Mammals The Porcupine 
spends much of its time in trees, sometimes climbing 
about in one tree several days, eating the buds and 
bark. Its food is succulent bark, foliage, twigs, buds 
of trees, and some nuts, such as beech-nuts. It is es- 
pecially fond of salt, as campers in the forests have 
learned to their sorrow. It attacks the camp stores 
in order to get at the bacon, and it particularly en- 
joys gnawing the wood of an old salt barrel. It is 
also fond of sugar, and often damages the utensils 
used in maple sugar making. Its teeth are long, 
sharp and yellow, and especially fitted for gnawing. 
In fact, this little animal must have something hard 
to gnaw, in order to keep its teeth worn down; 
otherwise, they would become so long as to prevent 
the mouth from shutting, and inflict starvation. 
HOUSE 
It should be remembered that the porcupine. is 
active nights and sleeps during the day. It also 
hibernates in the winter. The young are born about 
the first of May; there are usually two, rarely 
three, in a litter. The young porcupine is a huge 
baby, it is larger than a newly-born bear-cub; its 
eyes are open, and its body is covered with soft, furry, 
dark-brown hair. Out through this dense fur grow 
long hairs tipped with yellowish white, these harden 
and become quills. The mother is very careful of 
her young until their quills are grown, then she weans 
them. 
A porcupine as a pet should not be kept indoors, 
for it is a smelly animal, and often infested with 
fleas. It should be kept in a hutch, bedded with 
sawdust, which will need to be renewed frequently. 
There should be a retiring box in one corner of the 
hutch, bedded with dry leaves. 
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