Fox

muffy

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I saw a fox in my yard the other day and was wondering if they will harm a cat and if they will eat the left over food that the cats leave.
 

sweetblackpaws

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I think rodents would be their meal of choice. They are omnivores and will also eat berries, etc. I suppose it is possible, but personally, I have never seen it. I think it very possible they would eat the food, though.
 

foxxycat

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No they won't bother the cats-they probably will eat the food right beside the cats.... although some people say they will go after cats but my friend in raleigh NC has sent me video and pictures of a fox eating right along side the ferals she manages...yes the fox will eat the cat food.
 

Willowy

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Foxes only weigh about 12-15 pounds under all that fluff. They prefer not to pick a fight with a cat because they stand a good chance of getting hurt by the cat. I'm sure they'll eat kittens, given the chance; most wild animals will. But adult cats should be fine with a fox. Yes, they'll eat cat food, or anything else really.
 

shadowsrescue

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I used to have fox in the yard all the time. They would even come up onto my deck. I had 3 feral cats living outside at the time. The fox would eat the food if any was out. Yet, mostly they wanted a drink of water. They did scare my cats and my cats hid under a love seat and hissed away. The fox trotted away.
 

duckpond

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I would think if they found a small kitten, without the mom, it might catch the kitten. Adult cats i dont think its a problem. I have one that comes up in my back yard. If the cats leave any wet food he loves that! I have never seen him bother the cats.
 

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My experience has been different.

Im in suburban area with foxes and they DO take cats and small, dogs and kill and presumably eat them. It happens frequently in the toronto region in canada.

Im quite certain a fox took one of our cats years ago. A couple of days before our midsized female cat dissapeared forever, we saw a fox about 2 houses from ours, running down the middle of the street with something white in its mouth. Our male cat refused to go outside for a week after our female cat disappeared. So he saw what happened.

Its true that come cats are as heavy as a fox, ours are probably just as heavy or heavier, 18 and 23 lbs. But a fox lives in the wild and is fighting and killing to feed its cubs. Foxes are almost always taller than a cat. A domestic cat probably wouldnt survive an attack if the fox was hungry. I have also seen the foxes in our neighbourhood hunt in pairs. On two occassions they have been in our yard when our cats have been out. Both times I chased the foxes off.

Foxes DO kill and eat cats and small dogs.
 

shadowsrescue

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My experience has been different.

Im in suburban area with foxes and they DO take cats and small, dogs and kill and presumably eat them. It happens frequently in the toronto region in canada.

Im quite certain a fox took one of our cats years ago. A couple of days before our midsized female cat dissapeared forever, we saw a fox about 2 houses from ours, running down the middle of the street with something white in its mouth. Our male cat refused to go outside for a week after our female cat disappeared. So he saw what happened.

Its true that come cats are as heavy as a fox, ours are probably just as heavy or heavier, 18 and 23 lbs. But a fox lives in the wild and is fighting and killing to feed its cubs. Foxes are almost always taller than a cat. A domestic cat probably wouldnt survive an attack if the fox was hungry. I have also seen the foxes in our neighbourhood hunt in pairs. On two occassions they have been in our yard when our cats have been out. Both times I chased the foxes off.

Foxes DO kill and eat cats and small dogs.
I have heard that when food is scarce a fox might go after a cat to feed its young. Yet, in my area this has never been the case. Are you certain they are not coyote. Coyote are a totally different thing. I had coyote too. They were usually in pairs and they were known for killing cats and small dogs in my area.

Either way, it just depends on your area and the fox. Be sure to pick up food at night so that it doesn't bring the fox to your property.
 

Kieka

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Foxes will eat cat food, its what we've used the few times we've needed to catch foxes in our yard. We've had foxes kill rabbits (5-6 pound rabbits) and all they leave behind are tufts of fur. Our cats have never been grabbed by a fox; that I am aware of. I've heard of coyotes grabbing cats and dogs in the area and our local university tracks sightings of them so they are recorded too. The safest answer is to not leave out food that could attract the foxes at night and keep cats indoors at night.
 
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muffy

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Thanks every one for your reply's. I glad that they probably won't hurt my ferals but I don't like the idea of them coming up to eat the cat food. I am afraid my neighbors might call animal control if they think I am feeding foxes.
 

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Fox behaviour can vary, but yes, they will absolutely go after a feral cat, quite aggressively. Even the bigger tomcats. I am dealing with this situation right now and have had to break up several fights over the last two weeks where the cat was just crossing the street or minding its own business and the fox comes running in (in broad daylight), barking and screaming at it and lunging and trying to find a way to grab it. This is happening in residential suburbs, on manicured front lawns. I have intervened several times with a supersoaker water gun to give the cat a chance to get away but fear what will happen when I'm not around. It's really stressful. Don't encourage foxes, it's a recipe for disaster if you care for ferals. Some may be benign, but many others are not. If you hear the unmistakable bark/scream of a fox, especially toward a cat, you have a predatory fox that's looking for an opportunity. Don't underestimate them.
 

moxiewild

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Foxes only weigh about 12-15 pounds under all that fluff.
That depends on the species!

A red fox can be up to 30 or so pounds. Grey foxes are smaller, and an adult Grey can even be under 10 pounds (as you said, it’s all floof! And lean muscle!).
 

moxiewild

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I’m a licensed wildlife rehabilitatator.

Technically speaking, yes, they can and will attack a cat.

But overwhelmingly only under certain conditions - rabies, other illness (like distemper), and out of starvation and severe food scarcity (and if you are feeding cats outdoors at night then this is very unlikely to be the case!).

Generally speaking though, cats and foxes prefer to avoid one another. A cat will tolerate a raccoon or an oppossum, but they tend to steer clear of a fox.

And foxes prefer to steer clear of cats, especially if it is not an urban fox, and/or it is a grey fox (a species that is far more “skittish” than a red fox, for instance).

Like cats, foxes prefer to take on prey MUCH smaller prey than them. A kitten or very small cat (5-7 lbs) may not be safe depending on the species/size of the fox, but the average adult cat would require expending far too much energy and require far too much risk of injury to tempt a relatively healthy fox.

Also, ensure it’s a fox, and not a coyote. People often get the two confused, and a coyote is definitely something to worry about for a cat.

Whether it’s a fox or coyote, be sure to haze it if you see it again. This means humane harassment by making noise (yelling, clapping, banging pots and pans, blowing a whistle or air horn, etc), making yourself big and scary, and posturing (walking toward it while doing all those other things, pretending to charge at it, etc).

This might seem cruel or unnecessary, but a healthy fear of humans is the primary thing that keeps all wildlife safe. Reinforcing that innate trepidation in a humane and safe way like hazing, will encourage a fox (or coyote) to maintain healthy boundaries with the “human world”.

It also has the added benefit of discouraging them from crossing over into your colony’s territory!

Be sure to not leave food out at night!!!
 

moxiewild

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Fox behaviour can vary, but yes, they will absolutely go after a feral cat, quite aggressively. Even the bigger tomcats. I am dealing with this situation right now and have had to break up several fights over the last two weeks where the cat was just crossing the street or minding its own business and the fox comes running in (in broad daylight), barking and screaming at it and lunging and trying to find a way to grab it. This is happening in residential suburbs, on manicured front lawns. I have intervened several times with a supersoaker water gun to give the cat a chance to get away but fear what will happen when I'm not around. It's really stressful. Don't encourage foxes, it's a recipe for disaster if you care for ferals. Some may be benign, but many others are not. If you hear the unmistakable bark/scream of a fox, especially toward a cat, you have a predatory fox that's looking for an opportunity. Don't underestimate them.

Are you sure this is not a coyote? This is 100% not normal fox behavior.

If this is actually a fox, the odds are extremely high that the fox is actually sick - potentially rabid, depending on time frame. There is a very small chance this is a female who has chosen a den nearby and is protecting it, but it’s incredibly unlikely she would have done so in the middle of suburbia and not moved the kits by now.

Please contact your local wildlife rescue, rehab, sanctuary, or licensed rehabilitator. If you don’t have one, then please contact animal control as soon as possible to file a report.

Again, this is absolutely not normal behavior for a fox. Being out in daylight and in suburbia is normal - especially during mating/baby season (happening now) and when juveniles go out on their own in the fall - but the other behaviors (going after an adult cat, displaying overt aggression, not responding to severe hazing tactics) are not.

Trust me when I say that this is undoubtedly a public safety issue and the authorities need to be alerted about this ASAP.
 
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Kristi77

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Are you sure this is not a coyote? This is 100% not normal fox behavior.

If this is actually a fox, the odds are extremely high that the fox is actually sick - potentially rabid, depending on time frame. There is a very small chance this is a female who has chosen a den nearby and is protecting it, but it’s incredibly unlikely she would have done so in the middle of suburbia and not moved the kits by now.

Please contact your local wildlife rescue, rehab, sanctuary, or licensed rehabilitator. If you don’t have one, then please contact animal control as soon as possible to file a report.

Again, this is absolutely not normal behavior for a fox. Being out in daylight and in suburbia is normal - especially during mating/baby season (happening now) and when juveniles go out on their own in the fall - but the other behaviors (going after an adult cat, displaying overt aggression, not responding to severe hazing tactics) are not.

Trust me when I say that this is undoubtedly a public safety issue and the authorities need to be alerted about this ASAP.
Thanks for this. I will contact Animal Control tomorrow, though from previous personal experience it's doubtful they will do anything, as they've said before unless the animal is incapacitated or staggering and in one place, they don't generally come.

It's definitely a red fox. I've had experience with them, and even worked with animal rehabbers to capture two with mange in previous years.

This particular fox has been around 2-3 times a day for the last several weeks. I have literally chased it (and squirted at it) with a watergun (reloading twice at a time!), used loud clappers, cowbell, banged pots, screamed at it, tried to run it off. I have done this trying to get it to move up the road, away from the cat (using the supersoaker) and it just moves a little to the next lawn, then looks for a way to get sneak past me and back to where the cat was. It acts like it's a game and will fake left and right and take a generally long time to be put off enough to leave.

I suspect that if I ran from it, it would 100% chase me, as even when I back up to grab the watergun, it advances toward me unafraid - though it doesn't seem overtly aggressive toward me in particular - it more just views me as a minor nuisance to getting what it wants. It seems very habituated to humans, and probably has a den in someone's backyard or in the nearby park, but not in the immediate area of where the cat hangs out. I'm assuming if it was rabid, it would be more obvious or go after people?

Today, during the cat/fox standoff, the fox defecated while it was trying to attack the cat. I don't know if this was a territorial marking move, or if it just happened randomly in the moment, as it just popped out while it was barking and lunging. (apologies for the unattractive visuals).
 
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