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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To leave some food out for the fox in our garden.

407 replies

MrsMotherHen · 25/02/2018 15:23

We have a fox that frequents our garden last few occasions hes been out in the day and DH has just seen him sunbathing on the patio. We are not rural but live about 50m away from the beach front along a promenade with a park quite close.

To leave some food out for the fox in our garden.
OP posts:
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5
HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:15

They won't have been rabid. Seriously.

Mange is a skin mite that attacks foxes. It's really nasty actually. It has fuck all to do with humans or diet.

MarthaArthur · 28/02/2018 14:28

www.wildlives.org.uk/2006_updates/foxes/injured.htm

Humans rubbish does not help foxes nor does encouraging them out of their natural habitat. Poor foxes.

HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:30

And can you think of any reasons why a fox might leave its 'natural habitat'?

HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:32

That research is also 12 years old.

MarthaArthur · 28/02/2018 14:34

For a start i am not sure why you used 'natural habitat' as if thats wrong and foxes do not in fact have a natural habitat.
And secondly i never said why they would leave. I pointed out humans should not encourage them into cities where they eat rubbish that makes the sick and injured. Not sure why you are trying to imply i am wrong tbh.

HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:38

I don't think you're wrong exactly, just a bit misguided.

Humans encouraged foxes into cities just by the fact that there's plentiful food supply for them here. That's not people deliberately leaving stuff out for them but because humans are messy. The same reason rats thrive in cities. Urban foxes are not exactly a new phenomenon- they've been breeding very successfully in London for years with a plentiful food supply. What is your suggestion, that we round them up and pop them onto a nature reserve or something?

MarthaArthur · 28/02/2018 14:40

No i understand foxes come into the cities for bins but i know a lot of people who do encourage them. Maybe lockable bins would help although i understand the inconvienience. Im not sure of a solution i just dont think the op is right to encourage them as it can end badly for the foxes. As i said i have no solution.

derxa · 28/02/2018 14:43

Why anyone would want to encourage wild animals into their garden by feeding them is beyond me. I can understand helping a sick or injured animal but the feeding is due to anthropomorphic nonsense.

HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:47

So no bird feeders then? You wouldn't put food out for a hedgehog?

derxa · 28/02/2018 14:52

So no bird feeders then? You wouldn't put food out for a hedgehog?
No

HarrietKettle · 28/02/2018 14:54

Right. Confused

MarthaArthur · 28/02/2018 15:12

derxa your a farmer right? Do you think that your job helps you differenciate between wildlife and reared animals? Because i was always taught not to feed wildlife as it caused both wildlife and farm life problems. I have only fed a hedgehog when it was sick.

FairiesVsPixies · 28/02/2018 15:38

Why anyone would want to encourage wild animals into their garden by feeding them is beyond me
You really can't see why anyone would do this? Hmm

Clawdy · 28/02/2018 15:38

Interesting to read about foxes killing cats - last week we watched a cat pursuing a young fox all round our garden! Eventually in desperation he managed to leap over the high fence, with the cat following him.

FairiesVsPixies · 28/02/2018 15:42

Yep, my cats have scared off the foxes many a time. I can only think that the cats that were attacked were ill/old.

PipGirl404 · 28/02/2018 15:45

I'm a dickhead and would go against all advice and feed it all the food in my house and probably try and tame it and pet it and get bitten and I'd get some kind of rare disease and it would eat my cat.

Then again, I'm in Scotland and we don't have a fox problem.

My only problem is that foxes don't visit my house enough. Sad

PipGirl404 · 28/02/2018 15:47

Also whats the issue with foxes eating out of bins? It's waste food right? Let em eat it. THEY'RE SO CUTE.

mehhh · 28/02/2018 16:07

We used to have a Fox at my mum and dads, they have a big garden and then behind that loads of woodland, we used to leave food out for it, I don't remember any negatives, I was quite young though, we used to watch for it through the window Smile

Confusedbeetle · 28/02/2018 16:10

Fairies Vs Pixies
No sorry, if only that were true. The first one was 2 years old and killed. The second one was 4 and was shaken by the pelvis, dislocating the spine resulting in a back leg amputation. She live for 4 years with three legs but was slow so the next attack the remaining back leg was bitten through and left hanging. Most vets are very recently clued up to foxes attacking cats, who they see as a rival for the food. It used to be said it was rare, and only if the cat was caught by surprise. My vet has changed his mind he has seen video evidence. I do wish people would wake up to the urban fox problem. My remaining cats, one is enormous, and fast, and the other one is very skittish and moves like lightening. In London it doesnt do to leave the patio door open

derxa · 28/02/2018 19:08

derxa your a farmer right? Do you think that your job helps you differenciate between wildlife and reared animals? Because i was always taught not to feed wildlife as it caused both wildlife and farm life problems. I have only fed a hedgehog when it was sick. Yes you understand. If you feed wild animals you are disturbing the ecosystem. We have sheep feed in rat proof containers because we don't want a population explosion of rats. To my mind rats have the same rights as foxes.

abbey44 · 28/02/2018 19:32

FairiesVsPixies - as confused said above, if only you were right. My cat was a 3-year-old Bengal, very fit and agile, just obviously wasn't a match against the fox that caught him, although he put up quite a fight (which was horrible to hear). I had two foxes (littermates I think) living in the woods at the bottom of my garden at the time, and I suspect it was one or both of them that had my poor cat. His brother went missing a couple of years later, I never did find out what happened to him, but I always wondered if it was foxes that had him too.

Pluckedpencil · 28/02/2018 21:03

I'm FB friends with a wildlife expert who is adamant most wild animals are much better of not being fed. Including most birds.

MarthaArthur · 28/02/2018 22:16

Thanks for the answer thats what i was taught.

DullAndOld · 01/03/2018 13:05

" What is your suggestion, that we round them up and pop them onto a nature reserve or something? "

interestingly there is a rumour where I live (rural West Wales) that this is exactly what happens. Some well meaning hippies trap the urban foxes and let them loose in the countryside. Of course they have no idea how to survive away from bins, so head for the nearest village/town to find some...
Not sure if that is an apocryphal story or not, but when I was living in a country village, there were some pretty mangy looking specimins going for the bins...

Sparklingbrook · 01/03/2018 14:04

My fox came early today. Quite rare to see it at this time, I am wondering if it's because of the snow. I made it a sandwich. Smile

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