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Foxes

Alicia

Mama Doe
We've never had a problem with foxes but a fox has been in the garden twice today looking at the rabbits and guinea-pig. We chased it off both times but is there anything else I can do to deter it? We've put lots of things in front of the hutches and I've balanced something on top of both so if the fox bumps into the hutch it should fall off and make a loud noise
 
Unfortunately once a fox has sussed out you have buns they are often back time and time again. I had terrible trouble with them at my last place, and had one dig under a run and snatch a bun. Even when on concrete, they would bite at the wire and try to find weak spots.

I don't have much advice. My bedroom overlooked the garden. It got to the point the fox was visiting so much several times nearly every night, that I was running downstairs and out the back garden so many times a night. Buns would let me know thumping in their hutches poor things. So I had a small amount of small empty bottles/drink cans ready by the window (pebbles never did the trick). As soon as I heard a thump, I would peep out and launch them at it, and it would run off. I can only say persistence is the key, as is of course strong secure enclosures. If a fox realises it's never going to get in, after a few tries it should stop wasting the energy returning. Unfortunately it took a long long time for mine to give up after it snatched my poor bun from under the run, as obviously it thought it was worth it to keep trying even after me learning from my mistake and making changes.

You can buy fox deterrents - I'm not sure how these effect other pets though. For me it was persistence in really giving a fright. Me chasing it never seemed to work (because it took off before I could get close enough) which is why I think throwing things at it worked. They'd land very near, enough to give it a mighty fright that something was very close to it, if that makes sense.

Sending positive vibes to keep your furrbabies safe. It's very worrying having foxes realise you keep buns etc. X
 
If you can't have the rabbits and piggies indoors, I would make sure that everything is as fix proof as possible, strong hinges, proper bolts top and bottom of all doors, strong weldmesh for any mesh, 16 or 19 guage with small holes. Make sure your runs are bolted down on to concrete, or if on grass, that the grass has weldmesh underneath to prevent digging in.
 
Thank you, the fox has been back this morning :(

To be honest Alicia, this hasn't been my experience. If a fox knows there are rabbits in the garden - OK so he knows. But if they are well protected I have found that they don't keep returning.

However, you need to keep them very safe, give the rabbits and guinea pigs plenty of hiding areas, and if they are free ranging be super vigilant.

Good luck xx
 
I remember _thumps (Judy) had some difficulty with foxes in her garden...I think she took to finding ways to (ahem) spray urine about her property to try to shoo them away. A bit gross, but perhaps an idea if all else fails? :oops: Although I agree it would be good if the buns/piggies could be indoors.

We have lots of foxes, but I guess because we are mostly wilderness out here, they don't hang about even though there's a large contingent of wild bunnies in the area.
 
Foxes are a nuisance. They kill for the sake of it - not just for food - and they will keep coming back. If you can't bring the animals inside, then do everything you can to stop the fox getting in to them. Don't underestimate what they will do and just how quickly they can get into a rabbit hutch and run. I would look at electric fences round the garden or run as well. Screwfix stock them now - for anything from horses to hens.

http://www.screwfix.com/c/outdoor-g.../cat8420012#category=cat8420012&page_size=100
 
Foxes are a nuisance. They kill for the sake of it - not just for food - and they will keep coming back. If you can't bring the animals inside, then do everything you can to stop the fox getting in to them. Don't underestimate what they will do and just how quickly they can get into a rabbit hutch and run. I would look at electric fences round the garden or run as well. Screwfix stock them now - for anything from horses to hens.

http://www.screwfix.com/c/outdoor-g.../cat8420012#category=cat8420012&page_size=100

That's really useful info, thanks
 
We had a fox-proof setup (hutch and permanently-attached run) at my parents' place in the '90s: the foxes visited regularly because we fed them. Once they had worked out Charlie wasn't a possible meal, they tended to ignore each other. Charlie would sometimes stay sitting outside when they came: Mum witnessed them nosebumping through the mesh :love: He even sat out in his run cleaning himself (albeit in the middle) when the cubs came with the vixen and tried harassing him (she just sat and watched).

NB: this will not work for all rabbits (and not guinea pigs, I would say), maybe Charlie was a special case because nothing phased him (except cats and the occasional lunatic squirrel). Zoobec's advice is very useful and MightyMax is also on to something: they're looking for an easy (tasty) meal, and if you're not providing that but someone else nearby is, then they'll go there instead.

I have to say, I'd be scared where I live now because we don't put food out for foxes nor should there be any too nearby, so they'd have to be pretty desperate to bother getting into our garden and THAT's the worrying fox.
 
Parsnipbun has a wonderful electric fence, and I am seriously considering this for my garden. Perhaps it's a bit OTT for you, but better safe than sorry as they say :D
 
I moved Milo inside because of a persistent fox. He did keep coming back for a while and even when he stopped coming back Milo was too spooked! It was difficult for me because I do love foxes. I didn't want anything in my garden that might harm one so I needed to make sure Milo was inside and safe.I'm lucky that this was an option for us. I don't think foxes do just kill for fun. If they leave an animal they have killed they will often return later to collect it (although usually its gone by then!) we don't eat all of our shopping in one go do we? ;)
 
Foxes are a nuisance. They kill for the sake of it - not just for food - and they will keep coming back. If you can't bring the animals inside, then do everything you can to stop the fox getting in to them. Don't underestimate what they will do and just how quickly they can get into a rabbit hutch and run. I would look at electric fences round the garden or run as well. Screwfix stock them now - for anything from horses to hens.

http://www.screwfix.com/c/outdoor-g.../cat8420012#category=cat8420012&page_size=100

That's really useful info, thanks

That is useful. Rutland electric fencing is really decent stuff, they have a good website that tells you what power you need for what animal and length of fence. I have a dog one to keep the dogs in the garden, and a goat one for the goat field.

http://www.rutland-electric-fencing.co.uk
 
Foxes don't kill for the hell of it and they aren't nuisance animals. We insist on destroying their homes and killing their prey so of course they take advantage of us and take pets. At the end of the day deterring a fox is practically impossible, especially if they use your garden as a run to get from a to b. They have survived because they are intelligent and very determined. Foxes get a bad rap because people dislike that they take advantage of us...the same as mice and rats.
I have many foxes coming into my garden. I must admit I've never seen them even look at the run, however, my buns only go out in the run on nice days and only during daylight hours because of the fox risk.
My run is double meshed and attached to a 6ft hutch, which they enter via a catflap (just in case a fox somehow got into the run) and the hutch is double meshed. I would make sure this is the case with your accomodation and also that it is not possible for the fox to dig under.
If you are concerned then maybe giving the buns a Wendy house to retreat to. A Wendy house is much more sturdy and very difficult for a fox to break into. Otherwise I'd bring them inside.

Foxes belong here more than we do. Remember that and respect them. They are predators and will do anything to survive.
 
I was never suggesting hurting it, and have never disrespected them so I'm not sure where that came from :? I'd just rather keep my pets alive than have them eaten. We haven't seen them in our garden for years and my Dad found a broken part of the fence so he's fixed that and we've made a bit of an obstacle course to make it as difficult as possible for it to get to the rabbits. We haven't seen it since this morning so fingers crossed it can't get in now but tonight will be when we're more likely to see if it can still get in. Thank you for the advice, I'm not sure what I'm going to do if the fox can still get in but the advice has been great and I'll think about it all
 
I was never suggesting hurting it, and have never disrespected them so I'm not sure where that came from :? I'd just rather keep my pets alive than have them eaten. We haven't seen them in our garden for years and my Dad found a broken part of the fence so he's fixed that and we've made a bit of an obstacle course to make it as difficult as possible for it to get to the rabbits. We haven't seen it since this morning so fingers crossed it can't get in now but tonight will be when we're more likely to see if it can still get in. Thank you for the advice, I'm not sure what I'm going to do if the fox can still get in but the advice has been great and I'll think about it all
Was this to me Alicia? I think maybe i wasn't clear in what I meant. When I had my fox problem there were people (not on here) who suggested some not very nice ways of stopping them! Obviously I would never consider anything unkind and because of the type of garden I had there were no suitable ways to stop them, hence why milo had to come inside!
I didnt mean that i thought you would harm them! X
 
Foxes don't kill for the hell of it and they aren't nuisance animals.

I'm going to have to disagree with this. I have (far too frequently) had to sort out the 'evidence' of a fox visit on the allotments and the beheaded remains of hens from the opposite plot left all along the lane. An 8' sheer fence would not stop them, and the hens were in huts overnight. A fox WILL kill for the sake of it - not just for food. They are strong, very agile and determined creatures and should not be underestimated.
 
I think there's a bit of confusion regarding their predatory instincts. It may seem they kill for the sake of it, but really it's a wild animal that has no idea where it's next meal is coming from. Foxes are fantastic opportunistic hunters - which is just that, opportunistic.

If we had to hunter gather our food, a fair few of us would take more than we need, being apprehensive of leaner times (eyes bigger than the belly scenario). It's the psychological reason why most animals overeat, or overkill, when they do. Rabbits will do it (with pellets) and become fat even with exercise, apes are a classic example, even reptiles and fish do it. Even the beloved domestic cat does it (horrendously excessively too) even though, being domesticated, they do know where their next meal is coming from in the vast majority of cases. Cat's are a much worse example of killing when they needant, and leaving the carcasses - and they have been domesticated for a long long time.

The reason cats still do it is the strong instincts that even domestication hasn't be able to get rid of. The very same instinct (but stronger) in a fox. They are driven to act upon potential prey to survive. Interestingly, the only mammal so far to have been proven to kill for enjoyment or for the sake of it, is the Bonobo Chimpanzee.

Totally agree with Shimmer, don't underestimate them, they are predators and very skilled ones at that. However also very much agree with vegan bunny. They're not killing simply because they can, they're killing for a reason - even if that reason isn't always clear to us when they leave prey. They're not evil animals, they're just trying to survive and don't know when they can next get food. X
 
JessBun has hit the nail on the head. They never kill for fun. The problem is that we have a lot of very tasty prey items in a small place. So the fox kills them all before they escape, then caches the bodies. Obviously it can't cache all the food in one go and you will find that if you left out the animals it killed they would be gone the next day or the day after etc. Unfortunately, we tend to discover the deed before the fox is done caching the bodies and presume that they just kill for fun.
Bear in mind that humans kill for fun. We kill foxes for fun in the most barbaric way. We also kill billions of animals for food every year...a lot of which ends up in the bin. Foxes are demonised simply to justify us killing them...remember that.
 
Electric fences are brilliant. Interested to see about Rutland. I get mine from electric fence online (all one word seem to recall when you google). They have loads of advice.
 
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