Procedures for Individual Selection in Fox Breeding

1 Primary selection

After weaning, selection is mainly based on the production performance of their ancestors. Those whose parents have excellent production performance, were born early, and developed normally are retained for breeding. For primary selection, young silver-black foxes should be born before April 5 for males and before April 10 for females; young Arctic foxes selected in the primary selection should be born before May 20. During primary selection, 40% more should be retained than the breeding plan requires.

Selection of adult male foxes is carried out after mating, and selection of adult female foxes is carried out after the cubs are separated. Those breeding male foxes with poor mating ability and poor semen quality should be culled. Breeding female foxes should be selected from those that produce many cubs, have strong maternal instincts, have strong lactation capacity, nurse cubs that develop normally, and come into estrus relatively early; these are retained for breeding. Otherwise, they should be culled.

2 Re-selection

This should be carried out from August to September. At this time, those adult foxes with poor physical recovery should be placed in the culling group; well-developed young foxes are selected for breeding. During this period, attention should be paid to observing the autumn-winter molt. Individuals that molt early and molt quickly should be retained. Adult breeding foxes whose summer fur has not yet completely shed during this period cannot be retained for breeding the following year. The number retained should also be 20%-30% more than the planned number for breeding.

3 Final selection

This is carried out before skinning. Based on individual quality, ancestor records, and the quality of offspring, with emphasis on fur quality, strict selection is made, and all those that do not meet the requirements are culled.

Large breeding farms may adopt the group selection method, that is, selecting breeding foxes from certain excellent populations to supplement other populations with poorer quality, so as to achieve the goal of improving the quality of the entire population. Of course, an excellent population is one that has reached an excellent level through several generations of individuals. However, not every one of them should be retained; those poor individuals that are poorly developed or have defects must also be culled.