Peculiarities of breeding work with red foxes obtained as a result of dominant color mutations

Abstract

The proportion of the silver-black breed population in the fox gene pool by 2019 was 89.3%, the Vyatka ognevka accounted for 9.9%, so only 0.8% remained for the entire colored population. However, it is no secret that the market does not tolerate uniformity. One of the most effective ways to increase sales of any product, including fur products, is to expand the assortment. The fox industry has something to offer the consumer: in the niche of fur farming by the variety of colorful forms with it can be compared only with mink. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the history of "color" fox breeding dates back to the 30s of the last century, at present there is a lack of systematized information in Russian on various aspects of breeding mutant color forms of the fox. This work is devoted to determining the optimal breeding methods for obtaining the maximum number of young foxes of original coloration obtained as a result of dominant mutations. Research objective is to reveal and generalize the peculiarities of breeding work with foxes of snow, white-marbled, platinum and marbled colors. To this end, the following tasks have been set: to analyze the reproduction rates of female and male foxes of the above colors; to compare the results of reproduction depending on age; to identify the most productive type of crossbreeding for the breeding of the foxes presented. The article presents the results of various interbreeding of silver-black, snow, marbled and red foxes. Analysis of mating of animals of different ages has been carried out. The optimal combinations of parental pairs are revealed.