Who has been eating fruit from my garden?

[Jazz12]

Our garden is fully fenced. I left a small piece of apple in a little bowl the other day (leftovers from a baby niece) for the birds. No birds touched it all day. Next morning it was all gone! I put some fruit out last night, it’s again gone by morning! I haven’t seen any hedgehogs in my garden ever, only little mice that too in summer. Didn’t see the mice for months now. What/who is eating the fruit? I’d love to continue feeding if they won’t cause nuisance to my neighbours.

I wish everyone would make a gap in their fence for hedgehogs. So many gardens are fully fenced with concrete at the bottom. No wonder we have lost around 90% of our hedgehog population.

I also vote fox. I have one (Feargal - named after friend-of-nature Feargal Sharkey) who visits my garden at night. He/she has been coming since a cub. My dog would be OUTRAGED if he knew. He def suspects though...

It was me I was peckish , any chance of some melon tonight ?

Are you fcuking serious!! 😳

This IS creepy 😳😳😳😳

I have a melon at home that is beginning to go bad. I was planning to cut it up
and leave it outside.

Perfectly, they make it look easy!

Stop feeding the rats

Rats, foxes, squirrels. Lived a couple of miles from the city centre when I was woken up by a really odd noise. It was a fox on top of next door's conservatory roof. There was nothing near it, it must have just jumped up.

But whatever wildlife it is, there will also be rats. They are everywhere.

It will be rats. Their favourite food is fruit. Please stop leaving it out. You are attracting them in and if you’ve neighbours it’s not fair.

I had an elderly lady next to me, she started leaving fruit out. We ended up having to get the pest control out as I saw a rat cross the garden. The guy said it was the fruit. They love it.

It was me, sorry

Also op, a general rule is you don’t see mice when you have rats and you don’t have rats if you see mice. They can co exist but when food is scarce the rats eat the mice.

So the fact rhe mice have gone and there is no fox poo, as well as you’re putting out rats favourite food, would say you’ve got a signficant rat problem.

as said, stop doing this immediately. There is a huge possiblity you are encouraging rats in, and if there are young kids like grandkids going in the garden or for your neighbours it’s unacceptable.

as said, we had an elderly lady next door to us, started putting fruit out for the birds, but obviously all she did was being rats to the gardens, and they grow to a large population fast. You don’t want them coming in your house, looking for food as they need a continual source. So you need to stop.

>>>>>>Packs small torch, put fox disgues and pads quietly towards @Jazz12 back garden <<<<<<<

Can you record it somehow? You'll have a lot of footage to go through but at least you'll know

Bear.

😂😂

It could be anything but I'm guessing fox as well. Although it could also be blackbirds at first dawn. I have several wildlife cameras and I've noticed that any mice or rats don't last long if you have foxes or neighbourhood cats.

I thought nothing came in the night to my garden but I've had many foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels, sparrowhawks and buzzards overhead. Lately I've had fieldfare, redwing and a beautiful woodpecker. Of course we've had many many cats and once had somebody's dog in the enclosed back garden chewing on a bone. Still have no idea how it got in but my young children were absolutely thrilled until they learnt we had to give it back.

I grew up in London, pretty much everyone has a fence & has seen a fox in their garden!

I had a fox come into my house when i'm a flat share.

in

My cat would eat any food left out.
So would foxes and rodents.

a dawn pigeon is my guess

Surround the fruit with a wide band of flour and see if you get footprints.

Can’t leave fruit out round here ….

OP it will probably be rats🐀I thought hedgehogs were taking the bits of druit I left out on a night. When we had snow one year I went to look in the garden and loads of feet and long tail marks were in the snow.
Dont encourage them as they can climb up drainpipes and get into.your loft/attic😨

There are lots of urban foxes, and they can easily jump fences.

I once heard our dog, who was looking out of the French windows, barking furiously. I’m not kidding - there were two foxes sitting on our fence! If only I’d had a camera - it was long before smartphones.

The dog evidently scared them off - they very soon scarpered.

Rats.
On our street we have a chap that religiously puts his ‘special bird food’ (leftovers mixed with seeds & bread) on his gate pillars every teatime. It’s like Hitchcock’s The Birds for about half an hour, then the food just sits there (there’s always a lot). However, every morning it’s gone. Chap thinks he is feeding ‘breakfast to the dawn chorus’ (his words).

Nope. He’s feeding a rat family at about 2am. We’ve even got it on camera, but he won’t fucking listen.

@MooseBeTimeForSnow 😱