"Yes, I tore open your cushion. What are you going to do about it."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.stad.social/post/21952

From last year sometime, I think.

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- I recommend volunteering at a sanctuary to determine if it's something you really want. Having a pet fox is practically a full time job. Most people can't handle it, and many end up in sanctuaries.
  
  Also they supposedly stink as fuck
- You can have pet foxes. They're not great pets, they're loud, they smell bad, they will probably pee on everything, but if captive bred theyre quite tame and there's a particular line that came from a domestication experiment who are especially tame.
  
  To the "they smell bad" bit, I'll add two things:
  I have pictures (maybe I'll post some, despite the ick factor) where this fox laid down to sleep right next to a pillow it had shit all over. And we're not talking pebbles, we're talking the runs and it was a nightmare to clean. It was tempting to burn the thing.... I also have to clean massive piles of fox poop off the decking on a regular basis.
  There is this: Dog poo forms a significant part of foxes' diet
  Of course, one captive-bred will likely be better, but I absolutely agree with you they won't make great pets.
  They are cute, but frankly, that is just about sufficient to let me tolerate them sleeping in the gazebo and thoroughly washing stuff afterward, but not nearly sufficient to make me consider one as a pet.
  
  The picture above : cute
  Wtf i just read : not cute.
  
  Yeah, foxes are best enjoyed from a distance, in my opinion. I'm perfectly happy with having them visit, but they can stay outside.
  
  Foxes are a big vector of rabies too. Stay safe dude.
  
  Rabies isn't much of a problem in the UK thankfully. But in general, yeah, Rabies is horrifying and it's good advice.
  EDIT: For anyone anywhere where it's a risk: Be careful and make damn sure to seek advice if bitten, even if not obviously penetrating the skin and even if the animal is not obviously rabid (Reminder: Rabies is near 100% fatal with treatment if you don't get vaccinated soon enough after exposure). Do not fuck with Rabies.
  
  Domestic ones will not lay on their own shit.. it sounds like that fox was pretty sick anyway? They also don't eat dog poo.
  The smell you're dealing with is just a strong musk. It's not pleasant, but it's not faeces.
  
  Pet dogs also eat poo on occasion, also without any underlying problem, so I really don't think there's any reason to think that far less domesticated species where it is well established would just stop. I'm sure you can reduce it, especially if it has a nicer food source, but still, an animal with far less history of domestication seems like a recipe for amplification of all the potential issues you don't want to deal with.
  
  Pica is an issue that you can work on. No animal should have it.
  
  Pica is eating things that are not food, but as pointed out in the article I linked, eating dog poo is providing a significant source of nutrition for foxes. In those circumstances, it by definition is not pica.
  
  Poo is not food, I'm extremely concerned that you've got to adulthood without anyone telling you this. Do not eat poo.
  
  No need to make personal attacks. Cecotrophy is a common phenomenon in certain animals. I don't know specifically about foxes but it wouldn't be a stretch if it was common behavior for them. Do you have any sources that suggest otherwise?
  
  Herbivores taking more time to digest greenery is really not related to eating the poo of another animal due to nutritional deficiency. It's a silly comparison.
  
  Fair enough. How about this:
  "Domesticated and wild mammals are sometimes coprophagic, and in some species, this forms an essential part of their method of digesting tough plant material.
  Some dogs may lack critical digestive enzymes when they are only eating processed dried foods, so they gain these from consuming fecal matter. They only consume fecal matter that is less than two days old which supports this theory."

19 comments