FOX-FARMING IN CANADA 45 



A perfect fox diet can be secured in the patent dog biscuits. 

 Bi'^uits These are made with various kinds of food content, so that 



balanced rations can be provided. The biscuit medicines 

 have also been proved excellent, and are easy to administer. It is 

 possible that the manufacture of biscuit with meat or fish fibre will 

 be an industry that will develop contemporaneously with fur-farming. 

 The meat can probably be best preserved in this way and feeding made 

 easier and pleasanter. 



Broken bone should not be fed lest some of it be 

 ?oTFetding^'*'°°^ swallowed. Bone should be fed, especially to 



3-oung foxes, to assist in building up bone and in 

 removing the milk teeth. Some do not feed bony fish, e.g., perch, 

 lest the bones rupture the delicate linings of the throat and intestines. 

 Observation, however, leads to the belief that such injury is not likely 

 to happen, as foxes are dainty feeders, and, unlike dogs, do not devour 

 their food greedily. In addition to bones, growing foxes are fed a 

 quantity of lime-water — about one teaspoonful a day — with their 

 milk. This food gives a substance to the bone and insures stronger 

 limbs. The pregnant mother should also be fed bone broth and limy 

 foods to insure strong limbs for her offspring. 



Neither of the foxes should be allowed to become too fat for 

 breeding. When the foxes are less than a year old, they can be fed 

 almost as much as they will eat; after they are older, a full diet may 

 make them too fat for good breeding condition. An average size fox 

 should weigh from ten to fifteen pounds. Some feeders stint foxes 

 in food in November and December and January, to get them into 

 breeding condition; others endeavour to keep them normal always. 

 In the mating season, foxes are very active, and fat pork is fed and 

 a full supply of food is given to keep them in condition. Some roll 

 the meat in sand and soil, claiming that soil is nature's medicine for 

 woims. Some feeders throw food into the pen over the fence; others, 

 in order to tame them, try to coax them to receive it from between 

 the meshes of the wire. A skilful feeder can do moie to tame his foxes 

 through feeding them than in any other way. If the food is always 

 delivered at the same place, the tendency will be for the animal to 

 approach nearer and nearer at each feeding. The science of foods is 

 of less importance than a knowledge of the art of feeding. 



The mother should be well fed on an attractive and strengthen- 

 ing diet for several weeks before the young are born. Milk, eggs and 

 bone broth are good for the purpose . When the young are expected, 

 a large meal is provided, preferably of game, such as a newly-killed 



