Strengthening the monitoring of foxes during puppy production can improve the survival rate of foxes

The traditional way to manage the breeding period of foxes is to keep as quiet as possible, and it is strictly forbidden for breeders to disturb female foxes who are giving birth. However, the Jinsha Special Animal Farm in Luozhuang District, Linyi City, Shandong Province has taken a completely opposite approach, allowing breeders to take the initiative to monitor and give birth to female foxes, thus greatly improving the survival rate of foxes. They found that some female foxes, especially high-yielding foxes, often had difficulty in postpartum treatment of their young foxes due to lack of experience or decline in physical strength in the later stage of production, which could easily lead to the death of young foxes. At this time, man-made auxiliary processing is especially needed to ensure the survival of the young fox. The specific measures are as follows:

When the female foxes enter the late stage of expected delivery (47-52 days after conception), breeders will conduct regular inspections of the female foxes. During the inspection, the breeder can gently open the top cover of the litter box to check the movement of the female fox. Once it is found that the female fox in the nest begins to give birth, it is necessary to wait by the litter box to watch. If the first birth of the female fox is difficult to give birth, the mother fox should be injected with an induction needle immediately. In general, after the first baby fox is born, the back baby fox will be able to give birth smoothly. To monitor the birth of a female fox, you should pay special attention to the situation after giving birth to the fifth or sixth baby fox. if the mother fox does not care about the baby fox after birth, it should be handled manually, take out the newborn fox, tear off the fetal membrane, tear off the umbilical cord, disinfect, dry the baby fox with an infrared light, and put it back in the nest. Generally speaking, high-yield female foxes are prone to problems after giving birth to the 10th young fox. because the female foxes' physical strength is declining at this time, they are no longer able to lick and dry the foxes, so it is more necessary to carry out artificial auxiliary treatment to ensure the survival of the young foxes.

By using guardianship to give birth, the young foxes survived only a few, and the pups of some high-yielding female foxes can be raised by low-yielding female foxes. The method of substitute breeding is to take out a few young foxes with high yield and mix them with the young foxes of low-yield female foxes, and it will breast-feed naturally.

In the foxes that give birth under guardianship, there may be a very few female foxes that eat cubs, and such females should be eliminated. Of course, the work of monitoring the pups is best done by the keepers who carry out the day-to-day management of the fox, which can reduce the fear of strangers to the foxes.