[Closed] Feeding an urban fox.... any tips?

dont give it spaghetti. My parents once found a hedgehog trying to consume an entire plate of spaghetti in one go with most of it still hanging out its mouth.

If it looks in good shape, don't feed it! I bet its got several sources of food if it will get that close to you.

My former landlords fer their local foxes with lard.

don't you remember the kids that got attacked by an urban fox not so long ago? that fox may have had some misguided fool feeding it and then they went on holiday leaving it hungry and having to forage in new places for food.
they are incredible at finding food without us helping them and anyway what ever happened to natural selection. if a wild animal is rubbish at finding food or is ill etc than it dies keeping the breed strong.

Spooky, its obviously doing ok, tbh I just want to see a bit more of it through my windows, I don't want it in my house as a pet , thats not the motive here...

kill it asap as it is satan in an orange coat - that seems to be the general STW mass opinion

PL... good point, may make an interesting alternative xmas lunch... thanks for the feedback Nick.. will continue with the old catfood tins outside....

if you are feeding an urban fox then you will need to see the following public information film [url=

the boosh...[/url]

Fried chicken, innit blud?

The former owners of our place obviously used to feed foxes. It's always interesting trying to open the front door and finding a suddenly unhappy cornered fox who now really wants to get past you.
Foxes are vermin, don't feed them.

Wild animal and it's doing fine leave it alone,

Ditto mikewsmith - if it's doing fine leave him be.

I like foxes - they keep the rats down a bit. Stoats are even better.

Feeding it? Leave the lid off your rubbish bin. 😉

Shoot it square between the eyes with a 20 bore (creates less mess than a 12 bore in my experience). The only good fox is a dead fox IMHO.

If it's doing OK, leave it be. Don't feed it, it'll only start to see you and your surrounds as its territory and a source of food.

ps where do you live? I'm packing heat and I'm on the way.....

do you not wash the tins before you put them out for teh recycling? shame on you!!

If your recycling is such an unclean midden, you probably deserve vermin at the door.

Don't feed it. Feed the birds if you are going to feed anything.

Don't.

Feeding a Fox will only encourage it to make even more regular contact with Humans, leading eventually to someone being bitten.
They're wild, leave them as such and buy a dog if you want to feed something.

If you only give it very small quantities as 'treats' on the odd occasion its hardly going to effect its whole food chain. Watch from the house as you don't want the fox to get too friendly with humans as humans are a risk to it.

Try dog biscuits as you can dole them out in small amounts and they keep fairly well. If you get smallish size ones you will get hedgehogs and things eating them too. Also it will take the fox longer to eat a small amount. Peanuts are popular. One used to come to our garden every night for some while, just to pick up the peanuts fallen from the bird table. If he was well off for food he would pick up the peanuts a few at a time and carefully bury them for later use.

I agree with Nik Nak, but for different reasons, Humans are dangerous for foxes to be around, saw some chavs set their dogs on an injured fox, neighbour of mine thought it was funny to leave food out in a sweet jar, because a fox would get its head stuck in it.

20 bore seconded

Rifle is far cleaner 😉

"Feed the birds if you are going to feed anything."

Doing this but the pigeons seem to clear up and they're not the healthiest of animals... will stick to empty cat food tins and the odd dog biscuit....

Rifle is far cleaner.......not if its a 308!

Golden Pheasant?

Feeding a Fox will only encourage it to make even more regular contact with Humans, leading eventually to someone being bitten.

😀

.

you don't want the fox to get too friendly with humans as humans are a risk to it

I once built a very close relationship with a male fox. At first I tried to keep him at arms length, fearing that if he became too friendly it would put him at risk from not very nice people. However despite little encouragement from me, he slowly became completely relaxed in my presence to the point where he would sit down right next to me, even with his back to me. Sometimes I would be in the garden and turn round to see him next to me. He wouldn't even bother making eye contact and was so relaxed that he would yawn, groom, etc, right next to me. He would also come if I whistled.

Yet despite all that I had nothing to fear, because just like a domestic dog he could tell the difference between me and strangers which he did not trust. Every evening he would have his dinner on my front door step and I would normally sit down next to him. Sometimes he would suddenly stop eating and trot off to hide under a bush, this was because he had heard someone coming along the road, as soon as they had gone past he would come out and carry on eating. He just didn't trust other people even though he trusted me. And he trusted me enough btw, to bring his entire litter of cubs to see me when he had some.

Our clan of foxes eat almost anything, but they dont like pasta or green veg.

They love bread and jam, and chicken bones and all manner of other scraps disappear in minutes at the moment. Far more effective recycling than the nonsense food scraps bin that councils seem to be issuing now.

The big problem is mange. If you look up these people: http://www.nfws.org.uk/ they will send you some free treatment which you can add to whatever you leave out for the foxes to eat.

ernie, thats fantastic.

My mum used to have a big garden and would leave all sorts of leftovers out for the foxes. Chicken carcasses were their favourite. No-one ever got bitten and they didn't send her a goodbye card when she moved house.

For some reason we don't get foxes in our garden...
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I once built a very close relationship with a male fox. At first I tried to keep him at arms length, fearing that if he became too friendly it would put him at risk from not very nice people. However despite little encouragement from me, he slowly became completely relaxed in my presence to the point where he would sit down right next to me, even with his back to me. Sometimes I would be in the garden and turn round to see him next to me. He wouldn't even bother making eye contact and was so relaxed that he would yawn, groom, etc, right next to me. He would also come if I whistled.

Yet despite all that I had nothing to fear, because just like a domestic dog he could tell the difference between me and strangers which he did not trust. Every evening he would have his dinner on my front door step and I would normally sit down next to him. Sometimes he would suddenly stop eating and trot off to hide under a bush, this was because he had heard someone coming along the road, as soon as they had gone past he would come out and carry on eating. He just didn't trust other people even though he trusted me. And he trusted me enough btw, to bring his entire litter of cubs to see me when he had some.

I think you've been reading Clan of the Cave bear.,.

I haven't even heard of Clan of the Cave bear toys19. If you doubt my post, then I reckon it says more about how little you know about foxes, rather than what books I have read.

Yeah! You big fox ignoramus you!

You would be amazed just how many fox ignoramuses there are DezB.

I thought this was an absolute classic : [i]"Feeding a Fox will only encourage it to make even more regular contact with Humans, leading eventually to someone being bitten"[/i].

I loved the "leading eventually to someone being bitten" 😀

I haven't even heard of Clan of the Cave bear toys19. If you doubt my post, then I reckon it says more about how little you know about foxes, rather than what books I have read.

Oooohhh handbag! If you don't understand my post I reckon it say's more about how little you know about crap "literature" than what you know about foxes.

Yeah I understood your post, I googled Clan of the Cave bear, and you're right, I know a lot less about crap "literature" than I do about foxes. Although I am very far from being an "expert" on foxes btw - I've met people with considerable more knowledge of the subject than me. Tell me where "handbags" comes into this btw ?

Because I gave you a gentle poke in the ribs, and you responded with a classic (metaphorical) grandma handbag swing to the chops.

I don't actually doubt your story but it made me laugh as it reminded me of Ayla and Jondalar in Clan of the Cave Bear who tamed lions tigers wolves, eagles and the like as well as discovered fire, invented the wheel etc. My joke was meant to be double edged - is this a fantasy like COTCB or did you actually take the experience from COTCB and use this to perfect your animal training technique. Either way it was mild ribbing at best.

I say get over yourself, I was feeling benevolent towards you when I read your Fox tale (sic), I thought it was quite sweet and rather good, but given your reaction, now I just think you are a four letter word.

Oh, so now you're an ernie_lynch expert eh?

Oh, so now you're an ernie_lynch expert eh?

I have read a bit about him recently..

ok kids, start behaving or santa wont visit...... 😆

you repsonded with classic a classic (metaphorical) grandma handbag swing to the chops.

That's the way [i]you[/i] chose to perceive it. There was no handbag swinging. Simply the suggestion that if you doubted my story then it betrayed a lack of knowledge about foxes. I didn't say that you doubted my story, but it was a reasonable assumption to make as you apparently compared it to a fantasy novel.

My "gentle poke in [i]your[/i] ribs" has resulted in you responding with "I just think you are a four letter word" ..... does that constitute a "handbagging". I ask, as I take it that you are an expert on handbagging, although obviously not one on foxes.

DezB - Member

Oh, so now you're an ernie_lynch expert eh?

You came to that conclusion because you read this bit [i]"I am very far from being an "expert" on foxes"[/i] ?

.........right, time to get on with something useful I reckon.

We had foxes in our garden but they seemed to decide it was their garden and took to shitting and peeing on our doorstep to mark their territory. In the end we got some fox repellent to keep them out as cleaning up fox crap every single morning isn't that much fun.

My "gentle poke in your ribs" has resulted in you responding with "I just think you are a four letter word" ..... does that constitute a "handbagging". I ask, as I take it that you are an expert on handbagging, although obviously not one on foxes.

Indeed. Although my knowledge of foxes has yet to be revealed..

A fox in the garden, eh?
Well I'm consideringa new sporran for my kilt and on the subject of foxes and handbags..
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I've got to say, that would look all wrong when actually worn.

although the colour's wrong for the tartan, it would keep your balls warm in this weather

..

My grandad had a huge garden by the coast in Edinburgh and it was inhabited by several foxes of varying ages and cstates of health.

My dad took to feeding them - he would just chuck all the leftovers out of the back door and it was usually all gone within an hour. It was great having the foxes in the garden - they'd happily frolic around within a few metres of us.

But..... They stunk the place up something awful - they'd shit on anything but had a preference for small spherical things (balls, gear-boxes, cardboard boxes etc). Fox poo really, badly stinks of dead things.

To get back to the point, don't feed them. They are wild and you shouldn't interfere with nature, unless it's by the use of firearms and for your own amusement.

So, once again I repeat my offer to come and blow the wee ginger bleeder to kingdom come. It'll save you getting bitten and allow me to make a lovely new hat.
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Feed it dog food, they like that. I like Foxes, I also love the irony of a human calling a fox vermin...

Just feed mine with a little Fox fluid and some 7.5 w Fox oil once a season and it's doing just fine

There are two schools of thought how to deal with this pest.

1) Shoot it. The downside being that if you don't kill it dead it could get away and die a slow painful death, also the bullet could go astray and strike something unintended, like a bicycle.

2) Set a pack of dogs upon it. The upside being death is pretty much guaranteed and happens relatively quickly. The downside, the reds will be on your back.