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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think a fox cub is cute and so adoreable and maybe put out titbits

106 replies

Yukduck · 23/04/2016 20:39

For three sundowns running we have had a fox cub come into our back garden and have a drink from our pond.
The first night we thought he was a hedgehog ambling around the garden and setting off the personal light at the back as he is about the same size. It was twilight and we got quite close (about 20ft away) before we could see it was a fox cub.
Mum fox is about but stays up the bank and not in our garden watching her cub. He seems a sturdy little fellow.
I know they are vermin. But he really is the cutest little thing with bright eyes and a bit chubby and fluffy and very alert and inquisitive.
Would it be so very wrong to leave out some chicken or cat food?

OP posts:
MissPunnyMany · 23/04/2016 21:01

I'm a giant softie when it comes to animals, so provided you don't have any pets or small kids, then maybe. I doubt it would visit in the day and endanger kids but I'm no expert and there have been stories. I have pets / toddlers so wouldn't as we used to have an unwelcome fox visit that (a) tried to kill our elderly cat and got obsessed with her and (b) got territorial and would poo on the dogs toys in the garden..we're talking a giant garden with one toy left out, which it shat on! I feed the birds, little wild mice, and hedgehogs if they visit. Probably wouldn't encourage it on balance, but I do have kids and dogs to consider, you may not.

Joinourclub · 23/04/2016 21:04

I wouldn't call foxes vermin. I'd call them wildlife. Funny how so many people love to watch a bit of David Attenborough but feel our own wildlife should be got rid of. Saying that I don't know if I would feed it, but I do try and make my garden as wildlife friendly as possible - plants that attract bees, wood piles etc. I found a huge toad last year when I dug up a big shrub, I would love to have a hedgehog visit! Their numbers have declined massively, I've not seen one for more than ten years and I feel like I was always rescuing them from the road when I was a child! Have a read of this OP www.hedgehogstreet.org

Original poster
Yukduck · 23/04/2016 21:06

Lighthouse: I wish I was good with photos. Dh got a blurry one of the cub disappearing under our boundary chain link fence and up the bank at the back. We have a wooded area to the back of us and I think this is where the fox hole is.

We have had foxes on the bank at the bottom of our garden for years who have never troubled us, but this is the first time I have ever seen a cub. And so bold too. The adults are very shy and we only ever catch a glimpse of them as they pass through the trees on the bank.

Yes, I think there is an elderly lady in the next road who feeds them. Our neighbours told us when we mentioned seeing a fox.

OP posts:
Wolfiefan · 23/04/2016 21:08

Don't worry swinging! That's the case I was probably thinking of. It's not likely but is possible. I wouldn't want to encourage them near the house.

pepperrabbit · 23/04/2016 21:08

There was a neighbour of ours feeding a really "cute cub". It got so confident it came into our house once, between me and baby DD. Awful experience trying to get it out without cornering it and it panicking/attacking. Spent the next few weeks having to barricade the doors in the summer until it annoyed someone so much, I assume, that it disappeared.
It was a pest.

Absinthe9 · 23/04/2016 21:22

I wouldn't call foxes vermin personally. They do a very useful job scavenging and they are excellent ratters and are the main predator of rats. I'd rather have foxes any day!

We have foxes who regularly visit our garden and I enjoy watching them. I probably wouldn't feed them though unless I thought it was essential i.e. they were starving. Most foxes manage very well for food and you shouldn't disturb their natural feeding patterns. I have fed them about 10 years ago when it was a very dry year and mother and two cubs came into the garden and were skin and bone. They never approach us normally (and have not done so since) but the vixen came right up to me and just stared at me. Definitely an appeal for help.

We have dogs so I fed them and put out water. They were ravenous, but waited for me to go back in the house before they ate. They came every day for about a month and then normal food supplies must have resumed because they didn't come back for ages and when I next saw them the cubs were almost grown and all three were back to a normal weight.

I haven't found them a problem and even the cats can chase them out of the garden - not that it puts them off for long.

Original poster
Yukduck · 23/04/2016 21:23

Sparkling and CamembertQueen I will remember about putting out medicine in food if I see our foxes with scabies or mites. I would not have thought of that. Our adult foxes look really healthy, but skinny.
joinourclub Thanks for the link. What an amazing website. I would be absolutely made up if we had a hedgehog visit our garden and we have gaps in fences (where the fox cub got in!) and a safe pond that the hedgehogs can't drown in as there are exit ramps. We also feed the birds so plenty of seeds. I NEVER use slug pellets.
Yes! I could scoop him up and cuddle him but have promised dh we must concentrate on attracting in the birds and one day a hedgehog will come. We have a log pile and a hedgehog box all ready for our hedgehog if we ever get one.
Do foxes and hedgehogs get on or do foxes eat hedgehogs?

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 23/04/2016 21:25

Sometimes the hedgehogs had been eating the food when the fox arrived and the fox waited their turn. Don't want a spiky nose. Grin

We had a pair of hedgehogs but I haven't seen them in ages, or the badger that sometimes visits. Sad

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 23/04/2016 21:31

My dad does this and the fox peed on his patio. This was 3 years ago and the smell is still so strong the second the sun hits it. They've tried everything to get rid of it but it doesn't work. So it's a no from me, they'll find their own food!

Original poster
Yukduck · 23/04/2016 21:37

If it helps Dame we were told to spray our patio with Jeyes Fluid. It is supposed to be the dogs b*llocks to get rid of scents and germs. Next door had a rat nest under their garage. Maybe it might work on your parent's patio.
I was really happy to hear that foxes eat rats.

That is one type of wildlife I really don't want.

OP posts:
IDontSayBlahBlahBlah · 23/04/2016 21:39

lulu don't be so obtuse. There's been plenty of stories in the news of fox getting inside houses and attacking people. Don't you remember the 3m old twins in Hackney who had their cheek bitten off?
There's obviously more dog attacks per year, but to laugh at someone for suggesting foxes can attack, well, how pathetic.

FinnMcCool · 23/04/2016 21:40

There are foxes, deer, hedgehogs that wander about here. But my old cat, on medication, snoozing in the sun under a bush was not taken by a deer or a hedgehog. They are wildlife I don't wish them harm but I won't be feeding them.

Room101isWhereIUsedToLive · 23/04/2016 21:42

Over eighty percent of foxes die before they reach the age of two Sad

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 23/04/2016 21:51

Yuk thanks but we've tried Jeyes,the smell is over powering when the sun hits it,in the winter it's fine!

exLtEveDallas · 23/04/2016 21:53

Foxy Loxy visits our house every so often. I unrepentantly leave out food. Poor old MuttDog isn't too impressed with me, but I will happily continue. Neighbour is pretty sure there is a den under his shed and I live in hope of seeing Cubs.

I'm very jealous OP.

Original poster
Yukduck · 23/04/2016 21:57

Dh is on a mission now to get clearer photos so I can upload them!

OP posts:
captaincake · 23/04/2016 22:10

I used to feed a fox in our previous home. Didn't seem to do any harm. It suddenly stopped coming - guess it got run over or something. DH thinks it was a build up of its allergy to pork Hmm

AIBU to think a fox cub is cute and so adoreable and maybe put out titbits
lamiashiro · 23/04/2016 22:21

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

I hope that's clear.

PLEASE do not leave food out for foxes. They are vermin wild animals and can find their own food. Leaving food out encourages them, and attracts rats.

There are loads of urban foxes in our area, partly because people keep leaving food out thinking they're cute. They shit everywhere, get into bins and drag all the rubbish out.

I don't want to kill them, but I certainly don't want to attract them.

Sparklingbrook · 23/04/2016 22:27

Our fox visits, eats and then goes again back into the fields. Id she see us so much as look out of the window she is off.

Sparklingbrook · 23/04/2016 22:28

*If she sees us

ABetaDad1 · 23/04/2016 22:31

I saw a fox in our town a couple of months ago. Coming from the meadow along a cycle path. Stopped at a zebra crossing, waited for the cars to stop, crossed, went into town for a feed out of the restaurant bins.

It was totally unperturbed by people.

BlackeyedSusan · 23/04/2016 22:32

fox shit is rank.

fox piss stinks to high heaven.

they get in bins.

when they mate they sound like someone screaming in terror

they eat the fruit from the trees.

JemimaMuddledUp · 23/04/2016 22:32

Have you ever seen what a fox can do to a newborn lamb? Not so adorable then, believe you me.

YABU.

exLtEveDallas · 23/04/2016 22:33

Ours was on the green playing football a couple of weeks ago. MuttDog was going batty (which woke me up) and I woke DD up so we could both watch through my bedroom window.

Another neighbour has had one bouncing on their trampoline. I love living in the country.

CheckpointCharlie2 · 23/04/2016 22:37

Ahh sparkling I remember that little mangy fox you used to give medicine to. I loved you for that!