commonly added to dry food and vitamin supplements.

Reproduction in captivity

We must remember that the American mink - aggressive carnivore. If specimens grown in captivity is quite friendly to the people among themselves, they can arrange a serious fight. Therefore contain each individual separately. In the rutting period (spring, in March), the male gives a lift to a female and take when offspring on the way. This occurs 7 weeks after mating. The maximum number of calves - 15. When grown puppies begin to crawl on their own cage, you need to close the lower grid cell or seat them in the box, so as not to get lost in the large hole. Grown young, who do not need mother's milk, seated on individual cells in order to avoid "clashes". Mink have a strong immune system and are not affected by frequent illnesses, but in a cage, they still need vaccinations and vitamin and mineral supplements.

Industrial fur production

Profitability fur production is equal to the jeweler's art. Large fur farms do not only growing, but also the breeding of various species. The largest suppliers of furs to the world markets - the Nordic countries and North America. American mink, grown on US farms and Canada, is characterized particularly by a thick, velvety fur. Experts in the region learned to breed animals with a rare, completely black fur. North American mink fur is the most expensive in the world. Scandinavian types of mink - is acclimatized to European conditions American species. Scandinavian fur is the most common. Apart from Scandinavia and North America, supplying valuable fur breeders in Russia, Ukraine, Greece, the Baltic States. Not so long ago, to the producers of mink products joined the Chinese. Their furs are of poor quality, but gained popularity due to low prices for the products.

The color scheme of fur

Standard natural color fur American mink is dark brown, with different shades. Bit rarer black, North American species. This fur is very valuable for breeders quality - a huge number of mutations responsible for the color. This made it possible to diversify the natural mink color more than a hundred shades, without resorting to artificial fur painting. Besides initial brown and black, in the industrial production emit about 30 genotypes mink fur coloring. The most popular are: pastel, gray-blue, white, palomino (yellowish coloring with beige podpuhom), white, sapphire, pearl, lavender.

Fur Processing

The cost of the finished fur products adds design processing. Fur mink burned, pinched, paint, shear:

• plucked mink - the most expensive. In this treatment, hand, special tweezers, stand tough and long hairs. Fur give a perfect velvety surface.
• Fur Grooming also makes the product surface flat and smooth.
• staining. Designers compete with breeders, and despite the great variety of natural colors, experimenting with color, so that sometimes even misleading buyers. Most often used in the color shading, which gives expression to the shades of transition, which has the American mink. Coat of tinted mink looks spectacular and less yellowing over time.

When choosing a fur coat from the American mink, pay attention to the fact that the fur was shiny, bright, with overflow. Villi should be firm and smoothing quickly return form. Quality checked white coloring with a damp cloth - it should not be any traces. The reverse side of the skins should be soft, with no cracks. Quality product has a minimum of seams.