64 PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 



saucers for flower pots. I used these for rabbits, but 

 continual breakage sickened me, and the hutch floor was 

 the last resort. If you use food vessels at all, the 

 advantage of the proper trough is apparent. It is 

 heavy, and the cavies are not so likely to turn it over. 

 But if water is given, vessels will be absolutely necess- 

 ary, in which case it will be best to get the troughs. 

 Whatever else is done, let there be no fads in feeding 

 cavies. They do not want to be as fat as Berkshire 

 pigs just ready for the butcher; neither do they want 

 to be as lean and scraggy as some of the *' mutton " 

 sold in the poor districts of London at 2d. per Ib. What 

 is wanted is a sufficiency of firm solid flesh, liveliness, 

 and a shiny coat. These are all indicative of good feed- 

 ing and health. Feed as regularly as you expect your 

 own meals. We think twice a day ample. Let the 

 food be pure; let it be plain; give it regularly; watch 

 carefully that the food suits the stock; and give it in 

 variety, and clean. If you do not have food that is of 

 good quality and sound, your stock will suffer. Much 

 of the oat supply on the market is of an inferior quality, 

 and possesses very poor feeding properties. If you 

 will sample the different bulks of oats on the market 

 you will find they vary greatly. What is wanted is a 

 full oat, one that will scale at least 40 Ibs. to the bushel, 

 and if you are buying it is always as well to stipulate the 

 weight. Use your nose to the oat supply, and also 

 taste, indeed to all the food you give your cavies, and 

 see that it is sweet and free from mustiness. If you 

 select the best food you will have to pay a good price 

 for it, but it is money well spent. Beware of cat or 

 mouse contamination. Our advice is to give green food 

 or roots as the first meal, and if you will add dry food, 

 let it be a little bran. The evening meal should consist 

 of a good feed of oats, a handful of clover hay, nice and 

 thick in the stems, or meadow hay well gotten and fra- 

 grant to the smell. Green food or roots. We must 

 say here that the greatest care must be taken, or disaster 

 will result, to see that the green food is never wet or 

 frost-bitten, or the roots unsound or earthy! Watch 

 the oats and see that they are not full of green corns. 

 What are the green foods to be given ? As Mr. Ward 

 says cavies are not very particular. They will eat chick- 

 weed (the white flowering the red flowering is poison- 



