What its really like to live with foxes -The good, the bad & the truth about having a pet fox

[Music] Just like grandma. Ow. Grimbo, [Music] are you smiling? Oh jeez. Oh jeez. It's okay. It's okay. You're a nice girl. This is your northbound side. Nice little fox. Nice little gin. Watch out for the other one. Oh. Oh. Oh, you good girl. Yes. All right. You, some of you guys have been asking me what it's like to really live with a fox. So, today, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So, help me God. Because these little guys can be awesome, horrible, beautiful, smelly, and just about everything you can imagine in between. And every single year, we help save these guys and raise little ones to donate out to you guys out there. But these foxes, they're not for everybody. Not by any means. So today we're going to look at a couple babies and we're going to go to the shelter that we help raise foxes with, talk to the gal that runs it, and then maybe if you guys are interested in adopting a fox of your own, this video will help you figure out if it's right for you or if it's just good enough watching a video on foxes. Right, Storm? Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? Like the fact that she just tried to eat my parrot about three minutes ago. Yeah. But you didn't get it, did it? No. No. But you tried. Yeah, you tried. She's a good girl. Other than the fact that she just tried to eat my parrot. Well, I'd like to introduce you to Grumble and Angel. If you're wondering which is which, well, their names are pretty self-explanatory, and in about 30 seconds, you're going to figure out who's who. Grumble and Angel are litter mates, meaning they were born in the same litter. And we tried to raise them together, but that didn't work out so hot. And you'll see why. And coming up now. Grumbles looking at Angel. Okay, Angel's still in fight mode. Well, she just got attacked, of course, by guess who? Grumble. Now we call Now you guys know why we call her Grumble. That's Grumble. Attitude. Grumble. It's okay. She's still not over. And Grumble's going in while you're trying to hold her. Bumble's like, "Let her down." I think she smells my tuna salad cuz she really likes tuna with the pepper on it. Didn't ask. I wasn't giving it to her. It was for me. Oh, that's your food. Yeah, it's my lunch. Here. Do you want tuna? Oh, yeah. They like tuna. Got to keep sister alone. Keep her distracted. She's already upset. She's doing the butt move. Are they caught up in basketball? Box them out. Box them out. Yeah. Here's my butt. Leave me. Bite my butt. My face is eating. Angel's ready. I I've actually never seen Angel instigate a fight. It's always grumble. Mhm. But Angel's not one to back down. So, you've had two foxes for pets. cuz I'm trying to get other opinions on actual foxes as pets. Do they make good pets or not make good pets? They're a cross between a cat and a dog. And they're more maintenance than both. They don't like noise. Like a dog will play, a puppy will play with stuff. They'll jump away and be scared to death. But they're more work than both. I don't know. Well, they're not as hard to feed. They'll eat just about anything, you know. Okay. But you can't have them in the house. No. All right. So that I guess that's when when you think of an a pet, most people are going to You can. You're just going to be cleaning a lot. I don't think it's fair to the fox, though. They dig. They want to dig. Yeah. You know, when it boils right down to it, they also like people. I mean, if they're used to you, they they want to be with us. Kind of like how both of them are following you around like shadows. Well, they're just babies. But I mean, even Storm, she she uh I don't know. I think she wants to be with us. She wants to come into the house. She gets loose. She runs to the door. So, yeah, she runs to the door to get in. Yep. Okay, but what about litter training and scent training? What do you mean? They stink. M bad. Worst smelling pee ever. Litter training. I think they did pretty well. Yeah. You think Storm did well? I think so. Mhm. She just had a problem with peeing everywhere. Like marking marking thing you own with this horrid box pee smell. Gh. It's terrible. It's bad. Yeah. No, litter training is fine, but you can't scent train them because they want their smell to be everywhere. Everywhere. Well, though didn't she tell us the fox girl tell us that um some are worse than others? The fox girl. I don't know if I was supposed to say her name. Michaela. I know, but I didn't know if I was supposed to say Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. Actually, I'm making this video. Oh, okay. For um save a fox.org. Oh, so then I should be more positive. No, actually, I'd rather have you be absolutely brutally honest. Well, that's what I Because I'd rather have people know what they're getting into with a fox than to get one and then to rehome them because they bond to people when it boils down to it, right? You think? No, they bond to individuals. Like Storm, she bonds to you, me, Hunter. No, she loves him. Yeah. And she loves these guys. She lo Yes. So, they actually they're very kind, gentle, intelligent pet, but they don't like strangers at all. I could bring Storm in. Want to see how Storm interacts with them? Yeah. Let's see. All right, let's get Storm is coming. We're prepping the house. Yeah. Yeah. And you can never really prep the house. It's crazy. She's crazy. So, we got these two guys. We're not even going to tell Lucy. We're just going to let her in. We're not going to say a word to the coonhound. Nothing. Nothing's going to happen. Coonhound. Nothing. Just keep laying there guarding the house. Coming around looking at the two boxes. I don't have her hooked up. Here she comes. Here's the storm. Here's the storm. Here she is. Hello. You got that one. So excited, Storm. Yes, you got it. So excited. Oh my god. I don't know what's wrong with it, Storm. What's wrong with that thing? I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with her. [Laughter] Oh, he's Oh, good girl. Oh, you're such a good girl. [Music] Put Lucy out. Yeah. [Music] Storm. Where's the other one? Don't pee on my purse. Don't pee in my purse. She will. She has before. And in your shoes and buried my wallet in her litter box. Well, there's no mystery why we named you Grumble. I'm trying to name her Grumble. Storm. Crumble just attacked Storm. Storm. Yeah. Now that grumbles over her obsession with that little toy, maybe she can play with Storm a little bit. makeup on. Yeah, she's not makeup ready. Just came out of her. And she's got her summer crack coat on. Yeah. She's The reason she looks like that is cuz uh for everybody that doesn't know, they shed their She's in that really ugly in between stage where they shed their winter coat and then they take on their summer coat and they look like crack boxes. She looks like she's a little crackbox. Who's a good Grumble? Who's a good Grumball? Who's a good Grumble? Who's a good Grumball? Who's a good Grumble? Ow. Grumble. Ow. Ow. Amazing. Music got the best in me ever since I was a child. Now it's showing its ugly face. What can I do? [Music] Music creeps into my dreams, wakes me into sweaty sheets, abandons me when nights out. What can I do? What can I do? That's grumble. All right, guys. I'm at save a fox.org and there's foxes absolutely everywhere. In fact, I see a baby right now. There's Michaela. She runs it. Owns it. How long you been doing this, Michaela? Um, I've been working with foxes for 7 years. So, you've got one down here and another one in your hand. Look at these guys. They're little marble pups. Hi. Oh, cute little bugs. Oh my goodness. This is crazy. Look at these guys. Oh, you are adorable. Oh wow. These are what kind? These are marble pups. They came from a fur farm. They came from a fur farm. Yep. So tell me the story. What do you do? So we take in we rescue captive bred foxes. So 90% of our foxes actually are surreners from pet home situations and then the other 10% are fur farm rescues. And we usually do this just in the springtime. And that's when baby foxes are born. So we take in the rejects, um we take in the runts, we take in the injured and the sick ones. And this marble litter we have, we have um three of them actually, the other ones in the kennel. And they were all rejected. So the mom stopped nursing them. So they would have all passed away if we did not come in and take them. Oh, we got another one here. What kind is this one now? This is a platinum. He's one of our rescues that the mom had um chewed his ears off actually. Oh, so he doesn't have an ear. Oh, no ears on you. Oh. Oh, look at that. Good boy. Cutie. Yeah. Oh, who's a good boy? Yes. You're such a good boy. It's a boy. Yeah, it's a boy. Oh, yeah. What a gorgeous animal. Just beautiful. So, each fox that you have out here has room to roam, but then they have their own space, too, don't they? Yep. Okay. So, now Shadow was um Shadow was one of our foxes that got seized from a petting zoo, and she actually came from Utah. So, um, all of their animals got seized and three of the foxes from that petting zoo came here. So, she's still being introduced into the fox yard. So, that's why she's still in a kennel during the day. I'm still working with her. Um, it's important that all of our foxes understand commands so that we can get them back into their enclosures at night. So, as soon as she understands what like treat means and I can get her to come when called, then she can be openly out in the foxy yard and just put away at night. Come when called. I wish that would work with my wife. Still haven't taught her that one. You teach me how to do with a fox. I got a few places I could use. My kids, other places. How you doing? Hi. This is one of our volunteers. She's working on cleaning the cages today. Yeah. Yes. You have lots of people that help you cuz you have how many foxes do you handle here? Uh, we have 13. 13? Yeah. Not including babies. Okay. So, you save them, you give them a life, then you try to find them homes, right? Yes. I think a lot I think what happens a lot of times is people think that foxes are going to make a good pet and they don't understand what they're getting into, do they? The problem is a lot of breeders don't like inform people enough on what it's like to raise a fox. And that's why we get so many pet surreners that people had originally bought from breeders because they just advertise them like, "Oh, look, cute fox." Mhm. And people put a down payment on it. They don't know what they're getting into and then they have this fox and by fall time it's like a wild animal in the house. So, what are the things that if people are thinking about buying a fox or want they want a fox? Um, one of the things that concerns me, I'll be uh totally honest with you, is people getting foxes and then not knowing what they're getting into. I think the biggest mistake people have when looking into getting a fox is they compare it too much in their mind to getting a dog. They think it's going to be able to, you know, walk on be trained to walk on a leash as easily as a dog, be trained to be potty trained as easily a dog. And it's none of that's true. Everything everything with training a fox is very similar to trying to train a cat. So, it'd be like trying to train a cat to walk on a leash and trying to train a cat to sit. Um, foxes don't naturally potty train like cats or dogs. So, that's definitely a downfall. They're they're a lot harder to keep inside. A lot of people will get them thinking they can raise them in the house, keep them in the house, and they'll mark everything. I mean, you can even Yeah. It took me 3 months to realize this is an outdoor pet. Yeah. And when I put my fox out and I built an outdoor enclosure for her and when she moved outside Mhm. she was way happier. Yeah. We were way happier. It's a lot easier. It's a lot easier to have a outdoor fox um than an indoor fox. But people need to understand too they can't just keep them in a chain link fenced yard because they can climb it and they can dig it, right? So that's why we have leanins and then we all have also have dig guards that you could probably see so that they can't So that's how you do it. That's how you do the dig guard. Yep. And then we do a perimeter check. Hello. Hi. I don't have a tree. It's a camera. Yes, it's a camera. So this is a rescue, too. You rescued him as an adult. Yep. He is one one of actually right now the out of the foxes we have here, he is our only adult for farm rescue. So, he is our only fox that we rescued from a fur farm as an adult. And um considering the fact that he lived in like a 3x two foot cage his whole adult life and look how friendly he is. You've worked with him cuz the last time I seen him was about 6 months ago. I came out in the middle of winter, remember? Yeah. And um you couldn't get near him. He just he was very scared. And now he's he's trained to I mean we let him out of his cage during in the morning and then we put him away at night and he comes when called. Um I mean he doesn't like to be handled and he doesn't like to be pet which is understandable but the fact that we can get him to come whenever we need him to still So what's the word you use to get him to come? Um we use t r e a t. Okay guys, you're going to meet Finn again. He's kind of the one that started the whole thing, isn't he? Hi Finn. What are you doing? Come here, y'all. Come here. You want another one? I saved it for you. All the other foxes were trying to eat them while you were napping. This is my baby. Mhm. Well, sorry, Finnigan. I didn't mean to scare you. So, get Finnegan's created his own foxhole, huh? Yep. That's That's his little den. So, that's another thing that I want to point out is when you keep a fox inside, you kind of eliminate their ability to do what they naturally want to do. Oh, yeah. I mean, Finnegan used to be inside. Uh, he used to be half inside, half outside, but one day he dug a hole straight through the couch. Yeah. So, and he's dug a hole through my mattress, too. Right. He's the He's a digger. They're all diggers. Yeah. I mean, every fox I've ever met loves to dig holes. Yeah. And some some more than others. And some are some are also more destructive than others. Um it's almost there's certain foxes where it's almost impossible to keep them inside even even half the time just cuz they're so so destructive. And it's not something that they do just to be bad. It's just they get bored and they need they need stimulation. They need things to do. So they'll rip up pillows and they'll dig through furniture. One of the one of the things too that people don't get is um they like to mark. At least mine does. Yeah. They all do. They all mark even females more than males, which is which is interesting. But I've I've noticed that the female foxes here anyways, they're the ones that kind of run the show. The females overdominate the males and they kind of they're the boss. And marking isn't a little thing either. Fox pee is probably one of the stinkiest peas. It's so bad. It's so bad. And you can just the smell of it. You can like taste it. It's how bad it is. You can. And it doesn't go away. Like cuz they pee in their water. They pee in their food. Yep. They pee in their own food. They love to pee in dishes. Any type of dish. If I leave any type of empty bowl or empty dish out, they'll pee in it. Yeah. They pee everywhere. I took them I took her for a walk one night with my son and he's like, "How many times you think she's going to pee?" And I said, "100." And it was, you know, we just went for a couple miles and when we finally got back home it was 97. Yeah. 97 times she marked on a two-mile walk. And it's you can eliminate you can eliminate the marking really. Um some foxes mark more than others. And there's no way to tell from when they're a baby to when they're adult if they're going to be really bad at marking or how bad they're going to be. And even the foxes you can potty train in the litter box, it doesn't eliminate marking. No. Yeah. Ours is potty trained for the most part, but not mark trained. Yeah. That's why they make a much better outdoor pet than an indoor pet. So, if you guys are thinking about getting a fox for a pet, man, think carefully cuz Yeah, that's they mark. You could potty train some of them. You can't potty train all of them. Um they're natural rors. I'm going to tell you straight up. They want to roam. They want to go. Oh, I mean now mine will come back, but she's gotten off the leash more than once and I'm chasing through the neighborhood. Yeah. Trying to catch her cuz I I know as soon as she's out of my sight, it's going to be even imposs more impossible to find her again. Yeah. And I mean, and another people another thing people need to know is um not every fox is like this, but a lot of foxes will bond so strongly to their owners and they won't bond to anyone else. Um our pet surrender banjo super affectionate with his owners, super bonded to them. They could hold them. They could pet them. None of the volunteer he's been here for almost two months. None of us can touch them. Okay. So, they get they get so bonded. I mean, people need to plan this for a longterm thing cuz it's really hard to rehome them to for them to be happy again. Tell me about it. Yes, that's uh one of the one of the things that you got to worry about with a fox. So, they don't make the best pets, but they make good pets for the right people. But, you got to know exactly what you're getting into before you do it. Yeah. I think they make I think they make a lot better and almost easier pets when they're when they're kept outside. Even if it's just you don't need a fox yard this big. If you just want like a 10x10 fox enclosure and if you plan on walking your fox, that's perfect. That's all your fox needs. And every day though, every day. But there's so much they're so much easier to keep outside. And when it's like a 10x10 outdoor enclosure with a cement bottom, you just you clean it out once a week. You power wash it. In the winter, you don't really have to clean at all if you live in a winter climate. Okay. So, when she says 10 by 10, that means 10 by 10, but you walk her every walk him every day. I mean, yeah, worst flipping cold ever. We're going out. In fact, the colder it is, they like it more. But if you you need to start walking them young cuz otherwise they're not going to they're not going to take to leash and collar or leash and harness. You need to get them on that like right away. Yes. Yeah. They kind of freak out. Now, mine is She's used to it. Yeah. She'll she'll just sit there and let me put it on. She hates it. Mhm. But she'll let me put it on. Oh, here's something important thing. If you decide to keep a fox and you have it on a harness, take the harness off when you're not walk. Don't leave the harness on. Do not do it. Cuz what I did is um I was walking my fox and I took a thermal imager dead of winter. It was like 0 degrees out. And I while I was walking her, I took a thermal imager and I shot it on her so I could see where she was losing heat. Yeah. The only place she was losing heat was right in her face and only where the harness was. Soon as I took that harness off, her fur puffed out. She was not losing any heat. So that told me that if I left that harness on when I wasn't walking her, she was going to freeze. Yeah. It's important if you don't leave that har Just don't leave a harness on. Just don't leave a harness on them at all. Just don't. I mean, they can get their legs caught in it and just Yeah, it's it's wears their fur off funny and if especially if they're outside in any kind of inclement weather, they need that fur. That's their protection. Yeah, that is their protection. And a lot of people don't know even the bottoms of their paws um in the winter time are completely furred over. Yep. So that they can walk on ice and they're webbed, too. So they can walk right she walks right over the top of it and…