hedgehogs and foxes (1 Viewer)

[sue webster]

in our flats garden we get lots of foxes and somtimes a hedgehog coming for food. recently the hedgehog was eating the food -cat food-- and ayoung fox was watching him . after a while the fox made a grab at the dish and literally nicked it from under the gedgehog! he did not even move! the dish was empty but the fox still ran off with it! he came back ,sniffed the hedgehog ,got pricked on his nose before going! it was so funny seeing these antics. what funny things has anyone seen in their garden? sue.

 

[Elizabeth Bigg]

in our flats garden we get lots of foxes and somtimes a hedgehog coming for food. recently the hedgehog was eating the food -cat food-- and ayoung fox was watching him . after a while the fox made a grab at the dish and literally nicked it from under the gedgehog! he did not even move! the dish was empty but the fox still ran off with it! he came back ,sniffed the hedgehog ,got pricked on his nose before going! it was so funny seeing these antics. what funny things has anyone seen in their garden? sue.

We had a similar experience a couple of years ago. We were monitoring via an infrared camera - a hedgehog was munching away stolidly as a fox was sniffing around him. The fox had his nose pricked (we could tell, because the photos showed him jumping back) and finally he gave up and moved off.

Another time I was watching a hedgehog feeding from a bowl right outside the back door, when a fox poked its nose under the chain link fence, managed to grab the bowl - and went off with it! When I saw the gardener there, I told him about it, asking him to keep an eye out for the bowl - and a few days later found he'd put it upside down on a fence post for me.

Finally - I've had a bowl taken from the garden. I use them for bird food, and I often leave them out overnight if all the food has gone - but recently one of them vanished overnight. We know we have a visiting fox, though we've stopped feeding it now as it was making the garden smell horrible with his territory marking habits - but he still comes in.

 

[helenol]

I'm still waiting to see the first hedgehog where I live.:-C

 

[Jos Stratford]

An annual event, for me, out in this part of the world is the sudden daytime appearance of foxes in October and November - on my local patch, there is a field where I can guarantee there'll be up to five foxes wandering around at whatever time of day I go. Also saw one on my land last week in the afternoon.

I can only guess they are making use of all available feeding time to fatten up before the real winter arrives.

 

[Elizabeth Bigg]

I can only guess they are making use of all available feeding time to fatten up before the real winter arrives.

What sort of temperatures do you get in "real" winter?

 

[Jos Stratford]

What sort of temperatures do you get in "real" winter?

Started early this year - was about minus five a few days back, but give it another month or so and the cold stuff arrives - minus 10 to 15 is the normal, though periods of down to minus 20 or minus 25 occur each winter, sometimes for weeks on end.

Quite 'warm' though if we compare to what our friends in Finland can get

 

[ColinC]

Novice Fox watcher with questions

You all seem pretty familiar with foxes, in the last two weeks I have become aware of my little fox visitor and I am not sure what to make of him. Is he friend or foe. Should I feed him or put on a red coat and chase him. What do foxes eat anyway I thought it was birds. I set out to create a wildlife garden so I feel obliged to accept my success with good grace. He behaves very much like a cat, he comes over the fence in broad daylight, has a good sniff around, especially my ground feeding table, then he marks his territory all over the place and leaves. I haven't seen him take any food. I saw him once sitting beside my cat, she likes to watch the birds. They ignored each other. He is around at night, I finally realised what that screaming noise was. My dog has just been seriously ill, very sick and she didn't eat anything for a week. I had to put chocolate spread on her nose to get her to take her antibiotics. She is well now but I suspect foxy may have had something to do with it. So what do you think? Friend or foe? :h?:

 

[Nina P]

I am one of the leave well alone as nature has it's own way of balancing out.
Foxes do create an awful smell specially the males, but I have known them not bother with a cay but if the fox is very old or infirm they can kill adult cats, but they would have to be old and unable to get anything else. I speak from experience, a neighbours cat was got by the old dog fox and she got her tail ripped up in his teeth, and an awful lot of screaming was heard, but they managed to get the cat away but the old fox was very weak and so was humanely destroyed by a vet. It would only have died a starvation death so the kindest thing was to put it to sleep. Generally foxes tend to feed on eggs, birds, worms, frogs and most easily caught prey, they tend to be easy catch or forget it.

 

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Foxes will eat almost anything - beef Provençale, spaghetti bolognaise, smoked haddock etc, ie any leftovers, as well as dog food etc. I've more or less stopped feeding "our" fox, as it was making the garden smell terrible - but it still visits, as I can tell by monitoring it via an infrared camera.

 

[Anthony Morton]

Word Of Caution!

Just a word of warning if you live in an urban area and have foxes visiting your garden - they often carry mange mites which they can transmit to dogs and cats. This is definitely not recommended for Fido or Tiddles as it causes acute hair loss!

Anthony