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The fox as a pet

Check out my new website all about pet foxeswww.foxrescue.weebly.com!

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The dream of every fox lover is to have a fox as a pet. (Or to become a fox yourself, but we'll stick with the little bit more realistic side of our dreams :) Here, I'll discuss all aspects of having a pet fox, the good and bad. There are lots of pics on here, so please be patient as it loads. They are adorable and worth waiting for! For the technical stuff, I got most of my information from these sources: Steve Geary, who hasn't fulfilled his fox owning dream yet, but has been around plenty who have, from an old magazine article I read, but can't remember where it came from, and the magazine listed below.The following are from people experienced with pet foxes so we can live vicariously through them. :) The fox is definiately not the pet for everyone, so before you fall in love with their cute little face and run out to find one, please read this first and learn a little more about owning them.

What you can expect if you own a fox

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Those who own foxes say there is no other animal quite like him. The fox is like a cross between a dog and a cat. He loves to climb and when kept indoors, prefers to use a litterbox. One lady who owned a fox discovered it likes to nap on the refrigerator and get into barking matches with her family dog. Another lady had a fox that loved to catch mice and bury them under her pillow! All foxes have different personalities and all are a handful.

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Foxes are wild animals, and this needs to be remembered. Their natural habits will always be there. Foxes in the wild hide caches, which is why you might discover dead critters floating around in your house. The fox can usually be feed a high protein dogfood with an occasional real meat snack. Another thing that might be a problem is fox urine stinks. It has a unique odor that it uses to mark its territory in the wild. It needs lots of exercise! The fox should have an available outdoors pen and have access to go in and out whenever it wishes. 1

The fox outdoors

Some people keep their foxes in outdoor pens. This is fine as long as it is taken for walks, given plenty of attention, and kept out of the elements. It likes to have a naturalistic environment with tree branches, and large rocks and wood peices to climb on. The fox needs a large fenced enclosure, not a small, little dog-like pen.

Story of an outdoor fox

4This story is from a magazine article from the May 1973 issue of Fur-Fish-Game from Harding's Magazine the article was written by Robert Gilsvik.This story is about a man who loved to hunt. One day, he recieved a fox that was only a couple weeks old from his friend who rescued it from den diggers. The fox found his new home in a small enclosure with a maze of logs and boards and a simple doghouse. He was named Foxey. During the summer heat, Foxey would lay on top of his doghouse all spread out and usually sleeping. As the sun set and the air cooled, Foxey would jump up and become "as active as a high strung monkey." Whenever new logs were added to Foxey's cage, he became immediately suspicious. He would slow down for days studying anything new at a safe distance and from every possible angle. The owner, Robert said that he would have kept the fox forever except for the smell that came from his pen and the insane attitude he too on during eating. Foxey ate "wolfishly", gulping down his food without chewing most of it. "He would hiss, squeal, chatter, and in general, sound like a herd of pigs at the feeding trough." Whenever he ate, he would arch his tail. When he was halfway through a meal, he would lash out at the white tip of his tail. "Spinning like a top the length of his kennel. Sometimes he would he would roll through the opening into the little house I had built for him and it sounded like a pea rattling in its pod as he carried on his perpetual warfare with his arch enenemy; the tip of his tail." Foxey's proudest moment was one night, when a rabbit had run through his cage. He caught it and brought it to me the next morning with "a real glow of pride in his eyes." The fox was finally set free after they decided he might end up hurting one of the neighborhood kids.

All pics from Steve Geary and used with permission. Want to get to know the foxes? All the foxes in these photos live at rescue missions around Steve Geary's home. Fox number one's name is Cory, he's a red fox kit. Number two's name is Basil. He's an albino red fox who kept trying to chew on Steve's camera. He had to lure Basil away with his pen. :) Number three is Freedom, a silver-phased red fox who ended up dying from a tumor in the spine. Poor little guy. Number four is another silver-phased red fox named Angel. The last fox, the adult red fox, is