Do Anybody Feed Wild Foxes In Their Gardens?

[HoneyKats]

Is it right to feed foxes in gardens? Has anybody have neighbours who feed foxes in their gardens upsetting other neighbours and leaving disgusting messes also encouraging Vermin!!!

[Mosaic]

Not a clever thing to do.
Have a talk with your environmental health people on the council.

[Graham-W]

Rather than encourage vermin the foxes will quite happily remove the vermin for you.
My sister has three "backyard" hens. She doesn't need any attention from foxes, thank you.

[Zeuhl]

We have fed foxes in our garden for about 10 years

we admire their beauty and resilience in a tough world

they have co existed peacefully with our dog and cats, use our rear garden for peaceful sunbathing and now trust us enough to take food at very close quarters

this year we have seen one male recover from illness and helped him feed what a neighbour (who hosts the den under his summerhouse) assures us is 9 cubs

the foxes don't make any mess or leave any food that might 'attract vermin'

Overall, we seem to have less native wildlife around us year by year, giving these beautiful and admirable animals a helping hand is a privilege

[Ratty2E]

I have foxes coming in on a regular basis as they live in one of the neighbours gardens which is very overgrown. I don't know if anyone feeds them but they are a nuisance and I would be happy for them to leave. They use my garden as a toilet and dig holes in the lawn and wind up my dogs, but then so do the many cats that come in. I could do without both of them.

[jno]

you're lucky, Zeuhl. As others have said, they use our lawn, garden and paving as a toilet. Thank goodness they weren't around when jno jnr was growing up, we'd have hesitated to let him play outside.

[HoneyKats]

Quite frankly i have had Rats in my attic for 3 years council just found out there is a hole in my roof wall, it took all this time crazzy a ? To be honest the foxes do mess i can see it from my window, some people like them i'm afraid i don't!! my Dad used to feed them near his house and took our dog Paddy gorgeous jack russel not with us anymore Rip. Also 1 of his friends from his allotment feeds and even gives them worming tablets!!
Really Sorry i find them Scavengers rather Foxes then Rats any day!
Thank you all for your replies much appreciated! Good luck with your Hens Mark! Any one no about Hotpoint aqua plus not rinsing clothes leaving mess on laundry Helllpp!!

[SlackAlice]

I've got an urban fox that often visits my garden and we leave him/her the occasional chicken carcase or meatbone. Very rarely, he will store a meatbone pinched from somewhere else by burying it in my flowerbeds, but that's normally gone the next day.

Leave a mess, absolutely not. Nothing left to make a mess off! I have no vermin in my garden, with a fox around they wouldn't last long.

[China Doll]

No, I don't think so. Our next door neighbour was feeding them and they were pooing all over the bloody garden paths because of her encouraging them down and in peeing in porches. If she does it again this year then I'm going to ask her to clean the crap up but I've not seen too many foxes about.

I've no problem with them being in the garden or passing through as I'm in an urban area and obviously foxes were probably knocking around that area before houses were built on it - I'd just rather they weren't encouraged to come right up close to the doors/porches and paths.

[Zeuhl]

^^
I sympathise jno - and yes, our kids are grown up

they do crap on our lawn and patio too occasionally - i suppose it is a natural territory marking behaviour - but the cleaning-up is much less than having the dog

[jno]

a neighbour of ours used to leave homeopathic tablets out for them because she thought they looked mangy. I took comfort in the knowledge that homeopathy is nonsense; might as well have drawn up their horoscopes.

[SlackAlice]

HoneyKats
post a separate question in 'How It Works' as regards your washing machine, you'll get a better response there.

[Baldric]

I was brought up in the Country, the family made a living from Poultry Breeding and a Riding Stable.
Whilst I don't think Foxes are classed as vermin officially, it is my honest opinion that they should be, and should be treated as such especially in urban areas.

[Zeuhl]

Here's a picture of one of our 'vermin'

[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/smat95.jpg[/IMG]

[Zeuhl]

whoops

try again

http://i41.tinypic.com/smat95.jpg

[Baldric]

'I rest my case'

[andy-hughes]

A household on our estate feed the local fox who appears every night in their drive at around seven for his tea. he is so bold that if he is crossing the road and a car comes, far from bolting for the kerb, he stands and looks at the car until it stops, then continues to stroll to the pavement.

The entrance to the field where he lives is in sight of our house, and i often see him ambling back there with his full tummy.

[wolf63]

Zeuhl - your visitor looks inquisitive and healthy.

[Zeuhl]

Indeed he is - and very respectful of the cat who occasionally takes umbrage at his presence

That particular fox has spent most of the Spring leaving the garden with mouthfuls of food to feed his cubs in a den in a neighbours garden a few hundred metres away

[Zeuhl]

baldric

what is your definition of 'vermin'?

perhaps it is - 'wildlife that gets in my way'?

[237SJ]

Yes, the people three doors down used to leave food out for the foxes. My Dad (from a farming background) thought they were mad and warned they would encourage rats. Sure enough, there was a rat infestation. They don`t do it anymore.