Has anyone heard of or seen a fox attack a family cat? There seems to be an increase in foxes appearing in our area at night obviously looking for food, but there are also alot of cats out at night, I was just wondering if they do attack cats as food is harder for them.
Yes they do. Food, territory, malice - Foxes are natures *****. My mum's cat has been attacked before - now they spend nights inside.
Yeah they do, but wait till when a cougar comes into your yard after a snack. I had to invest in a 12-gauge shotgun cause the .22 didn't even faze it. We've got coyotes and bobcats too. I know, I live in the woods. I should get some pics of my backyard sometime. They're amazing. But yes, foxes are known to attack (and sometimes kill) cats.
Yes. We may or may not have lost a cat to foxes (she disappeared, foxes is one of the most likely explanations). Certainly there has been an episode where we found one of our cats cowering in some bracken after not returning in the morning. I don't think there's much you can do apart from keeping the cats in at night (and in my experience cats aren't that compliant). I think we have the philosophy that the cat can look after itself and it's always got the option of a safe place for the night.
There are also documented cases of cats attacking foxes (and winning) and even getting on just fine with them. Don't forget that cats are an inch away from feral. They have vicious turf fights with each other and they are not too intimidated by dogs either. Your cat is more likely to have been killed by a car. Foxes are wild animals like squirrels and birds and bees. They are a fact of outdoor life, so we just have to deal. I'm always astonished how people think they can just set up home everywhere and expect the local ecosystem to just piss off and leave their house and lawns antiseptically clean like a freshly steam cleaned carpet. We need to learn to live in harmony with our natural surroundings a little bit more.
Pretty much my stance on a lot of things in this regard. We as a species need to realise that we are still animals, still a part of nature and no amount of denial will change that.
My cat stays away from the foxes, a pet dog on the other hand it'll hiss and stand its ground. I've never understood that either, there's a lady over the road from me on the new housing estate that 'shoos' away the ducks from her front lawn with a broom. She's very strange.
I imagine our bigger one wouldn't have much trouble fending off a fox but our smallest one (who is kitten sized, despite being 4 years old) wouldn't have much chance. Still, a smallish cat is quite capable of preying on young rabbits. We live in the middle of some woodland and actually the most annoying thing is Muntjacs (apart from those damn squirrels).
I agree with this wholeheartedly. In the Demote thread, the case against de-clawing cats was summarized as "if you don't want your furniture scratched, don't buy a cat." In the same vein, if you don't want wild animals roaming your yard, don't live in the woods. But then, I dig nature in all its wild glory. We were making bird feeders the other day - pine cones covered in peanut butter, then rolled in bird seed. Although the birds seemed pretty interested, I think the squirrels have gained some weight.
We feed our squirrels peanuts from a bird feeder. It makes them leave our strawberries and blackberries alone. Everything can be negotiated.
We have no problems with wildlife roaming through our garden we love it, we live about 2 miles from the woods and the most we get is sparrows, wood pigeons and occasional fox. People have reported in our area that their young cats has gone missing, 85% of the time it is because of traffic. I just don't want to tell my mum that foxes can kill cats, she'll want to bring in every cat she sees outside.
I haven't seen any foxes for a while in my area and there was quite a few, i think they may have killed them. As for cats most can look after themselves, the funniest thing i have seen was when walking late one night with my german shepherd, he was just a young pup still but huge, he disappeared from my view, only to then be seen high tailing it back towards me at speed, closely followed by a fully fluffed persian cat that was now chasing him. I often wonder if a group of coyotes would attack a lone human, i personally think they would, i was walking in a park in the evening in LA and saw a group. http://www.laalmanac.com/environment/ev15c.htm
I have a (somewhat outsize) jack russell terrier that isn't aware of any live and let live arrangement with the foxes. Unforunately neither is the fox with regard to mother in law's chickens. He took one and killed half a dozen more the other week and I had to try and clear up the mess. Also they are pretty but no very nice. They also tend to attack newborn calves when they get the chance which is a bit unpleasant I'm afaird foxes will always be around and I wouln't want it otherwise but I'll also happily send the dogs out if I think there's one around. In truth nature is pretty vicious when left to it's own devices.
Fox's are hard wired to take there fill and bury what they can kill. Caged hens are an easy target for them but to risky for them to return at there leisure to bury the other killed hens. There for it looks like they where killed for no reason, if they was in the natural environment it would be a different story. Please read: http://foxes.channel4.com/features/do-foxes-kill-pleasure Build a proper/better aviary. I have a friend who makes some for an animal sanctuary and they have never been compromised by anything including rats or fox's. Its very rare that a fox will attack anything at all that isnt classed as its pray such as dogs and cats. Iv seen cats play, or been chased away by cats, never attacked. Fox's will only attack when cornered with no other option 9 times out of 10. If there is a sudden increase in sightings of fox's it will be guaranteed to be ether some plonker is feeding them, or there si other easy food about in the area... If you are feeding Fox's... please dont, its a silly thing to do, creates problems, and do just fine without us.
My dog used to play with one years ago and they would play like they knew each other. There used to be easy food when our rubbish was just in bin bags, but now that we're using wheelie bins it not easy anymore. I know animals will not attack another animal if they know they're going to be hurt, and a cat can put up a fight even a dog, but when times are hard and they're struggling to find food, wild animals will be bold when they're hungry, just like we would.
I had two cats one year ago and they loved to sit and play in the yard. Often came foxes who wanted to attack them and I was very scared for them and wondering what to do. Then I decided to buy a dog to protect them. I can definitely say that foxes are scared of dogs!
