PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 65 



ous), dandelion (which needs to be given sparingly), 

 hedge parsley, or " keck " as we used to call it, when as 

 boys we gathered it in the hedgerows for our rabbits, 

 and plodded home with it, stopping now and again 

 Ben Bolt fashion, to " gather the (wild) flowers as they 

 grew "plantain, grass, turnip tops, garden parsley, 

 groundsel, shepherd's purse, cauliflower, and roots. If 

 possible, the green food should be procured from places 

 where the soil is poor and the succulence of the green 

 stuff less plentiful. Then you need to observe great 

 regularity in feeding, as we have already hinted. We 

 firmly believe that upon this hinges a great deal of 

 success or failure to condition your stock. Some people 

 are so thoughtless and inhuman as to feed their cavies 

 of course, we are not alluding to genuine cavy fanciers 

 in a most irregular way. They never feed them at 

 the same time of day twice in a month. Sometimes they 

 do not give them more than one meal a day. Some- 

 times that is in the morning, at other times the morning 

 is skipped and they are fed at night. Put their keepers 

 on one meal in 24 hours and see how they would shape ! 

 It is ridiculous, it is unkind. Finally, let us say that 

 if you use food vessels it will pay you to keep them 

 clean. Do not be afraid to wash them. Permanganate 

 of potash is cheap enough. A pennyworth dissolved 

 in a gallon of water will furnish a gallon of " syrup " 

 to be " broken down " for use daily. You may think 

 the vessels do not get impure and unclean quickly, but 

 they assuredly do, and need cleansing. See that this 

 is done. 



BREEDING. 



Ere we proceed one step further we feel called upon 

 to remark that there is an intimate connection between 

 feeding and breeding. One of the most important 

 things for a cavy breeder to see to is that he does not 

 overfeed his breeding sows. If he does, he will get 

 precious few young ones. If anyone was hasty in 

 asking Where is the connection between feeding and 

 breeding, the secret is soon out. Great, overfat, lazy 

 sows are seldom breeders, and if they do breed, they 

 seldom rear their young. Do not let the reader go to 

 the other extreme, and conclude that we mean to preach 

 the doctrine that very thin sows breed the best. Not so. 



