Fox/cat question
Contributors to this thread:Small Game
From: Panther Bone
15-Jun-20
One cat vs. a team of foxes...could be a bad situation for the cat. I really don't know, but interesting... I do know cats are scrappers.
From: Bowfinatic
15-Jun-20
Full grown cat would be almost same size as fox. I would think the cat could hold its own
From: drycreek
15-Jun-20
Cats are pretty handy at survival. Ours is an outside cat that is 13 years old and has been living in the country here for her entire life. We have coyotes galore and she has made it. Hell, she spent every night across the highway for the first five years of her life because she and our other cat did not get along. You can tell when there’s been a varmint here at night, because the next morning she’ll come out of the cat door in the shop. She sleeps on top of the storm room where nothing can get to her.
From: RK
15-Jun-20
I would not feel real good about having a pet cat around foxes
I'm assuming you are talking gray fox. Red fox is as bad as coyotes on cats
From: Medicinemann
15-Jun-20
Let me put it this way....I know an old sourdough trapper whose favorite fox bait is cats/kittens.
From: Bake
16-Jun-20
We have an outside cat, and just got two young kittens that are outside as well. And we have a red fox that visits our house nearly every night to eat cat food ( I believe there's a den with possible pups right across the road in a small patch of trees). We haven't had an issue yet. No doubt that fox could kill the kittens if it wanted. Our full grown cat though hides in the barn that is basically part of the dog pen with two labs in it. So I don't worry about her. She knows how to get away.
At our old house we had numerous outside cats and kittens, and two foxes denned in a ravine right behind our house every summer, and we never lost a cat to the foxes that I remember.
Maybe it's a prey situation? I don't think the fox is struggling to find food at our place. Big fields around, lots of mice and voles and rabbits. I'm sure if it was harder to find prey that our kittens for sure would be in danger.
From: 35-Acre
16-Jun-20
I've heard cats and fox (even dogs) all are okay with each other. The fox won't want anything to do with claws of a cat (if push came to shove). As for fox and dogs, I've watched them play together - including the kits.
If the fox moved in, they already knows the cat is around. If it's an outdoor cat, they may already know each other (not in the Disney sense).
From: elkmtngear
16-Jun-20
I've seen them actually hanging out together on the porch, back when we used to feed the (outdoor) cats in a non-enclosed area.
From: Habitat
16-Jun-20
I am sure they could kill a cat but coyotes are way more of a threat as I have seen them carrying cats in town
From: Fuzzy
16-Jun-20
not likely
From: jmiller
16-Jun-20
Fox generally aren't hard on cats. Fisher, on the other hand, relish cat meat!
From: 4nolz@work
16-Jun-20
I was sitting in my garage in Iowa when my rat terrier came running in full speed with a red fox in pursuit.It saw me and started backpedaling on the slick finished concrete kind of comical but he was going to kill that 5# dog without a doubt.Saw it with my own 2 eyes.
From: Zbone
16-Jun-20
There was once trail cam pix of a half grown red fox killing a half grown groundhog, and groundhogs are tough animals...
From: ND String Puller
16-Jun-20
That’s a good question, I’ve been giving any fox I see around here a pass because there a so few around. But recently I’ve learned that horned owls would probably be the bigger threat to both the cats and fox. We’ve had a few good cats picked off at night by owls. I was amazed at what they are capable of killing when I read about them.
From: 4nolz@work
16-Jun-20
Great horned owls mostly predate on skunks I thought
From: Deerplotter
16-Jun-20
Had a family cat killed by a fox. Same situation. Cats aren’t much of a match.
From: Russ Koon
16-Jun-20
We had a horned owl that nested in a big sycamore right behind our barn when I was a kid on the farm. She never seemed to bother the adult cats, but when there were kittens around and she had babies in the nest, we often found the skin, head, and paws of a kitten in or around the barn. She did a neat job of skinning them out before taking the skinned carcass to the nest.
From: Fuzzy
22-Jun-20
Russ Koon is that owl for sale, or even rent?
From: Norseman
22-Jun-20
Red fox would probably play with it.
From: MQQSE
22-Jun-20
I have a fox who shows up each night and doesn’t even mess with the 5 kittens that are ten weeks old. Never know if there will be an issue but we have seen nothing to indicate there will be.
From: MQQSE
22-Jun-20
I have a cell camera out and sometimes the kittens just sit and watch him plow down their food.
I have a cell camera out and sometimes the kittens just sit and watch him plow down their food.
From: MQQSE
22-Jun-20
It’s funny how they all just don’t seem to be bothered with each other as long as they are getting fed.
It’s funny how they all just don’t seem to be bothered with each other as long as they are getting fed.
From: spike78
22-Jun-20
The best trail cam pic I ever got was a grey fox, deer, and skunk with their heads down in the feed together. Wish I still had it.
From: RIT
22-Jun-20
I would say sure absolutely the fox could and would kill the cat if opportunity met necessity. Is it common? I don’t know. We have about 15 barn cats and I get fox on cameras once in awhile. More coyotes than foxes though. This spring we had 6 kittens and they are all still alive. We have a lot of rabbits, voles, mice, and raccoons that aren’t close to the house to feast on. We actually have more chickens go missing than cats.
We get some big raccoons in the barn and they are afterw T-shirt fat food, then then the eggs. If none are available the will try to swipe a chicken or rabbit. I have put a huge dent in raccoons this spring with trapping.
From: bb
22-Jun-20
I had a family of fox move under a shed next to my driveway this past spring. they would watch the cat and if the cat moved and they lost sight of the cat they would come looking for it but never bothered it. I suppose if the cat went looking for the fox and made an effort to get too close it might have been a problem. The fox moved several times to various sheds in the neighbors yards, they don't seem to tolerate too much activity.
