Foxes

[Roughquest]

I have been told that foxes would hunt and eat a cat, I dont personally believe this to be the case, but could someone tell me if this would be true or not, would a fox kill a cat and eat it as prey?

[allotment10]

no bl***y chance! the foxes on and near my allotment run like hell when the cats come ! i put regular food down for the foxes and i have even seen the foxes back off and let the cats get thier helpings first , once them cats spit and show thier claws the foxes just leg it till they've gone!

[makemesmile]

Nah, someone's spinning you a yarn, I'm afraid. Cats are far too vicious for a fox! And I doubt a box could actually catch one.

[wolf63]

It is the law of the jungle out there. Our cute little pussy cats might look all innocent and cuddly - but they are anything but when they are out on the prowl.

Most dogs know that chasing cats is fun. They also know that catching them can prove hazardous to their health.

[saxy_jag]

There's a black cat next door but one to us. The dog's longing to run him. He came sauntering out the other day and sat on the pavement, just inviting her to chase. She did. Well, to within a couple of metres. Then she realised he wasn't going to run, so she trotted off trying to look all nonchalant, as though she really wasn't bothered anyway.

[Lonnie]

A fox won't go for a healthy cat, but they will go for one thats injured, I know this, because walking home late one evening, a couple of foxes suddenly ran off, and when I investigated, there was a cat with a broken leg lying there, i'd disturbed them just in time, got the cat to a vet, and it was saved, even managed to find its owners.

[wolf63]

my dog took off after a cat one day, about two minutes later he came running back - the cat was chasing him.

He stood behind me crying and shaking, the cat just stood a few feet away making lots of scary cat noises. He was only about 10 times the size of the cat!! Didn't cure him of cat chasing, but he kept clear of that cat.

[Thunderbird+]

Foxes and cats are very similar in their behavior and both can hold their own in the rare event of a fight and either can inflict a serious injury with a single blow.
I think it's for this reason they tend to keep a respectful distance from each other and seldom get into any kind of conflict.

[makemesmile]

Just re-read my posting...

As you well know, boxes seldom chase cats!

[allotment10]

well you made me smile, makemesmile lol's, :-)

[wolf63]

makemesmile - my cat loved boxes, he spent hours sitting in his looking stupid and cute at the same time.

[Roughquest]

Some very interesting answers, thank you, I can imagine that a fox would pick off a little sick one (cat) - as that is the law of nature, and I do strongly believe that my money would be on the cat to win if a box attacked it ! LOL.

[WendyS]

We feed our local foxes every night and the local cats now know that food is normally available in our front garden after 10 pm so as is their nature, they often come foraging. We regularly watch the confrontations between them and the foxes when they arrive. They always give the cats a wide berth and on several occasions we've seen them run away when the cats have approached them while eating. I would always put my money on a healthy cat making mincemeat of the average fox. It might be a differnet matter if it was a very hungry fox and an injured cat. I have heard one very elderly cat being killed by a fox but I suspect that is not the normal run of things.

[Bellringer]

For those who feed foxes. Do you know you are probably feeding rats as well.
PS I once had a terrier who would kill a cat, any cat, given a chance. Few and far between I know.

[Clanad]

Here in the western U.S., coyotes, which are somewhat larger than foxes (but smaller than many dogs) routinely kill and consume cats and small dogs. This is especially true on the fringes of suburban developments that have impacted on the coyotes previous habitat. Coyotes breed and produce large numbers of off spring since food is readily available and there's really not much in the way of natural or man made predators or controls. It's become such a problem, primarily in California, that some fear that small children are at risk....

[allotment10]

there's never any food left over for the rats! by the time the semi wild cats & foxes have finished any bits lying around soon get devoured by the crows, magpies & little birds! not to forget the squirrels who like to come and have a nosy!

http://i11.tinypic.com/2gtrvis.jpg

http://i12.tinypic.com/3yfl4bb.jpg

as you can see they soon finish everything off !
:-)

[wolf63]

As Clanad points out - we are lucky not to have large predators here. If the Coyotes have enough food to feed them and their babies they will just keep breeding. We now have foxes coming into urban areas, but imagine bumping into a big mountain lion when toddling off to the chip shop.

[wiggal]

We used to have a fox tat would come round at night & make the most horrible noises, me being the woss that i am, was terrified of te noises and was always to scared to get out of bed to close my window.

Our neighbour once saw my mums cat squaring up to fight the fox outside the house, it often hung around outside.
The neighbours cat unfortunately wasnt so lucky, he was a gorgeous ginger fluff ball, he had a run in with the fox one night, ran inside into the front room an then died of a heart attack :(

[Dee Sa]

I am sorry I used to believe that foxes left cats alone, but foxes who are hungry do eat cats, my neighbour recently saw a fox [ we live in Greater London] with a cat in its mouth on top of his garden shed, several cats have disappeared in our area, they cant all have been run over and last night a fox cornered our cat in the garden and she was terrified, luckily my two dogs went out and "saw" him off and from now on she cant go out after dark.
I do feel bad for the foxes as they are desperate for food, they took one of my trainers and had chewed it.

[RATTER15]

No fox will go near a healthy cat, a fox will easily dispense with a cat but a cat bite is one of the worst bites you can have when it comes to pain and infections, ask any vet.

In my hunting days I knew a terrier man who's 13 year old son suddenly took a great interest in walking his two best terriers, and on seeing him disappear in to the disused shed at the bottom of the garden carrying something, went down to investigate, on the back of the door he found a load of cats tails, taken as trophies from all the cats that the son had killed with these two terriers.

Now that is sick!!

[gavjbrown]

A fox will kill an old/injured cat . Only had this conversation last week . My neighbour found their 18 year old cat dead minus its head - how sad after living to that ripe old age . Police said they where 100 % sure it was a fox and not thugs.