38 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



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

 Biscuits 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 



General Directions 



for Feeding swallowed. Bone should be fed, especially to young 



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 they are dainty feeders and, unlike dogs, do not devour their 

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

 of limewater — 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 ofl'spring. 



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 sized fox 

 should weigh from eight to eleven 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 worms. 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 more 

 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. 



^b" 



The mother should be well fed on an attractive and strengthening 

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



