48 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Some ranchers, during the whelping season, always keep posted 

 regarding the whereabouts of at least one cat with young kittens. If the 

 mother fox, for any reason, proves to be incapable of rearing her 

 young they are taken from her and reared on the cat until four or 

 five weeks old, when the cat will usually desert them. They are then 

 able to lap milk. Young foxes have been found stiff and cold, but 

 by warming them in hot cotton wool and providing them with a feline 

 wet-nurse, have finally grown to maturity. A nursing bottle and a 

 medicine dropper also might be kept on handc^to feed milk. 



The young are blind for fourteen to eighteen days and do not 

 Breeders ^e^^e the nest, but, when they are about four weeks old, 

 they venture out into the pen often in answer to the decoy 

 call of the keeper. They soon learn to lap milk and eat. When less 

 than three months old, the mother weans them and they may go to 

 quarters of their own. 



Foxes have only one litter a year, each litter consisting of from 

 one to nine pups. The earliest noted litter came on March 12; the 

 latest, on June 4. No instances are yet recorded of two litters in one 

 year, but it is believed that it may occur within a few years when the 

 animals are more domestic in habit. 



According to the best authorities, foxes in the wild state are 

 monogamous. In captivity, they are usually paired for life, and in 

 many instances re-mating is said to be impossible. In some cases, 

 however, foxes can be re-mated yearly. Some males will mate with 

 several females during the same winter. Two systems of double mating 

 are practised. Under one system, a male and two females of the same 

 litter are given the run of three pens. After mating they are all 

 separated into their respective pens. The other system also requires 

 the use of three pens, the male spending alternate days with each of the 

 two females. When mating is effected in these ways, success is not as 

 certain as with single mating. 



The fox continues prolific until about ten or eleven years of age. 

 If a pair fail to produce young after the eighth year, they are usually 

 slaughtered. In the majority of cases foxes mate before they are a 

 year old. Some breeders endeavour to mate a young female with a 

 male a year older. 



Hygiene ^'^ serious diseases were observed in foxes on Canadian 



and ranches. No sick fox was seen, except one that had 



produced no overhair and appeared to be in very poor 

 condition generally. It was probably the type known to hunters as 

 the Samson fox. Evidence furnished by R. E. Hamilton of Grand 



