Can we talk about my fox family please?

[nahthatsnotforme]

Well they’re not actually mine, they live in a garden at the back of me, which is all but abandoned and very overgrown. They’re not disturbed.
The last 2 years they’ve raised a family of cubs, which have been a complete joy. The cubs often played on our lawn and jumped over our garden furniture and I know several neighbours fed them.
There have been adults in the garden all winter, and I fully expected more cubs this year, but it seems not.
Does anyone know if this is common? That a seemingly healthy group of adults (there’s at least 3) don’t breed every year?

Amazing!! Absolutely gorgeous, lucky you and even luckier them🦊 I would love foxes in my garden.

@kinkytoes i would love to be proved wrong …..it just seems some people hate any creatures ! cute little squirrels , gulls, crows……and can’t wait to tell you, thanks for being positive ❤️

I was VERY excited to find this lovely fox in my garden the other evening….

Aww it’s so special isn’t it. They’re such misunderstood creatures.

This is so true. We live in a largish village surrounded by farmland. We have a neighbour who is always writing letters to the local paper about the foxes and badgers and how 'someone' should do something about them. He also has a habit of coming out into his garden and chasing the birds away because he does not like them flying over his house. We have asked ourselves for years why he does not live in a flat in a town (although he would still get pigeons and sparrows. )

He's mad but he's not the only one around.

@GetOffTheCounter he might not be the only one but he'll be in the minority.

Unfortunately the countryside also attracts people who want to be close to these animals precisely because they want to be awful to them.

Some of our fox family. The cubs are quite tricky to capture as they get the zoomies. There’s 3 adults altogether we think. One has been around for 3 years and is super tame- she taps on the window for food!

That third one! His ears 😍

I feed five foxes at 0545 each morning. They are in a built up area in London and I worry about them getting enough food. There is mum and her 3 youngsters, now aged one. Also, a male who might be the father has turned up recently. No babies this year I'm glad to say.

Bless you. It’s tough for urban foxes.

Can't really afford to feed them properly. We have a Deerhound and a cat and there's always the crows on the common. All hungry. Oh and my daughter.

our garden backed onto allotments and a family lived under one of the shed against our fence. The Mum was timid but the cubs were so blissfully unaware of danger. We were once sat in the hot tub (no bubbles so silent!) and they were playing on the grass right next to us, totally unaware. They were still grey and fluffy, like a couple of kittens play fighting. I do remember one year there wasn’t any cubs. Possibly Dad was harmed so Mum missed her season

Hello fox lovers. Do you have any ideas as to how to fox proof my garden. So far they’ve caused almost £1000 of damage, chewing through cables and irrigation hoses and all of the straps on the safety net of the kids trampoline, rendering it useless. I don’t much like the used nappy and other pieces of rubbish they’ve left on the lawn. The neighbourhood can’t reliably use the food waste recycling caddies because foxes - clever things that they are - know how to open them, then trail the waste all over the place.

Extremely difficult I would have thought unfortunately @joanofaardvark

I don't have those type of things in my garden so they don't really damage anything. I've had a pool up sometimes which they have never interfered with.

Are you in a rural or urban setting? Is your garden very large?

lots of foxes near me but I haven’t seen any cubs for a few years. I’m in central London and I see them sunbathing and hear them most nights. Love them

Genuine enquiry - not a fox hater at all. Is it a good idea to give veterinary treatments to wild animals on a regular basis? I'm not talking wildlife rehab for critical injuries but routine meds such as parasite control etc? I would have thought that supporting them this much would disturb the natural balance and risk them breeding to a level where they outstrip resources and becoming a nuisance. I get that people become attached to 'their foxes' but I'm not sure we should be going this far with what are still wild animals.

@Frillysweetpea are you referring to mange treatment? If so, this is a parasite that causes awful degenerative suffering, and also affects the foxes' prey species such as rabbits. So the less of it about the better for the whole food chain.

It's easy to provide treatment to foxes through their food, so why wouldn't you try to alleviate their suffering?

I wouldn't call it routine as you wouldn't treat an unaffected animal.

The 'natural balance' is sadly something humans ruined a long long time ago, by claiming and disturbing natural habitats that foxes would have enjoyed and continued to enjoy if they'd had the choice.

My daughter has foxes in her garden in London . One weekend when I was visiting I spent ages early one morning watching them play in her back garden. She used to feed them but unfortunately they have been recently become a bit of a nuisance and have wrecked her garden furniture.

You should send those pics in to Springwatch 🥰
I follow a Scottish woman on TikTok who feeds a family of foxes. Big chunks of raw chicken. It's a joy to watch ☺️

What a lovely thread! I used to have foxes in my garden in London but rarely see them now. Lovely to read how people are taking care of them too.

Wonderful pics

Our two have been absent the last couple of days

Out of interest, which mange treatment do you use?

I have tried the homeopathic one from the fox society (which they send free).

Wonderful to see, you're a great photographer. That baby is just too cute.

Homeopathic mange treatment for foxes?

Yes this works in milder cases. Sometimes it can get so bad they need to be admitted to a wildlife hospital.

@dearydearyIve used the same treatment from them too. I noticed one had a bare patch on its hip and sent for some and it’s def no worse after a fair few weeks.
I gave it them on honey sandwiches because I read somewhere they loved sweet things.. 😬
Does anyone know if vets will prescribe anything? I would of course pay them