50 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



"As young foxes when born have but little fur to protect 



Care of ^j^ ^^^^ ^^^d, the chief object among breeders was to 

 Pup Foxes ' , ™ . . . i'l x- 



make the pens warm enough. The provisions for ventilation 



seemed adequate enough for the usual weather conditions that obtain 

 in Prince Edward Island during the time the young foxes remain in 

 their dens. Last April, however, during a period of exceptionally hot 

 weather a number of pups were smothered owing to insufficient ventil- 

 ation. Now, many ranchers have a two-inch pipe leading horizontally 

 from the inner den to the outer kennel. Although it is usually inad- 

 visable to enter the kennel and open the nest about the time of whelping, 

 yet, if the mother runs about the enclosure in an excited manner, 

 the nest should be examuied. During the examiaation the mother 

 fox should be shut out. When the young foxes die, the mother usually 

 eats them, and, as is the case with pigs, the mothers sometimes actually 

 destroy and eat their young. Foxmen assign various reasons for this 

 practice. It may be due to a craving for some ingredient lacking 

 in the food supplied during gestation. The mother often destroys them 

 if she is disturbed and apparently fears she and her young are attacked 

 by enemies, or that her hiding place is discovered. It may also be due 

 to an inverted maternal instinct and is then a vice. This vice is liable 

 to occur in all animals that devour their placenta. When the pups 

 come out of the nest about four weeks after birth and any one of them 

 looks unthrifty it should be caught and examined for vermin. If lice 

 are found, it should be washed with an infusion of quassia chips, made 

 by pouring two quarts of boiling water on a half pound of quassia chips 

 and letting the mixture stand for twelve hours. This infusion is non- 

 poisonous. If fleas are found, the pups should be washed in a creoline 

 bath — (one ounce to a gallon of water). The kennel and the den should 

 also be washed with a stronger creoline solution and the mother should 

 be washed with the infusion of quassia. Sometimes a pup is unthrifty 

 owing to his being abused by the others. He should then be placed in 

 a pen and fed by himself. 



Diseases of "Quite a few show rickets which is due largely to deficiency 

 Malnutrition, in bone and tissue forming food. In those ranches where 

 ' • proper care is taken, very few of them have this disease. 

 Where they are bred simply for quality of fur without due regard to 

 physique, where they are iu-bred, and especially when they are not 

 properly fed, they are apt to develop rickets. The disease is characterized 

 by deformities in the bony structures or by lack of growth. The legs 

 are the parts principally affected. The animal cannot stand straight 

 although otherwise it seems active and hardy enough. Ground bone, 

 lime-water or cod liver oil and hypophosphites of lime and soda ad- 



