Understanding foxes, what their instincts are and what they are capable of, can help reduce the risk they pose to our domestic pets, especially outdoor ones such as guiena pigs
Please take all the steps you can to protect your small animals so foxes, pets and pet-keepers can live in harmony
The following are frequently-heard quotes about foxes and the answer to those misconceptions
“There are no foxes in our garden”
There weren’t yesterday, maybe not today ....but what about tomorrow? It will only take a fox on its first visit to prove you wrong, then it may be too late.
“A fox wont bother my caged animals when there are rabbits in a nearby field”
Foxes are lazy feeders, although efficient predators, they are basically lazy and will not bother with elusive prey where scavenging might produce an easier result. This means that as well as preferring to break into a badly secured hutch, they can be easily deterred by strengthening the mesh and locks.
“No fox will get that lock open”
Your hutches and runs are only as strong as the weakest part of them. A strong bolt can be pulled off entirely if the screws are too small. A wooden latch may as well not be there! The mesh or chickenwire can be pulled right out if is only held in by staples. Chickenwire can be bitten through. A weak or rotten cage floor can be dug through from underneath. Any of these weaknesses can be exploited by the fox and need to be strengthened considerably
“I have a walled or fenced garden so they wont get in there”
The Department of Farming & Rural Affairs’ advice is that a mesh fence needs to be at least 6’ 6” high with a sheet of smooth metal at the top of at least 1’ and buried to a depth of at least 1’ 6”. Foxes frequently scald a fence this height and the barbed wire on top.
Rather than to try and make it a fortress, it is probably better to accept that the fox will enter the garden at some point, and take other measures to prevent it getting near the pets.
“We have foxes in our garden but they don’t bother our pets”
One of two things is probably happening here. Maybe the fox has tested your defences, failed to get through them and is waiting for a day when you leave a chink, maybe by forgetting to lock the hutch door, or by leaving the pets in an unsupervised run after dark, giving the fox time to dig up under the run. Or maybe they do not need any food at this time, preferring to leave the pets where they are until they do. Either way, don’t get complacent, its time to check your defences. Even a failed break-in can stress a pet to the degree that they have heart failure, so take measures to keep foxes away by using deterrents.
“I lock my pets in a shed at night ~ that’s when foxes hunt”
It is when they do MOST of their hunting but they are frequently seen during the day, and remember what opportunists they are ~ you need to be as vigilant in the day as night time.
“I keep my hutches on a stand”
Foxes climb well, they can run up a mesh fence, and use their teeth to haul themselves up the last few feet. The hutches need to be kept behind a barrier such as a shed door, to be truly out of reach
You will proabably never achieve a completely fox-free garden while you have pets to attract them in, so make sure you are prepared for this.
If you want to reduce the chances of foxes coming into your garden, you can make it less attractive to them by:
- using fox-deterrent chemicals, (which smell so bad they may even deter YOU from using the garden)!
- avoiding use of fish blood & bone fertiliser (which can fool the fox into thinking that if it digs it will find food).
- securing rubbish in wheelie bins, or in dustbins with bungee straps across lids.
This advice should not give you the impression you should be anti
Author: rufus
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