94 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The chief difficulties appear to be in securing the first litter from 

 the wild animals and in getting suitable food. The wild mink is usually 

 wholly unsusceptible to domestication or even semi-domestication. 

 They frequently kill themselves by hanging, cutting their throats, 

 or beating their heads against a wall. Most of them will commit 

 suicide or die of fear on the near approach of a dog. These facts have 

 been corroborated in the experience of 1912, a large proportion of 

 wild minks having died while being shipped and a large number of those 

 caught for ranching purposes being found dead, sometimes badly cut 

 or lacerated. 



If the young are taken from the mother as early as possible — say 

 six weeks or seven weeks old — in Eastern Canada about June 15 — 

 they become very tame and according to the advocates of this new 

 method of ranching, can be reared in family colonies afterwards. A 

 colony house, or large box, can be provided and a considerable runway 

 or paddock may extend in front to include a portion of a stream. 



The usual food is bread and milk, meat twice the size of an egg, 

 fish and dog biscuit. One experienced breeder who feeds rabbits the 

 whole year round recommended a meat diet of one quarter pound a day. 

 He also states that milk should be fed to mother minks twice a day. 

 Fish, he considers unsuitable for a steady diet, and pork should not 

 be fed at all. The young are fed new milk. The English sparrow 

 is a great favourite for mink food and frogs and eels are also supplied. 

 It is noteworthy that minks will frequently eat food with avidity 

 when thrown into the water, whereas they might refuse to eat it if 

 placed in a feeding trough. Food should be given twice a day. 



The method of ranching mink which has been used almost 

 Pen System exclusively in America is one which employs a small pen 

 for each animal. The two largest establishments visited 

 in 1912 consisted of an ordinary barn about 20 feet wide and 30 feet long. 

 The walls were open under the eaves to make the interior as airy as 

 possible. On either side of a central alley were pens about 4 feet wide 

 and 8 feet long, provided with a nest box on a slight elevation, and having 

 a crooked passage for entrance. Water ran through troughs at the 

 ends of the pen, or was pumped in daily. The partitions were of 

 wire above and boards near the floor. If wire is used for the walls, 

 an overhang is necessary to prevent climbing out, or the wire might be 

 made to extend over the pens completely. Very little light is required, 

 as the mink usually sleeps during the day. 



Mink can be reared in such pens, but there are grave doubts of the 

 permanency of the good health of the animals. In a Nova Scotia ranch 

 there was no difficulty in rearing an average of three and a half to 



