night time visitor

[Keren]

So my other half and I were sitting watching tv and eating dinner tonight when I heard a noise. Sounded like there was a mouse or something in a plastic bag. Looked out the window onto the patio and there is an honest to goodness fox standing on the garden bed on my patio, a metre away from me. He looked at me, then continued to scrounge through the bag of garbage i'd thrown out there earlier. I let the dog out and the fox took off but the dog just wanted to make friends with it lol. Guess i'm now in the market for an alpaca, llama or donkey. Glad I decided not to breed the girls this year. All the bad things about them aside, it really was a beautiful animal. I'd never been so close to a live one and it was stunning.

 

[Isomade]

I am seeing more Coyotes here than I have ever seen. The other night I went to check the cows and there were five yokes rooming amongst them. During the day they are coming closer and closer to the house. I am sure it's because of the drought.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Can not help it, I have seen young foxes perhaps a hundred times, but they still amaze me. The foxes will eat a few hens, but otherwise there is no problems with them around here.

 

[Angus Cowman]

At my other place we had a fox that had a den about 75 yds from the house
we could sit in the living room and watch the littles ones play on the hillside in the early spring
The momma would come out and cross the drive about 30 yds from the house everynite while we were sitting on the deck

I have never had the urge to shoot a fox as they are good mice catchers and I have never heard of them harming anything but chickens which I will never have anyway

 

[Suzie Q]

There was a report on the News many months ago here. A fox was seen watching the house for weeks. Then one day it tried to take the grandson in the garden by himself. On hearing the screams they ran out and managed to fight it off and save their grandson.

 

[lynnmcmahan]

We had a weerwolf stalk my wife one time and when he finally got the nerve to pounce she beat the he$$ out of him. End of story ;-)

 

[Keren]

It becomes a problem for me because I have goats and will have lambs :-(

 

[tsmaxx47]

It becomes a problem for me because I have goats and will have lambs :-(

get a dog!

 

[Isomade]

We had a weerwolf stalk my wife one time and when he finally got the nerve to pounce she beat the he$$ out of him. End of story ;-)

I guess you learned not to play dress up and scare you wife huh?

 

[Keren]

It becomes a problem for me because I have goats and will have lambs :-(

get a dog!

I let the dog out and he just wanted to be friends with the fox

 

[3waycross]

It becomes a problem for me because I have goats and will have lambs :-(

get a dog!

I let the dog out and he just wanted to be friends with the fox

No offense Keren but you need a tuffer dog! Heck my 14 yr old Lab female would swallowed it in a second!

 

[hillsdown]

We have a family living in our straw bales, she had 4 kits . They do not bother us and i do not bother them. After a rain when we are all still inside you can catch them playing around my landscaping by the machine shed, then as soon as they hear movement from our end they quickly scatter and hide again. The only things that concerns me about them is that foxes are usually are covered in flees .

Keren get a better bin for your garbage so you don't get scavengers, as you could soon be over ridden with unwelcome creatures smellier and more fierce than a fox . :shock:

 

[danl]

Keren

Are your foxes bigger than North American foxes ? or meaner? I can't imagine a red or gray fox getting anything bigger than a chicken or rabbit.

 

[hillsdown]

I was looking that up earlier and it seems that they are bigger than we are used to some up to 7 kg's where the ones here are usually only 12 pounds at the most .

Here us a link http://www.animalcontrol.com.au/foxes.htm

 

[Keren]

This guy was probably the size of a border collie or kelpie. Foxes will take poultry, lambs and kids. Apart from crows which also cause problems with lambs and kids, foxes are the only predator we have here. We don't have any Dingoes around here. Foxes are very territorial so if he's here, he's here regardless of whether our rubbish is out and about or not. The other thing about foxes is once the know there is a feed around, they'll keep coming back. Having my kids born without some sort of protection would be like inviting him to a buffet. I'd end up with no live kids. Our area is a big chicken and sheep area so lots of nice smelling creatures to tempt him. Fox control options are shooting (i don't have a gun licence), baiting (i have two cats and a dog so not risking that), electric fence (which I have), a guard llama (upwards of $1000), a guard donkey (upwards of $1600), a maremma ($500 but i'm always a bit iffy about dogs) or a guard alpaca ($300 including delivery). I'm heading out to a farm today to pick out an alpaca, she'll be delivered in a couple days

 

[3waycross]

This guy was probably the size of a border collie or kelpie. Foxes will take poultry, lambs and kids. Apart from crows which also cause problems with lambs and kids, foxes are the only predator we have here. We don't have any Dingoes around here. Foxes are very territorial so if he's here, he's here regardless of whether our rubbish is out and about or not. The other thing about foxes is once the know there is a feed around, they'll keep coming back. Having my kids born without some sort of protection would be like inviting him to a buffet. I'd end up with no live kids. Our area is a big chicken and sheep area so lots of nice smelling creatures to tempt him. Fox control options are shooting (i don't have a gun licence), baiting (i have two cats and a dog so not risking that), electric fence (which I have), a guard llama (upwards of $1000), a guard donkey (upwards of $1600), a maremma ($500 but i'm always a bit iffy about dogs) or a guard alpaca ($300 including delivery). I'm heading out to a farm today to pick out an alpaca, she'll be delivered in a couple days

It sure makes me glad to have the gun rights that we enjoy when I read something like this. Good luck with the Alpaca!

A 22-250 would work a lot better and be a permanent solution!

 

[Angus Cowman]

This guy was probably the size of a border collie or kelpie. Foxes will take poultry, lambs and kids. Apart from crows which also cause problems with lambs and kids, foxes are the only predator we have here. We don't have any Dingoes around here. Foxes are very territorial so if he's here, he's here regardless of whether our rubbish is out and about or not. The other thing about foxes is once the know there is a feed around, they'll keep coming back. Having my kids born without some sort of protection would be like inviting him to a buffet. I'd end up with no live kids. Our area is a big chicken and sheep area so lots of nice smelling creatures to tempt him. Fox control options are shooting (i don't have a gun licence), baiting (i have two cats and a dog so not risking that), electric fence (which I have), a guard llama (upwards of $1000), a guard donkey (upwards of $1600), a maremma ($500 but i'm always a bit iffy about dogs) or a guard alpaca ($300 including delivery). I'm heading out to a farm today to pick out an alpaca, she'll be delivered in a couple days

It sure makes me glad to have the gun rights that we enjoy when I read something like this. Good luck with the Alpaca!

A 22-250 would work a lot better and be a permanent solution!

:nod: :nod: :nod:

 

[Keren]

I have a very confused alpaca lol she's wandering around wondering where all the alpacas are. She's interested in the neighbours horses. One of my goats wants to be friends with her even though she kicked her a couple times for getting too close. The other goat is scared of her. She's very good with me, can walk right up to her in the paddock, can't quite get the halter on but that will come in time. She started alarm vocalising when she saw my ginger fluffy cat so that's probably a good indication that she'll react a similar way if a fox visits. Wanda can you bring the pictures over here for me when/if you get a chance? Thanks

 

[hillsdown]

Keren's Alpaca pics of Jules . She is really cute Keren.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Not to second guess you, cause it sounds as if you've researched this, but an alpaca is not a very large animal. The alpacas around here are show animals, and I can't imagine them being used as guard animals. Hard to believe that a llama would cost $1000, but maybe where you are....there seems to be a surplus of llamas here. Please post what you end up with and how it works out.