FUR FACTS 125 



and the aggregate increase is not far from 100 per cent for the total 

 stock on ranches. Failure to breed is attributable to a variety of 

 causes, among which are sterility, injuries, worry, and mismating. 

 Females barren for two years in succession frequently become pro- 

 ductive on being mated to a different male. Prolific females, run 

 down by several litters in succession, sometimes skip a year in 

 which to recuperate. 



The excitable disposition of foxes is one of their most troublesome 

 characteristics, and no opportunity should be lost to abate it. In 

 the breeding season it is very essential that nothing shall occur to 

 make them apprehensive. A nervous vixen is likely to refuse the 

 attentions of her mate, or to injure herself and cause abortion, or, 

 what is still more probable, to destroy her young soon after they 

 are born, by neglect, or by taking them from the warm den and 

 carrying them about the yard in search of another hiding place. In 

 her extreme anxiety she loses all her instinctive prudence. She 

 becomes essentially insane, and only closest attention on the part 

 of her keeper can save her cubs. 



From the time the cubs are born until they are two or three weeks 

 old constant care must be taken to prevent losses in this manner. 

 Any unusual sight, sound, or odor, by day or night, is liable to alarm 

 a vixen and cause her to maltreat her young. The best way of dealing 

 with a worried vixen is to shut her with her cubs in the den for 

 several hours or until she becomes pacified. If she is disturbed 

 by the proximity of other foxes, as sometimes happens, her view 

 should be limited by boarding in the lower 2 or 3 feet of her yard. 



Care of Young Important 



Young foxes are subject to other troubles which, unless corrected, 

 often prove fatal. They may be infested with external or internal 

 parasites, or their mothers may not have enough milk to nourish 

 them properly. It is very important that their condition from day 

 to day be known. But the great value of the cubs and their danger 

 from the irritability of their mothers generally cause the keeper to 

 refrain from looking into the dens. By watching the behavior of 

 the mothers they judge whether the young are doing well. It has 

 been demonstrated by at least one progressive keeper that this uncer- 

 tainty is by no means necessary. Foxes are not excited by routine 

 events. By giving them large two-room dens, and always feeding 

 them in the outer compartment, they learn to expect the entrance 

 of the keeper as the regular preliminary to each meal, and even to 



