# What Do Muskrats Eat?

> What muskrats eat: Herbivore — cattails, pondweed, roots, and occasional mussels, foraging style, and seasonal shifts in Marshes, ponds, slow rivers, and wetlands across temperate North America.

- **Species:** Muskrat (*Ondatra zibethicus*)
- **Conservation status:** Least Concern
- **Diet:** Herbivore — cattails, pondweed, roots, and occasional mussels
- **Habitat:** Marshes, ponds, slow rivers, and wetlands across temperate North America
- **Lifespan:** 3–5 years in the wild (longer in captivity)
- **Top speed:** Strong swimmer; moderate on land
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/muskrat/what-do-muskrat-eat/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/muskrat/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

The muskrat is a semi-aquatic rodent weighing 0.6–2 kg (1.3–4.4 lb) with a scaly tail and webbed hind feet, found in wetlands across North America and introduced to Europe and Asia. It builds dome lodges from cattails, feeds on aquatic plants, and is trapped for fur while listed Least Concern globally.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian. This page is wild diet, not a pet-care sheet.

## Wetland engineer

Muskrats excavate burrows into pond banks and build conical lodges from cattails and mud — structures that create habitat for ducks, turtles, and fish. Their feeding opens channels through dense vegetation, maintaining open water in marshes that might otherwise silt over.

## Help protect the Muskrat

Even familiar animals lose ground as wild habitat keeps shrinking worldwide.

[Donate to wildlife protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/donate/)

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Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/muskrat/what-do-muskrat-eat/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.