Strengthening Monitoring During the Whelping Period in Fox Breeding Can Increase the Survival Rate of Fox Cubs

The traditional management approach during the fox breeding and whelping period is to keep things as quiet as possible, strictly forbidding keepers from disturbing mother foxes that are giving birth. However, the Jinshatan Special Animal Breeding Farm in Luozhuang District, Linyi City, Shandong Province, adopted a completely opposite approach, having keepers actively monitor the mother foxes during whelping, thereby greatly increasing the survival rate of the fox cubs born. They found that some mother foxes, especially high-yielding ones, often have difficulty handling their newborn cubs after birth due to lack of experience or declining strength in the later stages of labor, which easily leads to the death of the cubs. At such times, human assistance is particularly needed to ensure the cubs' survival. The specific method is:

When the mother fox enters the late pre-whelping stage (47-52 days after conception), the keeper should patrol the mother fox frequently. During patrols, the keeper may gently open the upper lid of the whelping box to check on the mother fox's activity. Once it is found that the mother fox in the den has begun to give birth, the keeper should stay by the whelping box to observe. If it is a first-time mother fox experiencing dystocia with her first litter, an oxytocin injection should be given to the mother fox immediately; generally, after the first cub is born, the subsequent cubs can be delivered smoothly. When monitoring a mother fox during whelping, special attention should be paid to the situation after the 5th-6th cub is born. If the mother fox ignores the cubs after birth, manual assistance is needed: take out the newly born cub, tear off the fetal membrane, break the umbilical cord, disinfect, dry the cub with an infrared lamp, and then place it back in the den. Generally, high-yielding mother foxes are prone to problems after giving birth to the 10th cub, because the mother fox's strength declines at this point and she no longer has the energy to lick the cubs dry and perform other handling, so manual assistance is even more necessary to ensure the cubs' survival.

With monitored whelping, the number of surviving cubs is greater, and some cubs born to high-yielding mother foxes can be foster-nursed by low-yielding mother foxes. The fostering method is: take out a few cubs born to a high-yielding fox and mix them into the litter of a low-yielding mother fox, and she will naturally nurse them.

In fox groups where monitored whelping is practiced, there may be a very few mother foxes that exhibit cub-eating behavior; such mother foxes should be culled. Of course, the work of monitoring whelping is best carried out by the keeper who routinely manages that fox group, as this can reduce the fright to the whelping foxes caused by strangers.