Do any of you have a fox visiting your garden which you feed?  We have had one calling for almost a year since it was just a cub............what a joy!

P.S.  Please do not turn this thread into an anti fox/pro fox hunting debate, that is a separate issue.  :)

ohhh...i'd start one elsewhere but i'd be starting a war i think... that is very cool about your fox, must be nice watching it grow up etc we had a family of hedgehogs in our old garden and it was lovely watching them sometimes. lol, the dogs found them first and were so onfused! (hedgeogs were fine, just well sniffed!)

I don't intentionally feed a fox but one visits.  I sometimes give Meg one of those filled bones and she leaves it outside by the back door.  I was very surpised to see a fox walking down the path towards me about 10 in the morning when I was getting ready to take Meg out.  Meg started barking and the fox cooly chewed the bone a few feet away from me (door was closed) and then sauntered off before my husband could get the camera working.  It came back a few days later in the afternoon.   When my daughter was in London she had one walk in through the back door do a double take on seeing her in the living room and left again having previously walked into their downstairs bedroom, marked everywhere and took her leather belt.  

I used to feed the hedgehogs but Meg kept eating it so had to stop - poor things - they still come for a snuffle around the bird feeders.

Haven't the hedgehogs hibernated yet?  Maybe they can't until they are fat enough or something like that.....go on, give them a bit of dog food!!  :)

My fox comes when it is called, it is like having another dog.  Apparently, you shouldn't give them a large amount of food as they would lose the instinct to hunt which would be bad for them.........

I dont want to this to come across the wrong way (not trying to start an argument) but i would be very cautious when encouraging foxes into your garden. They are wild animals and it doesnt do them any favours at all entising them into sub urban areas. Also, neighbours may have chickens/rabbits and would not be best pleased when the fox decides to kill them. Foxes are renowned for killing and playing with animals, not actually killing for th actual need of hunger.

It's funny when I lived on a large housing complex, I always had a fox that would come sniffing around for food and they were very bold and would come within a few feet. I used to look out of my patio door and one would be just by the window, I thought it was amazing, though my cats would sometimes dive bomb them and chase them off. :-D But now I'm in the country they don't tend to come as close to my home, occassionally they have, but I don't tend to get to see them really close up anymore, just a few hundered feet away.

No matter what others say, I think they are beautiful creatures. :-) I would be really naughty like you and feed a cub, it would make my day to see it grown and still come to visit.

In reply to Fred's Mum.........we aren't in suburbia.  I live in the country backing onto acres and acres of woodland, seeing the wildlife is one of the reasons we like living here!  If the foxes were to kill neighbours chickens, they would do it whether we fed them or not, as you said, they kill from instinct not from hunger! :)  I know that you aren't trying to start an argument and thanks for your opinion! :)

Just got some chicken backs for the dogs from a local butcher and he said that loads of people buy them off him mainly for foxes. 

Not just me then......... :)

Although they're undoubtedly beautiful animals I'd be very concerned about the worms and sarcoptes mange mites it'd be leaving behind for my dogs to catch

I was wondering whether to worm the fox JG :)  The Mange issue can be resolved by contacting a fox welfare charity who will provide medication to put in the fox's food, I am keeping an eye on him for that.  :)

I doubt if they'd provide the medication to treat your dogs if they caught it from where the fox/es had rubbed against your garden furniture! ;)

To be honest you'd be better putting down any food well away from your house because foxes have quite a large territory, and not all people in your area will be as fox-tolerant as you. The less foxes fear humans the shorter their lives generally are.

I don't want it using my garden as a toilet either - Meg will roll in it besides the rest of the problems. 

Point taken, but the foxes are in my garden anyway so all the problems they bring will be there already!  :)  My dog could also catch Mange from the fields and I would have to deal with it then........

>My dog could also catch Mange from the fields and I would have to deal with it then........

True - but why increase the risk unnecessarily?

I love foxes too although I did have a rabbit killed by one a few years ago but that was my fault because I was naive enough to think that foxes didn't come into gardens and just stayed in the fields because we have loads near us.  My rabbit paniced if he was put in a cage so he lived in a fenced off pen with a dog kennel for a bed for 2 years before a fox spotted him and killed him. :-(

I still like them though although I didn't at the time.  We never usually see them in the daylight round here but a couple of months ago my daughter was getting ready for school and she saw one at the back of our fence on a small hill on some waste ground and it was making a right noise - don't know what was wrong with it because it could walk but still kept going back to the same spot.

>it was making a right noise - don't know what was wrong with it because it could walk but still kept going back to the same spot.

Probably in season and calling for a mate. They can be incredibly noisy!

You are lucky!

We had a fox kill one of our pet rabbits and we hoped we could put down food and have a regular visitor. Unfortunately our cat wouldn't let it in the garden :-)

>Unfortunately our cat wouldn't let it in the garden 

I live in the country and my cats live quite a feral life (although they are lovely cuddly cats - sometimes ;) ) I catch foxes in my torch beam when im walking the dogs early doors, I always worry that they will attack the cats ?

we had one that came to feed last week......on our gander! :(
He wont do it again though!!!! :)

In reply to ClaireyS, I don't think you need to worry about a fox getting the better of a cat!  :)

> I always worry that they will attack the cats ?

You'll get loads of people who'll tell you that foxes don't attack cats, but they do; many years ago our neighbour saw a fox chasing one of our cats right up to our house - the cat just managed to get in through the window (luckily no catflap) before the fox caught her. She was only about 6 feet ahead by the time she got indoors. Kittens and small queens are at greater risk than a big butch tom.

I tend not to let the cats out at night anyway, due to being at risk from lampers.  Delilah aka "the b#tch" is a tonkinese x and really evil, I dont doubt that she wouldnt try to stand up for herself even though she is quite small and skinny like a tonk.  Rupert on the other hand was supposed to be a big  butch ginger tom but although solid he isnt very big and is scared of his own shadow.

do you think a fox can get through a cat flap then ? one night a couple of years ago Rupert went out with the dogs for a wee last thing but didnt come back in, 30 mins later I was in bed when I heard Rupert come through the cat flap at 90 mph so I got up to open the door to the rest of the house for him and something was smashing at the cat flap trying to get in, the dogs went mad and I nearly had a heart attack, I live on my own on the edge of a village so do get a bit jumpy, whatever it was it was a gingery colour - I screamed at it and it went away, then I crept down and locked the cat flap.  Im wondering now if that was a fox trying to get little Rupes.

Our cats were shut in at night too - this happened at about 8.30am in the summer, so broad daylight. It's quite possible that you found a fox trying to work out how the catflap worked. The fox my neighbour saw was so close behind our cat, and going so fast he'd no doubt have just cannoned through a catflap, but a leap onto the windowsill then in through the top of the sash window was beyond him.

So I'd better not get a cat then  :)

My brother has been feeding a fox for the pas 2 years and sometimes her cubs, they live opposite a park and wastland but they used to sit accross the road from them and as soon as the door closed they came for te food.

They are so beautiful to see, if we all thought about all the killing they do and the possible diseases they could spread, no-one would ever have a cat or feed the birds (encouraging rats) etc.  My argument is that they are there anyway, so I may just as well get pleasure out of seeing them.  :)

We were always told by our then local 'farmer' that the fox had our old cat.  She had gone senile so I suppose it is quite likely.  He had found her headless body in his yard.  However he failed to tell me and had thrown the body down into the woods. He knew it was our cat. We have always suspected that he had given her a kick and killed her.  He wasn't the most gentle person with animals.  Our first dog was always gave him a wide berth and she was so friendly and gentle - he had caught her sometime when she had got out in the field as a pup. Who knows - poor old cat - it was a long time ago now.  I just felt so bad because I had been so busy I pushed her out one evening and that was the last I saw of her.   

I agree, I always feel so privilaged to see a fox.  When Fagan was a puppy we sat and watched some fox cubs playing early one morning in the field behind my house, I was just so amazed.  We often see deer early in the morning, the boys run alongside them (they dont know what to do when they catch up with them !!) there are a pair of kites living in the woods at the back of me and I often hear them calling to eachother, there is also a kestrel which hovers in line with my kitchen window when I do the washing up (its on the first floor !!)

Ive travelled in Africa and have see lions, hippos etc but to see a fox/deer/birds of prey on your doorstep (not literally you understand ;) ) beats it hands down.

Aw......ceejay, that is terrible!  People who do such things wont have any luck in life.  What goes around, comes around.

We too are thrilled to see our native wildlife.  No foxes in our yard but there was a den site nearby and to catch a view of two little kit heads peeking over the top of the bank was an incredible experience.  A year later we were heartbroken to find the vixen's body lying shot to death near the den.  It is illegal to shoot a furbearing animal (unless it is threatening the livestock from which a living is made and there were no chickens anywhere nearby) and it is illegal to kill it and not make use of it, here in Ontario, Canada.  If we knew who did it we could have reported them but then we might find traps set instead.

Oldilocks,

You are so right, foxes are the most beautiful creatures.

We have lived here in the country for about 12yrs now, we have a house in the middle of about 85acres.
We have naturally lots of foxes, all who seem to be in very healthy condition. We used ot have a glass front door and I remember one day my weirdo siamese cat was out and this fox came straight up to him obviously wondering what on earth he was (he is very freaky looking) the siamese wasnt phased but my eldest cat saw what was going on and ran over and spat at the fox and poor Mr fox fled! 

I have always had 4 or 5 cats and never had a problem with foxes going for them, I think its possibly different if you live in a town and they have to ravage for food but here food is plentiful and not sure if I do fully believe foxes kill for the sakef of it.

We used to have free range hens too, and never had a problem with foxes, it was the herons that came and picked them off, so no more hens now.
No way though would I ever agree with shooting foxes or anything else come to that matter (a human maybe) it is just nature that they kill etc....
And I dont believe foxes are such a big problem to farmers either, we have a neighbouring farmer who has sheep, never has problems even a lambing time.
Think some farmers are just gun touting bullies!

We also have a dog flap but no way will the foxes come in, they arent daft and can smell the dogs.

Also a local dog trainer feeds the foxes every night, he has hens and cats and hasnt lost any to foxes! He can get the foxes to eat of his hand now, so maybe they have an agreement with him, you feed us you keep your hens!! lol

Beautiful beautiful creatures, as are the badgers we have coming through doing the same path every night, we also have a couple of deer and did have a lovely baby boar, who we got quite tame and had a nice chap who owned a woodland which was a sanctuary for wild boar coming to get him but just days before he came, word got out in the village and some bloodthirsty thug came up and shot him!!
Some people are evil

Enjoy your fox

What great wildlife you enjoy.  I have never heard of herons taking hens before!  > it was the herons that came and picked them off, so no more hens now>    Herons usually swallow fish whole. 

I'm wondering how a heron would manage to swallow a hen too! When we kept chickens the local heron would take the goldfish from the pond, but leave the chickens well alone - far too big for him!

One lunchtime I watched a fox in the field behind our house take two of my neighbour's chickens, despite me shouting at him. He looked at me and carried on, sublimely unbothered. Another friend loses several lambs each year to foxes - we find the skins and legs left in the hedge-bottoms where the fox has had his meal. And this is in the country too.

In reply to Meadowhay, thanks for sharing your experiences of wildlife sightings with us.  We were once told that if you live in the country, you will experience beautiful sights and some not so beautiful sights. One of the not so nice things was witnessing a heron flying off with one of our pond goldfish in its mouth.  Initially, I was feeling really evil towards it but after a while, I thought "Well, I suppose even the heron has to eat".  We net the pond now! :)

A heron will empty a garden pond and once they have found one they keep coming back.   The frogs are coming back to the pond now - it's getting busier each day I walk past.  Trouble is all those little tadpoles get eaten by the fish.  I love encouraging the wildlife but feel a bit guilty about fattening up my fish this way!   One day we will make a purely wildlife pond to make up for it.  

well still ROFL after that poster mentioned the heron/chicken thing.......and as for feeding foxes by hand....well sorry but they will most likely get bitten at some point and having seen what fox bites can do....do not recommend it. :(

It is not recommended that foxes be trained to feed from the hand, one of the reasons is that as they could be endangered by 'unscrupulous' people!  They are wild animals and it is a mistake to try to tame them, also it is recommended that only a 'little' food is given or it could prevent them from seeking food by hunting!

What a co-incidence.  Just after this post started my friend emailed photos her daughter took of a fox who visits their yard regularly.  He/she is beautiful in the thick, fluffy winter coat.  Just gorgeous.  They don't feed it but they have a bird feeder which attracts all sorts of fox delicasies.  And it visits their compost pile.

"They don't feed it but they have a bird feeder which attracts all sorts of fox delicacies".................birds??  :)  Sorry, Jetstone Jewel, I couldn't resist that! :)

I love all wildlife but believe it should stay just that - wild.
As for the heron thing...i got the shock of my life one day when i looked out my kitchen window to the pond. There was a heron stood in the water, up to his thigh(or watever it is called in a heron) and was dead still waiting to catch the fish. Anyone glancing over would have thought he was a statue. We had to put netting voer the top of the pond for a good while after that.

In a way I'm rather hoping our local heron will finish what he started and clear our ponds, because I want to fill them in but don't know what to do with the fish! I thought he had, but some have reappeared, and I saw some youngsters in there as well, so it looks as if I'm doomed for a bit longer.

Could you not "donate" the fish to someone in the area with a pond. We've had many a "bucket of fish" turn up to be rehomed in our pond!!!
Maybe you need to get rid of the water as soon as there are no fish as it could be the eggs hatching, thus starting the cycle all over again.

JG, in Wilkinson's, you can buy the plastic tanks with lids quite cheaply, they are ideal for transferring the fish whilst you clean out the pond.  Our pond has got a leak in the top 6"which has to be repaired this Spring so we will use the plastic tanks to put the fish in whilst the cement dries.  Sorry, just noticed that you want to fill your ponds in.  :)

we have foxes coming into our garden I leave out food for them too..

We live in suberbia !! early morning walks and you often bump into them wandering around the roads.

I made enquires about them when I first noticed them in m garden a good few years ago as I was concerned about my own pets ,  we were told that they have a sweet tooth they love raisins and honey butties they told me if I want to get some good pics sprinkle raisins around the grass!

R~

Birds, Mourning Doves are particularly slow, squirrels, mice and rabbits all come to her feeder and become potential fox breakfast.  It's probably not brazen enough to take on the racoons let alone the deer.  She hasn't had any wild turkeys yet but might as we've just had another good snowfall and it's cold and the turkeys are visiting other people's feeders.  I think it would have to be an old, weak turkey before a fox would take it on.  My friend is lucky to live on a large ravine lot with a creek at the bottom.  It's a natural wildlife corridor.

what a fabulous place to live , I am so envious!!!!

I live in Liverpool UK .....boring in comparison :)

We used to have free range hens too, and never had a problem with foxes, it was the herons that came and picked them off, so no more hens now.
Im sorry I had to read that 4 times!  You really DID say a heron picked off the Chickens! :) :) :) :)
Dawn.