Would you feed urban foxes?

You should never feed foxes whether urban or rural. They're wild animals and encouraging them near homes is asking for trouble with them even going into houses! Foxes should be afraid of humans for their own good, semi taming them is doing them no favours at all.

We had foxes near us in our previous house. I used to feed them occasionally but never worried about my 12 year old cat. She didn't like them in 'her' garden and would walk towards them growling and they always ran off.

Almost ?

I don’t believe urban foxes do any harm, they don’t attack cats and certainly not swans, which are much bigger than foxes and quite fierce.
When they get lots of food they will multiply and when there is less takeaway litter for a few months they will go hungry. I’d feed them if there were cubs in my garden.

Thank you all for taking the time to answer. I had thought it would all be no, so I am surprised at some yes answers too. Some very interesting responses.

Urban foxes often rely on scavenging to top up their hunting. During lockdown the takeaway food isn't available so many will be hungry. I'd feed it but put the food away from the house but where you can see. Don't put too much food out though otherwise you'll be feeding every scavenger in the area including the neighbourhood moggies.

I fed one inadvertently when I left the hen coop door open one summer night. we had 2 hens. What a mess of feathers in the morning. Broke my heart at the time. Nothing against foxes but I had had these hens for 4 years and the one time I was neglectful it pounced. They are more than capable of finding their own food.

No I do not feed them. I have two dogs, they are not small dogs but they go out into the garden and I always check the garden for foxes. Occasionally one of the dogs may need to
use the garden at night for a wee and I put on all the lights and outside light making sure no foxes are about.
Last December when putting off the house lights to go to bed I would look outside and for three weeks a fox sat under the lamppost ,just sitting and waiting for what I don't know.

No- you will never get rid of them. I speak from experience.
Last year I came home to find a fox in our conservatory - on the sofa with 2 of our cats.
My neighbour feeds them as they always give birth in field behind our houses. I have asked her not to but she thinks they are 'sweet'
They will move into woods opposite soon as they should being wild animals & fully capable of looking after themselves..
The cats have the upper hand & I am not worried they are in danger as fox very wary of them & our 4 cats are very feisty!.

Foxes are wild animals and living in an urban environment does not make them pets. My son lives in Haringey. He and my daughter in law had a house cat for 4 years. It ventured out into the garden one day and was mauled to death by a fox.

I've put a lamb leg-bone out at night and it's been gone in the morning so I know the fox isn't far away.
The backs of houses opposite to where I am do appear to be woody areas and I know at one time that the RSPCA took away some cubs once from behind a stack of wood. They would probably be released into a more safe area, but I don't think the vixen was with them sadly.

Years ago, we had mange sweep through our local fox population, it was really distressing to see, as beautiful creatures gradually lost all their fur. So a neighbour contacted whichever assoc. has a specific interest in them.
They delivered a cage and some 'stuff' which we were told to put on jam to help cure them of mange.We were told to make a jam sandwich, put it in the cage and wait for the fox to enter the cage to eat it and at that point the door to the cage would close and trap the fox inside, whereupon the assoc. would come along and take it away.

Fine! What could possibly go wrong?! Well, first off a cat regularly kept getting trapped inside (curiosity killed...and all that) so that didn't work. So we abandoned the cage idea and just used to make doctored jam sandwiches for it.

My neighbour took over that job. Sandwiches cut into triangles with the crusts cut off

Did the jam sandwiches help? No idea!

That's a difficult one because an animal lover would not want any animal to starve but neither would you want your chickens eaten or kittens taken. If I were going to feed them, I'd feed them away from your garden. Apart from anything else, fox dirt is highly smelly and you really don't want that to clear off your garden!

When I had chickens I used to actively deter them, now I don't, I just live and let live.

Very early morning you can see a family of foxes in the car park near where I live it looks like they are on their way back to their lair which is behind the Community Centre opposite they have been seen on the bottom Road at the entrance to our Road and always take the same route back home,my husband always left some dried dog food at the entrance to their lair.

I confess to having fed foxes! We did do a spot og Googling about it before we went ahead and it appears to be an OK thing to do!

www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/urban-fox

I wasn't feeding them intentionally but one night saw them rooting around under the bird table.

So I used to leave them some bits and bobs.

We had a camera set up and during the night we always used to get a couple of cats ambling by

We have footage of the foxes sheltering under bushes as they watch the cats

Clearly not aggressive types

We ended up having the road dug up due to water pipe problems and the foxes disappeared and never came back. I think the 24/7 pump drove them away

It almost drove me away as well!

We have a cat and 3 foxes that live at the end of our garden. They have never attacked our cat. We’ve lived here for years with cats and various fox families. We give them our left overs after a meal with a few dog biscuits. They wait every night at the end of the garden. They do no harm. If I thought my much loved cat was at risk I’d never do it.

Kind hearted people used catch urban foxes and take them out into the country, and leave them there. My late brother in law said that the locals would shoot them as they didn't want them eating their chickens. Foxes can carry a really nasty kind of mange which can infect dogs. I would never feed them.

I'd feed it. We used to have one that came to the back door (and into the kitchen, a couple of times), and I hand-fed it with ham, cheese, eggs and sandwiches. We had 2 cats at the time, and it never bothered them at all. A few months later, the fox stopped turning up.....then it arrived one evening with 3 gorgeous cubs in tow.

I’m afraid foxes can’t easily find their own food as we encroach more and more on to what was their territory. More and more housing, roads, railways being built through greenfield land and formerly protected places. The average lifespan of an urban fox is, I believe somewhere around two years. Most are killed on the road. Latest scientific studies indicate that the fox population has fallen by 40% since 1995.

We used to have around 3 or 4 foxes on our fairly long road. I haven’t seen one for a few years now. If I were lucky enough to have one in my garden I would feed it. It might encourage it to stick around and kill the rats and other pests as well. (Although I have a soft spot for rats, having kept them as pets when DD was younger).

The Fox Project is a very good source of information to counter all the misinformation that’s out there.

I would never feed them- they are wild animals and can fend for themselves.

We’ve often had foxes in the garden, but I’ve only ever left food out during very cold, snowy spells. I don’t think I’d do it otherwise.

I will confess to having bought Asda’s Smartprice dry dog food for the purpose (I don’t think they do it any more) and once got very dirty looks from the checkout operator, who evidently thought I was too stingy to buy nice food for a dog.
But I’m pretty sure a neighbour’s very well fed cat was helping itself, too.

We have foxes that live under a wooden building just the other side of our back hedge. It's lovely to see the cubs frolicking in our garden., whilst a parent sits on guard on the fence between ours and our neighbours gardens. Last year there were 5 and each time they appeared in day light which they did 2-3 times a week. We would count to see if they were all still alive.
We have never fed them, and don't intend to.

You feeding them will not stop them attacking cats etc.

No.

They may find their own food which you would find undesirable to have around eg rats.

No I wouldn’t - they’re wild animals who are more than capable of finding their own food.