What measures are there to keep fox cubs alive after the mother fox gives birth?

Fox cubs before weaning are called cubs.

Before birth, the cub lives in the mother's uterus under fairly stable conditions and is not easily affected by harmful external factors. After birth, the living conditions change dramatically: from gas exchange, nutrient intake and waste removal through the placenta, it must now breathe, feed and excrete on its own. Because the cub's regulatory functions are not yet fully developed, sudden changes in environmental conditions can easily cause illness and even death. To improve the survival rate of fox cubs, the following measures are proposed for reference.

1 Prenatal preparation

5-10 days before birth, prepare and disinfect the whelping box and bedding straw (direct strong sunlight for several hours), and lay the bedding straw at the bottom of the whelping box in a "pot-bottom shape" that is high around the edges and concave in the middle, so that the cubs can huddle together after birth and are prevented from crawling around and dying of cold or starvation because they cannot reach the milk.

2 The mother fox giving birth

For mother foxes that have reached their due date, keep observing constantly. Mother foxes show signs before giving birth, generally pulling out fur, stopping eating and behaving abnormally; when these signs appear, it means the mother fox is about to give birth. After the fetus is born, most mother foxes can quickly strip off and eat the fetal membranes, bite off the umbilical cord and lick the mucus off the fetus. The length of labor varies with the number of cubs and the mother fox's physical condition, generally 2-3 hours. Under normal conditions, most mother foxes care for their cubs carefully and require no human management.

3 Postnatal examination

Postnatal examination is one of the important measures for keeping cubs alive after birth. It is generally carried out 6-12 hours after birth, when the weather is mild. The purpose of the examination is mainly to see whether the mother fox has strong maternal instincts, the number of cubs, the lactation status (observe whether the cubs have taken colostrum; cubs that have taken colostrum have black mouths, increased abdominal girth and lie quietly in a huddle), the health status of the cubs (observe whether the umbilical cord is tangled around the body or not bitten off, whether the fetal membranes have not been stripped off, and whether there are stillborn cubs, etc.) and the warmth conditions. If the cubs are found to be constantly squealing, have unsatisfied bellies and are scattered in different places, it means they have not taken milk and must be dealt with promptly.

4 The role of colostrum

The milk produced by the mother fox in the first 2-3 days is called colostrum. Colostrum has a very important physiological role in the survival and growth of fox cubs, because colostrum is very rich in immunoglobulins and albumins, and rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients; it is an indispensable and irreplaceable food for the growth and development of fox cubs. In production, every possible means must be used to let every cub take colostrum; when necessary, artificial forced nursing measures can be adopted.

5 Foster care or artificial feeding

Giving cubs born to mother fox A to mother fox B to raise is called foster care.

5.1 Foster care Foster care is generally needed when the number of cubs born to a mother fox exceeds 10-12, the mother fox has no milk or insufficient milk after birth, the mother fox has weak maternal instincts, the cubs in the same litter differ greatly in body size, the mother fox is frightened, or the mother fox is ill and unable to care for the cubs, etc.; the cubs then need to be given to another mother fox for foster care to ensure their survival and sturdiness.

When fostering fox cubs, note that the foster mother fox should be docile in temperament, have abundant milk and strong maternal instincts; mother foxes A and B should have close birth dates, preferably no more than 2-3 days apart; every means should be used to let the cubs take colostrum; the body size of the fostered cubs should be roughly similar to that of the original litter.

To prevent the mother fox from rejecting the fostered cubs, first find a way to lure the mother fox out of the whelping box, rub the cubs a few times with bedding straw from the foster mother fox's box or rub the foster mother fox's feces and urine on the cubs, and then place them in the foster fox's box nest; cubs reserved for breeding should be marked to avoid confusion of bloodlines. After fostering, the keeper should not walk away but observe from a distance; if the mother fox is found to abandon the cubs, another foster mother fox should be found. If no foster mother fox can be found, cats, dogs, raccoon dogs, etc. that are currently nursing can also be used for fostering.

5.2 Artificial feeding Cubs for which no suitable foster mother fox has been found must be artificially fed. Artificial feeding is relatively difficult and the survival rate is very low. Generally, an eyedrop bottle is used as the milk bottle and a pen bladder as the nipple, and boiled cow's milk or goat's milk is fed after the temperature is controlled at 38-42°C; remember never to add sugar. Feed 5-6 times a day. The key to success in artificial feeding lies in whether the cubs can take fox colostrum; if they cannot take fox colostrum, they should also be fed Ruzhen (bovine colostrum premium) produced by Heilongjiang Wandashan Harbin Dairy Co., Ltd., which is of great help to keeping them alive.

6 Keeping warm and preventing heatstroke

At birth, although the functions of the systems that control adaptation to the external environment, such as the hypothalamus, anterior pituitary and adrenal cortex, are already fairly complete, the cerebral cortex is not fully developed, and the response capacity of the pituitary and hypothalamus as well as the functions of the conductive structures necessary for the hypothalamus are relatively low. Therefore, the stress capacity for regulating body temperature to adapt to the environment is poor; especially in the first few days after birth, body temperature regulation mainly relies on physical effects such as fur, muscle shivering, piloerection and huddling together for warmth; but fox cubs have sparse fur and very little subcutaneous fat, so their ability to keep warm and insulate is very poor. Therefore, keeping newborn fox cubs warm and preventing heatstroke are special nursing requirements for raising fox cubs well, and are also one of the important measures for ensuring the survival and sturdiness of fox cubs.

When keeping warm, ensure sufficient bedding straw, always keep the nest shape in a "pot-bottom shape" and make sure the whelping box has no gaps. When the temperature is high, provide shade and prop up the upper cover of the whelping box to lower the temperature; remember that sufficient, clean drinking water must be supplied.

7 Timely supplementary feeding

At 20-30 days after birth, the mother fox's milk production gradually declines; while as the growth rate of the cubs rises rapidly (see Table 1), the amount of milk needed increases, creating a contradiction between supply and demand. If supplementary feed is not provided in time at this point to make up for the insufficiency of breast milk, it is very easy for the cubs to become thin and weak or to fall ill and die.

Therefore, after the cubs reach 2 weeks of age, they should begin to be trained to eat. The supplementary feed should be fine, nutritionally rich, palatable and easy to digest. Generally, animal feed accounts for 30%-40%, eggs and milk 25%-30%, cereal feed 25%-30%, and vegetables 5%-10%, with vitamins, minerals, etc. added, to ensure the needs of normal growth and development of the cubs. Supplementary feeding should be small and frequent, flexibly controlled, with 30-50 g per cub per day at first, gradually increasing afterward, to ensure healthy growth of the cubs. See Table 2 for the amount of supplementary feed.

Table 1 Growth rate of nursing fox cubs

Week age Newborn 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Body weight (g) 94.5 220.2 367.3 581.5 845.5 1100.5 1352.2 1592.2 1820.0

Absolute growth (2/day) 17.96 21.01 30.6 37.71 36.43 35.96 34.57 32.26

Table 2 Supplementary feed amount for nursing fox cubs g/day

Day age 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 After 40

Supplementary feeding amount 0 0-30 45-60 75-100 100-150

8 Scientific weaning

The weaning time of fox cubs should be determined according to the cubs' physique and the mother fox's nursing situation. Weaning is generally carried out after 8 weeks of age (55-60 days). There are several weaning methods as follows:

8.1 One-time weaning (decisive weaning) When the cubs reach the weaning date, forcibly separate the cubs from the mother fox. The advantages of this method are that it is simple, the weaning time is short, and it saves labor; the disadvantage is that because weaning is sudden, it makes both adult and young foxes nervous and prone to stress reactions; especially for the cubs, because the living environment and so on have changed, it easily causes indigestion and other problems in the cubs.

8.2 Batch weaning (weaning with strengthened milk supplementation) When the cubs reach the weaning date, wean the cubs in batches, first and later, according to their development status. The better-developed cubs are weaned first, and the weak and small ones later. The advantage of this method is that it takes into account cubs with different development conditions and appropriately extends the milk supplementation period for weak and small cubs to promote their growth and development; the disadvantage is that the weaning time is prolonged, which brings trouble to production management and also affects the recovery of the mother fox's strength.

8.3 Gradual weaning (safe weaning) A few days before the cubs reach the weaning date, gradually reduce contact and the number of nursing times between the mother fox and the cubs. The specific practice is to take the mother fox out every day and place it in another cage, repeating this several times; as the time spent in the separate cage gradually lengthens, the cubs go from nursing a little each day to not nursing at all, to reduce the stress caused by weaning; at the same time, it is also good for the mother fox's milk regression after weaning. It is a relatively safe method. However, this method is rather troublesome and laborious.