hillsdown
Well-known member
Does anyone know if cats are at risk as potential food for foxes?
Cat bait to foxes?Help please.
- Thread starter hillsdown
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
Canadian_Cowgirl
Well-known member
We had a fox den in our yard last year, we never lost any cats to them just chicks.
http://www.derbyfoxes.org/cats.htm
Foxes and cats.
Whilst we would not suggest that foxes will never kill cats what we can say is there has never been a reported case of this happening. Usually foxes and cats have a mutual respect for one another. The time of year when calls peak are usually around March / April / May. People will view a fox chasing a cat and wrongfully assume that the fox is looking to kill the cat to feed her cubs. What is happening however that whilst cubs are still very young and underground cats will show a very unhealthy interest in them. If the cat was to get to the young cubs it would kill them. A vixen looking after her cubs will chase cats away from the earth. Calls again then peak usually around July where householders are claiming that a pack of foxes is going around terrorising cats. Since foxes do not hunt in packs we can assume its a family of cubs learning their way around their territory. On discovering a cat they tease the cat, in the countryside the badger is usually the one that the foxes will tease, one would never believe that the young cubs were looking to kill the badger! Once the cubs have met with the ferocity of a cat they learn quickly to avoid them.
If a fox finds a dead cat on the road it will take it away to eat. Any person observing this will assume that the fox has killed the cat. We have observed on many occasions foxes carrying marrow bones, never do we conclude the fox has killed the cow!
If more than one fox is present when this cat has been discovered, and since foxes are so selfish with their food, an argument over who's it is will commence. Remembering on many occasions that the police have been called out thinking someone's being attacked and killed because the foxes are so vocal, it is easy to assume that the foxes are killing the cat since that's what it sounds like.
Katy
http://www.derbyfoxes.org/cats.htm
Foxes and cats.
Whilst we would not suggest that foxes will never kill cats what we can say is there has never been a reported case of this happening. Usually foxes and cats have a mutual respect for one another. The time of year when calls peak are usually around March / April / May. People will view a fox chasing a cat and wrongfully assume that the fox is looking to kill the cat to feed her cubs. What is happening however that whilst cubs are still very young and underground cats will show a very unhealthy interest in them. If the cat was to get to the young cubs it would kill them. A vixen looking after her cubs will chase cats away from the earth. Calls again then peak usually around July where householders are claiming that a pack of foxes is going around terrorising cats. Since foxes do not hunt in packs we can assume its a family of cubs learning their way around their territory. On discovering a cat they tease the cat, in the countryside the badger is usually the one that the foxes will tease, one would never believe that the young cubs were looking to kill the badger! Once the cubs have met with the ferocity of a cat they learn quickly to avoid them.
If a fox finds a dead cat on the road it will take it away to eat. Any person observing this will assume that the fox has killed the cat. We have observed on many occasions foxes carrying marrow bones, never do we conclude the fox has killed the cow!
If more than one fox is present when this cat has been discovered, and since foxes are so selfish with their food, an argument over who's it is will commence. Remembering on many occasions that the police have been called out thinking someone's being attacked and killed because the foxes are so vocal, it is easy to assume that the foxes are killing the cat since that's what it sounds like.
Katy
Bez+
Well-known member
hillsdown":j0rvq1x0 said:
Cats are bait to lots of animals.
Coyotes, fox, fisher, lynx, owls and hawks to name a few. Plus any stray dog that is hungry.
Hawk took a kitten out of the yard about two or three years ago.
I watched it happen.
Amazing.
Bez+
something got one of my kitties a few weeks back and i was sure it was a fox b/c i had seen one in the yard several nights eating fallen pears and something also got my first chicken egg the same night it got my cat. i made sure i was there right at dark to put the cats inside the following night. pulled up in the car about 2 minutes after dark and what did i see? one of my other cats and the fox side by side eating pears together! ive pretty much decided that it was a coyote that got the cat but i cant figure out how the cat got away. poor little guy just didnt make it thru the night.
OP
OP
hillsdown
Well-known member
Thank you C cg , Bez and Beefy for you replies.
Beefy sorry about your cat that is really hard to lose someone that you have nursed through the night.
The reason I asked is that Kit Cat has been really clingy more than usual the last couple of days and when he was snuggling last night I found claw or bite marks on both sides of his back.I don't know if an owl tried to get him(he weighs 12 pounds so he might have been a little heavy)or if the many foxes we have in the yard (that come right up to the house with me yelling at them and do not back off) may have gone after him.And tonight the same boss fox trouble maker had him cornered under a vehicle until I chased the fox away and grabbed my little guy.I hope the post about foxes being prey to cats is right and that the Kit Cat was just bating the fox.Anyways his claws all 12 in the front and 14 in the back will not be getting a trim until I get the fox problem eradicated.
Beefy sorry about your cat that is really hard to lose someone that you have nursed through the night.
The reason I asked is that Kit Cat has been really clingy more than usual the last couple of days and when he was snuggling last night I found claw or bite marks on both sides of his back.I don't know if an owl tried to get him(he weighs 12 pounds so he might have been a little heavy)or if the many foxes we have in the yard (that come right up to the house with me yelling at them and do not back off) may have gone after him.And tonight the same boss fox trouble maker had him cornered under a vehicle until I chased the fox away and grabbed my little guy.I hope the post about foxes being prey to cats is right and that the Kit Cat was just bating the fox.Anyways his claws all 12 in the front and 14 in the back will not be getting a trim until I get the fox problem eradicated.
sjr725
Well-known member
We had a den of foxes a few years back out in the willows - I didn't have a single litter of barn cats make it to "maturity" for about 3 years , til the foxes moved on. I don't think they'd take on a full grown cat - but they'll raid the nests for the babies.
