

344 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



may be surmised, we have had exceptional opportunities to 

 note this matter. The exact period of gestation of the musk- 

 rat seems to have led to a great deal of surmising and dis- 

 pute, especially as to the muskrats of the wilds. We have 

 also proved, in our pen breeding, that the young from the 

 first spring litter will themselves reproduce before winter, 

 but the female will not produce as many young in her litter 

 as will a more mature muskrat. 



"After our ten females have dropped their litters and 

 the young are from two weeks to eighteen days old, we fol- 

 low the same procedure just described with the breeding 

 duties, four bucks for one day each serving the females. 

 During our 1926 season we secured four litters of young 

 in the manner just described and the production averaged 

 thirty-four to a breeding female. An average litter from 

 an adult breeding female being ten young. 



No Swimming Water 



"While our pens have been described in detail it may 

 be well to say something on what we consider as one of 

 the greatest problems in muskrat farming — that of water. 

 In our early days we used, as do many breeders today, a 

 receptacle about the size of a bread pan and changed the 

 water twice a day. Being very nocturnal, the muskrats 

 appeared very little during the day and confined then- 

 activities in the pens to the darkness, just as they do in 

 the wilds. In the mornings we would find the watering 

 pans filled with refuse, food, excrement and other filth, 

 rendering the water unfit for drinking. Fearful of the 

 health of our breeders, we changed the water frequently, 

 put chemicals in it in an effort to neutralize the effects of 

 the droppings and other undesirable matter from off the 

 fur and feet, when the animals would swim in the pans, 

 but the labor of changing water in several thousand pans 

 is a considerable item when operating on a commercial 

 basis, and we were forced to revolutionize the watering 

 problem. 



"Our ranch manager, Don Campbell, adapted the ordi- 

 nary fountain water pan so used by poultry breeders for 



