Good grief. I woke up this morning, popped downstairs to the kitchen for a coffee and there in the garden were two of the biggest foxes I've ever seen. Seriously, they weren't the cute kind you want to cuddle - they were dark-coloured, very obviously male, massive in size and one was taking a shit in the middle of the lawn.
With some trepidation I ventured outside but by the time I'd walked round the side of the house they were gone. I have a cat that uses the garden for much of the night as well as the day, so as you can imagine I'm concerned about it. Does anyone know if they're likely to come back, and are they likely to be dangerous to people in such an enclosed environment (I assume the cat would be in serious trouble)? Anything I can do to put them off returning?
Male urine works Tony. Just pee in your garden regularly and they'll go elsewhere. I used to keep chickens and whilst there were plenty of foxes around they avoided the run. A Stoat killed them all in the end!
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Alternatively you can buy products that contain mail urine substitutes.
Postman Pee?Originally Posted by manganr
Try not to worry. Here in north west London, foxes are extremely common and are not eating the cats. Until maybe a month ago, the nightly screeching as they sorted out their shagging rights and territory was becoming monotonous. Happily they've shut up now that it's all sorted out and cubs are on their way (or here already).
I have had a chance to observe (over more than two to three decades now) the local foxes interacting with local cats, both household and feral, and they generally avoid close interaction with each other. In practice, a fox could certainly be a threat to a kitten but not in general to an adult cat.
Yes, they will come back. Where do you live? If it's urban then they've already been there for years.
Very unlikely. One cannot make guarantees but they usually prefer to avoid any kind of interaction.
That said, if they are used to being fed then they may well sit around hoping you'll give them food.
Really, your cat will probably be fine. Again, I can make no guarantees but it is very likely that your cat already knows they are there and has observed them.
Try the urine thing by all means but it might not work for long. The reason is that they are intelligent and will come back if they think there's something there to come back to. Peace and quiet is something that foxes seem to value for eating or sleeping purposes.
Last edited by markrlondon; 2nd May 2022 at 09:28.
A fox once came through our cat flap - presumably in search of food - and the cat set about it. Hell of a cacophony and never tried it again.
Agree with above, not a problem unless they dig up your garden or similar.
We're surrounded by dogs now but had a regular visitor last year we could hand feed.
Get yourself a Badger
Foxes don’t like those
But seriously try a farmer’s suppliers for Renardine- I believe there are modern environmentally sound substitutes of it available- the original stuff was “not very nice”
fox taking a dump in your garden is basically the fox marking his patch so you ned to outdo the fox - i suggest stocking up on curry and albran and outdoing the fox.
Brilliant hahaha
You can visit the 'Turdle' thread in BP for inspiration .
You can buy lion dung pellets online which will scare away pretty much every pest out there.
There's nothing stopping him/her, really. You are surprised that the foxes are there but I bet the cat isn't.
Host an intimate GTG. Job doneThanks for the suggestions. Well, most of them
I have a cat who needs to be able to use the garden as he does now. I'll look into the various options, albeit that I don't see myself taking a dump outside any time soon!
When I lived in Pinner there were loads of urban foxes around - I certainly didn't hear of any cats being attacked/killed. I have a friend who has five cats and an unkempt garden that attracts foxes and they all seem to peacefully coexist, even eating together on her patio. Another friend who lives in a rural setting has some lovely trailcam videos of foxes, deer and badgers all mooching around together, eating the food she has put out.
Plus, don't forget that cats are pretty fearsome and very fast predators and can generally take care of themselves - I suspect the most likely outcome if they are in the garden at the same time is a degree of live-and-let-live mutual respect eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Mk2Aqk9Mw (btw, the cat's expression at 50 secs is priceless)
Update: towards the end of the second blog entry is the video of a fox, muntjac and badger quietly coexisting https://bettybadger.blogspot.com/2020/05/ (my friend Mary writes this blog as her alter ego, Betty the badger, whom she has dressed up as every Thursday for over five years (except during lockdown) and headed to DEFRA or Downing St. to protest the government's badger cull).
Last edited by JonRA; 2nd May 2022 at 10:47.
Wait until you run the mower over fox-crap................................
"Does anyone know the contact details of the local hunt?"
Hopefully cats are not like dogs (or my dog) where they feel the need to roll in fox crap - horrendous is an understatement..
Our cat sees them off and she’s only small.
Scatter cayenne pepper or chilli powder about. It worked at our old house and we never saw them again.
One thing I wasn’t aware of was how good at climbing foxes are. When the cat chased one the other day the fox was up and over the fence like a rat.
no they are not really dangerous to humans as far as i know, i have even seen people hand feed them where i used to work on MOD land.
they are looking for food so dont leave anything about outside, maybe a home close to you has food bags out or something
We have a lot of foxes mooching around the streets and gardens of South Manchester. They certainly don't panic if they see humans but do keep their distance. There were a few stories of them going into houses in the South East a few years ago. I've had problems with them digging up the same place in my front lawn in the past. Some chicken wire, tent pegs and a bit of extra 'nitrogen' in the watering can worked. The latest problem is that one is undermining my fence base panels in the back. I've seen foxes jump the fences with ease but this one has decided it's a digger. It's done four so far, a fill of sand cement and limestone chippings is proving too hard on the claws for a repeat. We live with them at the end of the day, I just repair anything they do. We can't really stop it as it all goes on in the middle of the night anyway. Agree re the lawnmower, a quick check every time. It's usually grey and hold your breath.
If you are going to wee round your garden to mark your territory don't do it on the grass or any plants you want to keep.
Mine seemed to get on ok! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_1Wl_r1IGM
I’ve done the wee thing and it worked a treat.
And I wouldn’t worry about the cat….as mentioned (a) it’s almost certainly been aware of the foxes for a long time (and vice versa) and (b) cats are perfectly capable of holding their own against a fox as they are nasty buggers at heart.
Agreed
Stuff stinks and I must admit to thinking some dark thoughts on how to get rid when they shit in the garden but I’m not there yet.
I do the pissing thing though last time the Mrs caught me peeing into a bucket in the shed and wondered what the hell I was up to.
Think I’ll try the Cayenne pepper as John suggested.
Don't take it for granted that foxes do not represent a threat to cats:
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/small-animal-v...at-killer-case
Aside from the foxes screeching / fighting, the don’t scare or intimidate our cat.
We often see him either chasing the fox away on the camera in the mornings when we review footage, or him creeping up behind the fox and following as it wanders around the car.
Amusing watching him chase something many times his size.
we get multiple foxes in the garden every night - they ignore all the local and feral cats (to much trouble to them) , theres so much easy food about now that they probably like cayenne pepper after eating garbage from the local kebab house.
few yrs ago i did feel sorry for one that was out in the daytime and absolutley covered with what i presume was mange (it was pretty much hairless covered in scabs and had runny eyes - looked like something from one of the resident evil games.
*when they are knocking a round off it sounds like someone being murdered
Yes. A Badger.
A Honey Badger.
That would sort it out.
Regards
V
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And the cat as well I would imagineYes. A Badger.
A Honey Badger.
That would sort it out.
Regards
V
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
South London foxes appear not to care about any sort of countermeasure at all, save for dogs and hot chilli. We had them digging in our garden and at the suggestion of a neighbour I got a couple of those ultrasonic squeaky-noise things. Utterly useless, and about 4 days later one of them was decorated with a large fox turd carefully deposited on top. A sh1t review, literally.
Once we had dogs, the foxes have tended to avoid the garden. Once in a while a new one will stray in, and leave at high speed when the hounds investigate.
In the front garden I had a real problem - digging, and a fox even gave my EV charge cable a good chew (fortunately for Mr Fox, the car wasn’t drawing current at the time). I fixed this with liberal application of cayenne pepper to the flower beds, and some extraordinarily potent naga chilli sauce where I needed more persistent effects. Well, I was damned if I was going to eat the stuff.
Consider installing a trail camera(s) and enjoy watching the videos. A naturalist colleague videos an established foxes' family which have a den entrance under his garden shed ... previous years' offspring visit with food to feed current year's pups.
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
Honey badger don't care!Yes. A Badger.
A Honey Badger.
That would sort it out.
Regards
V
I tried it with racoons. I tried all the hot spices. Pepper, tabasco. Spread it out at night where they crapped and did nothing
At night it got dewy and watered it down rendering it useless.
Even tried upside down mousetraps to avoid injuring them (or any small animal). Didn't work and when one of the cheap Chinese made pieces of crap broke and caught part of my hand. Gave up on that idea also.
I just clean it up and bury it
DON
i think you are misunderstanding what i said :)
... but i do agree with you, just let them get on with whatever they are doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c36UNSoJenI
The Honey badger is a legend in the animal kingdom
RIAC
we had one coming in the night and using the lawn as a toilet, we used something like this for a few weeks
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isotronic-R...s%2C100&sr=8-5
it scared it off, I don't think it has been back since.
I always thought that foxes are a risk to an old or infirm cat? I have heard of elderly cats being taken by foxes but maybe it's an urban myth? I would be confident of a healthy cat being fine with foxes - they can hear them and smell them before the fox knows the cat is around and can then avoid them..
Hi Tony,
I suspect the fox has been coming into your garden for years, the cat will be well aware of this, it's just the first time you've seen it.
We have two cats and occasionally saw fox poo on the lawn but not often. The last year we installed CCTV (for security not for this). Now we have almost nightly videos of foxes (often more than one) coming into our garden back and front. The cats don't seem that bothered we occasionally see them chasing them off. We saw the first one in daylight last week too.....but clearly they've been coming for a lot longer than that.
Earlier on, I picked up the Daily Mail, fashioned an Old Holborn roll-up, and popped down to the local Fox den - where I succeeded in dropping a deuce right in the entrance. See how they like it.
Nice, see how Reynard likes one through his letter box, top work.
I refer you to my earlier post #26
Sorry about that, I was desperate.
"A man of little significance"
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