MINOR FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 123 
While the foxes relish almost any kind of fish, still it has been noticed that an occa- 
sional change in variety is desirable. The coast of Alaska, together with the adjacent 
islands, offers excellent opportunities to secure an abundance of fish, and probably at 
much less cost than the same quality of food could be secured in any other locality 
where it might be possible to raise foxes successfully. 
Codfish, halibut, sculpins, rockfish, ana flounders are to be had in quantities through- 
out the year, and the foxes are very fond of all these. The fish are cleaned carefully, 
then chopped in pieces weighing from | to 3 or 4 ounces and fed raw. The healthy 
livers from the codfish are also saved and fed. Dog salmon, pink salmon, silver 
salmon, and fresh red salmon heads from the cannery are fed during the season when 
these fish are obtainable. 
Probably the article of fish diet most relished by the foxes, however, is the salmon 
head, and these can be obtained in almost unlimited quantites if the ranch is situated 
near a salmon cannery. We discovered the liking the foxes have for salmon heads 
when feeding fresh salmon during the past summer. It was noticed that, without 
exception, the pieces of the heads were always the first eaten. We therefore made 
arrangements with the cannery of the Kadiak Fisheries Co., situated at Kodiak, to 
take such fish heads as we might require, and they gladly gave us these without charge. 
As an experiment we mild-salted about, 15 barrels of heads and these serve as an excel- 
lent food for winter. Before feeding the salted heads, however, they are taken out of 
the brine and soaked in running water for 60 or 70 hours, when they are sufficiently 
freshened to be fed without danger. Our keeper, fearing that these salted heads might 
be injurious to the animals, was at first rather reluctant about feeding many of them, 
so we decided to experiment on one fox. A cross fox of little value was selected for 
this; he was put in a pen alone and was fed nothing but pickled salmon heads, freshened 
first by soaking, and as many of them as he would eat. The result was that he thrived 
on this diet, grew fat, and his coat became as sleek as any other fox on the ranch. The 
blue foxes at large on the island also relish the fish heads. They are fed once a day on 
a platform built for the purpose near the keeper’s residence, and here is placed an 
assortment of food, including a supply of salmon heads. Often some of the food is left, 
but it is a noticeable fact that the heads are always cleaned up. 
It might be in order to make a suggestion here. We understand considerable diffi- 
culty is at times experienced on the Pribilof Islands in securing sufficient food for the 
blue foxes, and this could be overcome, we believe, vy the use of salmon heads. The 
heads could be secured from the canneries in Bristol Bay, where hundreds of tons of 
them are thrown away each year; the cost would be far less than for any other kind of 
food that might be shipped to the islands, and we are certain the results of feeding 
them to the foxes would be most satisfactory. 
Another fish food which has been found to be excellent for foxes is dried salmon 
backs, or ‘‘ukula,’’ as prepared by the natives. The salmon is dried in the sun and 
wind until it is quite hard and tough and is given to the foxes in this condition. It is 
particularly good for the young animals while teething, for it affords something sub- 
stantial for them to chew on, a thing that is quite necessary during this period. 
Canned salmon is used to quite an extent by a number of the fox ranchers, including 
ourselves, Short-weight cans are obtained direct from the canneries at nominal 
prices; the foxes eat this very readily and it is generally considered a good food to 
give occasionally. In fact, several of the ranchers in this vicinity feed canned salmon 
almost exclusively, especially during the winter months, and all reports we have 
received regarding this practice have been satisfactory. 
As a further variety in the fish diet, we make it a point to take advantage of the 
extreme low tides in order to secure a supply of clams and mussels, both of which are 
usually very plentiful. The foxes are very fond of these and relish an occasional meal 
of them. 
