Reality Check: Foxes and the Law

Zara, the mate of Valo the fox.

Note: This is the first in a series of posts I'm going to be making as a reality check to potential fox owners--things that must be considered, but time after time I see newbies glossing over or completely ignoring. The tone here might not be friendly and I may come across as heartless, but I only have the best interests of your fox (or potential fox) at heart.

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So, you’ve done all your homework on their needs and care, and you’ve decided that yes, owning foxes is for you. You look up your state laws, and it turns out that they are legal pets in your state! In fact, they even issue permits specifically for foxes! Just sign up for that and you’re in the clear, right?

Not necessarily.

I find a lot of fox owners don’t seem to have a clear grasp of how the law works, and innocent foxes pay the price for it every year. Many people are under the mistaken impression that “State Law” always overrides city or county laws; if the state says it’s okay to have a fox, then it doesn’t matter what the city says. This could not be further from the truth. The reality is that the more restrictive ruling always applies.

If your state says “no”, but your city says “yes”: No, you can’t have a fox.
If your state says “yes”, but your city says “no”: No, you can’t have a fox.

It doesn’t matter if you have a state permit. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nonprofit sanctuary. It doesn't matter if you're inspected and licensed with the USDA. It doesn’t matter how much you love the animal or how good your care is or how responsible you are. If your city has an ordinance against owning foxes, and you buy a fox, you are breaking the law, and you are in the wrong.

To reiterate: if your city has an ordinance against foxes, it doesn't matter if you have a state permit.

It also doesn't matter if the "State Division of Wildlife" or "State Department of Natural Resources" official who issued your permit told you that you are in the clear. Typically that individual only knows what the state laws are; while many do know local laws throughout their districts, not all do. And knowing the local laws is not their responsibility--it's yours.

It's your responsibility to make sure there are no state laws against owning foxes.

It's your responsibility to make sure there are no county laws against owning foxes.

It's your responsibility to make sure that there are no city laws against owning foxes.

The recent case of Valo the fox highlights this. The whole mess could have easily been avoided, as Fairborn OH has all of their ordinances online. A thirty-second google search reveals that Fairborn OH has an ordinance against them, and would have let the owner know not to move there. By taking the word of a state official instead of doing her own homework, the owner unintentionally put her foxes at risk. (A collar or a microchip could also have saved Valo's life, but that's a topic for another article.)

If you fail in your responsibility to make sure you are legally in the clear before obtaining a fox, and your animal is confiscated and/or euthanized because of it, then that animal's death is on your hands. Not the city, not the state, not the county, not the mean government officials who are just doing their jobs by enforcing the law--it is your fault for keeping an illegal animal.

Of Foxes and Teenagers

Miehiera the arctic fox.

The following was written by a friend of mine, Alynn, who writes a blog about her fox Miehiera. I get a lot of e-mails from teenagers who love foxes and want to get one for a pet, so I wanted to give you guys the perspective of a teen who has been there and gotten her fox.

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Hold off.

I am about the same age as you (I turned 14 this year) and in the same situation. I got my fox the summer that would between my 8th and 9th grade year (I skipped a grade).

To be honest, if I could do it all over I would have waited until I was out on my own or at least had a job. I had to pay for everything, and without a job this was incredibly hard. I am taking her to the vet and spending all my savings to do that just to get her checked up.

I have to rely on my parents a lot for additional expenses and for transportation. Rather than be able to expand her kennel right away, I have to slowly save up. This would be so much easier if I had a job.

I'm a full time college student. I just finished a semester with 14 credit hours.
We have a lot of financial strain that I didn't foresee when we put down the deposit.
None of this I have any control over.

I just really don't have control. I can't go out and just get her more panels. I can't just drive her to the vet if there's a problem. I do get very busy and I have to admit Miehiera does not get as much attention as she deserves.
There's also the problem that I don't know where I'm going to be in the next five years, meanwhile Miehiera is probably going to live for another 15.

I say you need to wait until you're AT LEAST 16 and you can pay for the expense of the fox.
I would not get the fox unless your parents pushed for it first. If your parents are like mine, they're not going to spend the money unless they absolutely need to. You're going to have to pay for everything.

You might be looking at my post and think, "Yeah, I can pay for things! I can handle this!" Well, that's what I thought. I love Miehiera to death, she's my world. Nothing more uplifting than after a long, hard day going outside to see a fox screaming, wiggling, wagging their tail and running all up and down their pen in sheer joy just to see you. However, I have a lot of stress in my life and Miehiera is suffering because she doesn't get the time or the immediate care she deserves. I definitely admit I was not ready for her in hindsight. But I have her now, and by getting her I made her the promise that I would take care of her.

Please, wait until you're at least 16. It would be a lot better if you waited until you're out of college or at least to a point in your life that you know where you're going to be for the next 20 years. I don't know where I'm going to be in five.

I'm not saying it won't work out for you because I am having a hard time, but if you're really determined I would save up at least $5000, not including the expense of the fox itself. The vet bills, the food, the toys, the kennel - it adds up quick and you need money for a rainy day, because things do come up.

If you REALLY want to work with foxes, I would recommend finding a sanctuary with foxes. That will give you invaluable experience. You may even be able to find fox owners near you, or find a breeder. Find an exotic vet to volunteer for. There are lots of zoos that will have summer camps for kids your age. I found one here in Michigan, I think you could find one in Lousiana. I even believe that going to an exotic animal swap meet/auction (I think there is one in Lousiana) you can see some foxes and perhaps talk to breeders.

I spent a year researching, saving and so on and that didn't even prepare me totally!
I do take good care of my girl and love her to death, even if she doesn't get all the attention she deserves. For her sake and mine though, I wish I had waited until I was absolutely sure of where I was going to be in the next 10 years.

If you have to get a permit, that can be tricky too. Because I am not old enough to own an animal, legally Miehiera belongs to my father. All of her health records and documentation is in my name. This was confusing to work out with my breeder and my vet. And if anything ever happens to cause us to get in trouble with the law (say, she bites someone, which I don't allow her to be visited by many people anyway), my dad's head is the one on the table. I legally can not take responsibility and that bothers me. If you get a permit, your parents are going to have to be the ones to apply for it. It's really frustrating to have to have someone represent you like that, and it's best to wait until you're old enough to take direct responsibility for the animal itself.

Overall, unless your parents really want the fox too and are willing to pay for every expense and help you care for it, I wouldn't go for it. Spend the next couple of years getting experience, mulling things over and saving up money.

Pet Fox Enclosures: Choosing The Location

The first two things to consider when building a fox enclosure are size and location. For a red fox, an absolute minimum of 100 square feet is needed. If multiple foxes are to be kept in the same enclosure, start with a base of 100 square feet, and then add an additional 50 square feet for each fox in the enclosure (so an enclosure to keep 3 foxes should be a minimum of 250 square feet.) Keep in mind that these are the absolute minimums. If at all possible, your fox’s outdoor enclosure should be much bigger. The more room you can give them while keeping them safe and secure, the happier they will be.

The enclosure should be in a safe location. Ideally, it should be protected by a privacy fence, and invisible from the road, to discourage curious passerby or those with bad intentions. Inspect the area you’re considering turning into a pen. Avoid marshy ground or standing pools of water, as these indicate drainage issues that will not be easy to fix. If you build the enclosure on a slope, keep in mind that foxes love to dig in well-drained, sloped soil, so you will need to take even more precautions against dig outs.

The last thing you need to consider about location is exposure. Your pet will need to be sheltered from the elements. Consider if your chosen location has a windbreak and a source of shade; if either of these things is lacking, you will need to come up with a means of providing them.

Now that you’ve got your location picked out, it’s time to build! Be sure to come back next week when I start to discuss the actual construction of the enclosure.

Playing Or Teasing? Know The Difference

Someone I know was recently laughing about how they play "tug-o-war" with their new sugar glider and carrots. I got to witness one such "game." The glider was chattering angrily as it pulled on the carrot, and was very visibly agitated. To the animal, it wasn't a game.

The owner meant well, and no physical harm was done to the glider, but I suspect he has no idea how much damage he was doing to the animal's trust of him. Some people just don't have a firm grasp on the difference between playing with an animal and teasing an animal.

Being teased is not good for any animal, but is especially bad for more exotic pets like foxes or sugar gliders. These animals don't have the inborn trust of humans that many cats and dogs have; they must learn to trust us, and teasing them works against that.

The difference between teasing and play can vary from animal to animal; one cat might enjoy chasing a laser pointer, while another simply gets paranoid and agitated by it. (I have two of each sort of cat, actually.) So while a game of "chase the red dot" is fantastic exercise for the cat that enjoys it, it is not an appropriate game for the cat that is upset by it.

There is one very easy rule of thumb to determine whether an activity is play or torment:

If the animal isn't having fun, it's not a game.

Does the animal seek out the interaction? A good example of this is when I play with Gizmo's squeaky balls. I grab one of his toys, and he makes a lot of noise and dramatic attempts to get it away from me. I throw it for him, and as he's dashing after it, I get a hold of another one of his toys, and the cycle starts all over again. I don't play "keep-away" with any of his toys for more than a minute or so, and at the end of the game he still gets all of them.

It would be very easy to assume that I'm teasing him with his toys, but Gizmo will frequently initiate this game by walking up and handing me a ball, and then trying to get it back. If in the middle of the game, I quit snatching new toys to play keep-away with, he will start piling his toys up next to me. The fox clearly enjoys "winning" toys back that I stole from him, and it's good exercise for us both.

At the other end of the spectrum with him is tug-o-war. Gizmo gets VERY upset during games of tug-o-war, they generally end with him taking the rope, running to a corner of his pen, shrieking to warn everyone away and peeing on it to make it CLEAR that that is his rope and we're not to touch it. Lots of animals really enjoy a game of tug-o-war, but Gizmo is not one of them.

All in all, you have to know your animal. Watch what makes them happy, and what makes them upset. And if something makes them upset in play, don't do it again or you risk destroying the trust you had to work so hard to build up.

Pet Fox Stories: Sibling Rivalry

People are often quite worried when they find out that I have a fox and cats, under the theory that one will surely devour the other. However, contrary to popular belief, foxes and cats are not hardwired to kill each other. However, it wouldn't be quite accurate to say they "get along well", either. Although there is no overt aggression, there is a very intense rivalry between the fox and the cats.

The picture you see is of Gizmo the fox, Mischief the cat, and what has come to be known as the "Drama Chair". For reasons that I don't understand and probably never will, this ratty old chair has become the most hotly contested piece of property in the entire house.

Gizmo loves the chair dearly; it's quite possibly his favorite thing in the entire house. Unfortunately, this has not escaped the cat's notice. Whenever Mischief happens to notice him relaxing on it, her typical response is to come and hop on to the back of the chair, giving him a hiss and a dirty look.

Gizmo's response to an animal half his size telling him to get off the chair is usually to hop to the floor and start screeching and wailing at the top of his lungs, letting the whole neighborhood know that a gigantic panther has come and stolen his chair from him. If nobody removes the cat from her perch, he will start to dart back and forth between the nearest human and the chair, just wailing.

The cat tends to ignore this whole display; foxes, if such creatures exist, are far beneath her notice. However, the only time she ever sits on the chair is when she's kicked Gizmo off it. If he's not there to freak out, she sees no appeal in "having" the chair.

What about you guys? Do you have any interesting stories of "sibling rivalry" between your animals? What do you do to resolve them? Tell me about it in the comments!

And stay tuned: Wednesday I'm going to discuss methods of introducing a new pet to established ones.

9 Essential Techniques for Training ANY Animal

Gizmo the fox, getting a treat for shaking my hand.

People are under the mistaken impression that most animals can't be trained. The claim is often that they're not smart enough (or are too smart) or that they're too wild.

Well, I've worked with everything from dogs to foxes to cats to chinchillas to rats, and the more animals I deal with, the more I get the impression that you can train anything with a brain stem. Even my cornsnakes have shown that they're capable of learning and adapting (though not to the same impressive degree that mammals and birds can).

Although the individual techniques vary from species to species, there are a few rules of thumb that apply across the board.

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#1. Keep It Fun!

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping a fun, upbeat attitude while training. This is important for any animal, but more so for a pet fox or other exotic pet. Almost all dogs have an innate desire to please their humans, and will tolerate unpleasantness to make them happy. Cats, pet foxes, and other animals, however, have no inborn desire to please you; they live to please themselves. While this "selfish" attitude is important for survival in the wild, it can be a real challenge to training.

An unhappy or bored fox is unlikely to learn anything, so it's up to you to keep every training session fun and upbeat, with lots of treats and praise to hold your pet's interest.

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#2. Correct, Don't Scold!

Avoid scolding your pet during training sessions, and never hit or otherwise cause pain. Doing so will only teach them to dread and fear training sessions, or worse, to dread and fear you.

I even recommend you don't use your typical "scolding" word during training. If your pet gets a harsh "BAD!" or "NO!" when he's being naughty, use a different tone and phrase to correct an error during training. When Gizmo goes to get in the trash, I growl "No!" in a harsh, angry tone. When I tell him to lay down and he tries to shake, I say "Try again" in a low, calm voice. The goal is to convey "That's not what I'm looking for," not "You're in trouble!"

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#3. Always End on a High Note

How the training session ends has the biggest impact on an animal's memory, so be sure to finish on a high note to keep him eager for the next time.

The easiest way to do this is to always end with a success. If your cat or pet fox just isn't getting the new concept you're trying to teach, and you want to stop, have him do a simple trick he already knows and reward him before ending the training session.

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#4. Don't Train in a Bad Mood

This goes both for you and your pet. If you're in a rotten mood, your voice will be harsher, your frustration threshold lower, and your patience limited. Your pet will pick up on these signals, and may read them as a correction even if he's displaying the behavior you want. If you're giving him a treat but you smell mad, these mixed messages will confuse him and can even set his training back. It's better to skip a day of training than to try and hide a bad mood.

On the other hand, trying to teach an agitated animal is often an exercise in futility. Right after a bath or a trip to the vet is a bad time for a training session. A cat or pet fox that is all wound up, even if it's happy, can also be difficult to teach--if he's squirrely and hyper, it's a better idea to use up some of that energy by playing with him and save the training for later.

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#5. Keep Sessions Short

As I've said before, bored animals don't make good learners (the same applies to people!). Unfortunately, your typical cat, fox, dog, chinchilla, etc., has an attention span comparable to that of most toddlers. To hold their interest, keep training sessions short and fun.

Five three-minute-long sessions are better than one fifteen-minute-long one, and it's always best to call it quits while your pet is still eager for more--Don't wait for them to get bored!

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#6. Be Consistent

Consistency has a huge impact on how quickly your pet will learn; the fewer mixed messages you send, the better. If you're teaching your pet fox to sit up on her hind legs, don't say "sit pretty" one day and "beg" the next. If the sofa is off-limits, don't let your dog sleep there one day, then scold him the next. If you use hand signals along with verbal commands (which I highly recommend), keep the hand signals the same from one day to the next.

Even being consistent in your choice of training area can be helpful. If you train in one particular place all the time, when your pet sees that he's being taken there, he'll often go right into a learning frame of mind.

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#7. Don't Push Too Hard

Especially after being met with a little bit of success, novice trainers often fall into the trap of rushing ahead and trying to teach too much too quickly. Resist the urge to rush, and you'll save both yourself and your animal a lot of frustration.

If you've moved ahead, and your pet just isn't having any success, there is no shame in going back to a previous step.

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#8. Keep Rewards Small

When using food rewards, use small tidbits that your pet can crunch down quickly. If you use large or chewy treats, your pet will fill up quickly and lose interest in training faster. Also, a treat that takes too long to eat will interrupt the flow of the training session.

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#9 Keep Rewards Good (But not too good)

You want the rewards to be good--good enough to motivate your pet, but not so good that it'll chew through your hand to get to them. This can be a surprisingly difficult balance to strike. Most dogs have a natural inhibition towards biting, but foxes and other exotic pets generally lack this. If the treat is good enough, they'll often have no problem biting to see if they can make you drop it.

Two brands I've found work well for this are Pounce and Temptation brand cat treats. They're small, tasty, and they come in such a wide variety of flavors that it's easy to keep the treats novel and interesting for your pet.

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Cat Doing Tricks:




Fox Doing Tricks:

Wild-born versus Captive Bred?

I've been asked several times about what the main differences are between keeping a fox that was born in the wild versus keeping one that's captive bred like Gizmo.

It comes down to nurture-verses-nature. If you get a wild rescue very young and take good care of him and socialize him well, he can learn to love people and be very affectionate with you. Although he doesn't have any "natural" inclination to be a good pet, he's been nurtured to be one, and that can make all the difference.

With a many-generations-tame fox like Gizmo, though, things are a little different. As a general rule of thumb, animals that are easier to handle tend to get better care than those that are difficult. A fox that is calm and mellow when taken to the vet will generally be taken to the vet more often than one that has a full-scale panic attack every time he sees the car.

An easy-to-handle fox will be much easier to treat if it does get ill, and will probably get more regular maintenance of it's nails, coat, and teeth. Plus, a breeder is more likely to spend time with a friendly, gregarious fox, which means that they are more likely to notice if something is off about it's behavior, or if it's hurting in some way. This means that a friendly fox will usually have the problem noticed much faster if it gets sick or injured, and will get the necessary medical care sooner.

In short, an easy-to-handle, friendly fox will get better care as a direct result of it being friendly and easy-to-handle, meaning it will live longer. (I'm not saying that any breeder intentionally neglects a shy or antisocial fox, just that problems are noticed sooner and can be treated much more easily in a friendly animal).

And if a fox lives longer, if it's a breeding animal, it will produce more kits. So, over time, more and more of the foxes in the pet trade are the direct descendants of friendly, easy-to-handle foxes. And personality has a very strong genetic component to it, so the genes that are associated with an animal being friendly and easy-to-handle become more prevalent with each generation.

In a nutshell, a domestic-bred fox is more likely to have a natural tendency to be friendly and make a good pet (and that the more generations it's ancestors have been tame, the more likely it is to be naturally friendly).

The Importance of Collars and Tags

Gizmo showing off his bright blue tags.

Last night, our neighbors found two Golden Retrievers in our neighborhood who were wearing bandannas, but no identification or real collars. Both dogs were friendly, well-fed, and well-groomed, so they were obviously a pair of lost pets. To keep the dogs safe and contained, we closed them in our garage while we started to look for the owners. This story has a happy ending, as it took less than an hour of asking around the neighborhood to locate the missing family, but not all lost pets are so lucky.

I am a firm supporter of collars and tags--there is no better way to get a lost pet home again

In the case of exotic pets like Gizmo, having a plain, easy-to-see identification on them is even more important than it is for dogs and cats. If someone sees a cat or a dog in their backyard, their first impulse is "lost pet." If someone sees a fox, raccoon, or skunk, their first impulse is "wild animal". If your pet dog gets out, most folks will try and catch it and return it to you. If your pet fox or pet skunk gets out, they're more likely to call animal control.

This is one of the situations where having a friendly pet fox can make the situation worse, if they're not wearing a collar or harness. Most wild animals will not approach a human unless they are sick. A lost pet fox trotting up for an ear-rub might get shot by a wildlife official, simply because it's not behaving "normally" for it's species. And with no obvious identification, how can we expect them to know it's a pet?

Gizmo wears harnesses in bright colors--usually red, blue, or green, to stand out against his butterscotch-and-black coat. The more obnoxious the shade, the more I like it. I want it to be obvious from space that he's a pet. He wears many identification tags, and is micro-chipped. (However, micro-chipping alone is not an effective way of getting your pet fox back--without any external means of seeing it's a pet, they've got no reason to check for a chip).

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Some people choose not to keep collars on their pets due to fur-wear. Nylon collars can cause the guard hairs around the neck area to break off, leaving a woolly texture instead of a sleek one. Snug-fitting collars in animals with long or curly coats, like a Persian cat or a poodle, can cause issues with matting up the hair under them. Although fur-wear is a minor cosmetic inconvenience, matting can be difficult to groom out, and can be painful for the animal.

One solution that we've found works very well, both against fur-wear and against matting, is to use what's called a rolled leather collar. They don't flatten the fur under it like a nylon or flat leather collar does, and we've had great luck using them both on Gizmo and our shaggy mess of a dog. (Our dog is a Bouvier de Flandres, which have thick, woolly, curly coats).

They are a bit more expensive than traditional flat collars, and can be hard to find, but they're long-lasting and worth the price. Gizmo is hard on his things (I'm constantly having to buy new harnesses for him) and it took him almost two years to wear out the collar to the point where I had to replace it. Our dog is still on her first collar.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any break-away rolled collars for cats. At least, none that I've found (if any of you come across one, please let me know!) For our long-haired cat, Kali, an effective way to avoid collar-matting is frequently removing and grooming the hair under the collar, and keeping the hair around her neck clipped short. A bit of a hassle, but it's worth it for her safety.

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Another reason I hear quite a bit for why people don't put collars on their pets (particularly cats and pet foxes) is that the pet "won't wear it". This is actually a pretty easy problem to fix, but it does take a bit of thought and work.

Step #1.
When you first buy the collar, wash it thoroughly, and wear it around your arm or ankle for about a week. This helps to soften the collar up so it will be more comfortable, and replaces the "alien" smells of the store with the more familiar smells of you and your home.

Step #2.
Having a bag of treats or a toy ready, put the collar on your cat or pet fox. Leave it on for about five minutes, and have an intense "love the pet" session. Treats, toys, ear-rubs, belly-rubs, whatever your pet likes best. Then take the collar off and ignore them for the next half an hour. Refuse to give them attention of any kind.

Step #3.
Put the collar back on, this time for about ten minutes, and once again shower them with love and praise and treats. Once you take it off, again break off all praise, treats, affection, etc.

Step #4.
Rinse repeat. Each time, increase the amount of time that you leave the collar on. If you feed your pet meals instead of free-range, put the collar on and have them wear it while they eat their dinner. The whole goal behind all of this is to make them associate the collar with good things.

After a day or two of this, even the most stubborn of cats will probably be wearing the collar with no problem! Foxes can take a bit longer to acclimate to it, but with patience and persistence will also learn to wear it no problem.

Animals and Children.

Recently on one of the exotic pet forums, there was a discussion about how to teach foxes to tolerate children, and Gizmo and I were mentioned in it a few times. One of the members on the forum, who shall remain nameless in this post, said that he lets his niece carry his baby fennec around like a doll and dress it up, on the theory that if she's subjected to it as a pup, she will put up with it as an adult. I just want to go on the record as saying I don't approve of that method of teaching any exotic pet tolerance of children; it's too easy for things to go wrong, and a bite won't end well for anyone involved.

I figured that it'd be best to make it clear what I did to make Gizmo like kids, and what my thoughts are on the matter.

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I have rules for Gizmo around people (one of these rules is he is ONLY allowed to roughhouse with me and my mom), and yes, Gizmo has been socialized to children and is good with them. However, Gizmo is never pinched, pulled on, dragged around, or otherwise manhandled by children. I simply won't allow such treatment. Gizmo is also never left unsupervised around children for both his sake and theirs.

After teaching Gizmo how to take treats nicely, and he was doing it reliably, I had children who I could trust to behave and knew VERY well (my little cousins) feed him treats, talk to him softly, pet him, etc. He was exposed to kind, quiet, gentle children at a young age, and learned to associate kids with affection and good things.

Gizmo has never had a negative experience with any child.

Back before the whole mess with the county, children in the neighborhood were allowed to pet him and rub his belly, but only after I made it very clear to them what is acceptable behavior on their part and what is not. And the contact was entirely on Gizmo's terms. I've never seen him not eager to greet a child (as all of his experiences with them have been positive), but if Gizmo ever seemed wary or unsure of ANYONE, the contact ended there, and he was never made to endure being touched by someone he didn't want touching him.

Now, at home when I'm playing with him, sometimes I do stuff that annoys him. I tug on his ears, roll him off his feet, hold him down, and am irritating in general. I don't do this every play session, but I make sure to really annoy him during play at least once a week. This is to see how he handles someone being "unfair", and to offer a quick correction if he reacts badly.

Overall, he's very tolerant of me being "bad"; his first response is to get whiny, his next response is generally to go under his play cube and refuse to come out. I reward these behaviors, as I think that avoidance is the best response he could possibly have towards rough treatment. However, under no circumstances would I allow anyone to treat him roughly.

When it comes to animals and children, it's far more important to teach a kid how to treat animals properly, not to teach an animal to put up with harassment and abuse. Animals don't think "human", so you have to teach a child to understand how the animal thinks.

The Daily Health Check

Gizmo gets a health check every morning, and I highly recommend it for all pet owners. It helps you to recognize what's normal for your pet, and lets you catch problems really early on. And, as an added bonus, it gets them used to being handled.

I feel all along his back and sides for any lumps or bumps, his feet and pawpads get looked at to make sure they're in good shape, and I look in his eyes, ears, and mouth. I also check under his tail just to make sure he's keeping the fur there clean and dry.

Important Note: Always end the health-check with ear-rubbings. Otherwise, the fox will be obligated to scream at the top of his lungs to let the entire county know that you're skipping the most important step, and that you're neglecting him.

Meet Harry Flashman and Elspeth, the Corsac Foxes

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've added a new link to my list, and it's a blog you really should check out if you enjoy reading about Gizmo. Meet Harry Flashman and Elspeth, the Corsac Foxes:

Click here to go to their blog!  

Trick Files: Shake

 It might surprise you to see this next on the list. Most dog-training courses have you teach "down" before "shake". However, as most foxes are extremely adroit with their paws, shake is a very easy trick for them to learn--they'll pick it up much more quickly than "Down", and this will help to build both your confidence and your pet's.

Prerequisites: Your fox must be conditioned to the clicker, and know the command "Sit".

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To teach your fox to "shake", have it sit in front of you and hold the treat in your closed hand on the ground, palm up. Your fox will probably sniff and lick at your hand at first, and may even nom you gently, but don't release the treat. Generally, he will very quickly shift to pawing at your hand to get it open--the instant he does this, click the clicker and release the treat, praising him enthusiastically.

Most foxes catch on to this very quickly, and will start tapping your hand right off the bat. Once he does this, lift your hand a little bit off the ground when you offer the treat, and say "Shake" first. Again, this generally takes very little time to master.

The next part is a bit more difficult. Start offering your right hand (Still with a treat in it) and telling him to "shake" but rewarding him with a treat from your left hand. This will take a little longer for him to understand (I hit hand A, but hand B rewards me). Once he does, though, you don't need to be holding a treat in the offered hand--just offer a flattened palm for him to paw at.

From there, just gradually build up what he has to do to get the treat. At first, just tapping the hand is sufficient. Next make him hold his paw there for a moment. After that's been mastered, he has to let you curl your fingers around said paw. Eventually, you get to the point where he has to let you hold his paw and shake it gently.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Eyes On Me
• Trick Files: Sit

The Soapbox: Pets Are A Commitment!

Once again, I'm gonna get back on the Soapbox.

This post has little or nothing to do with Gizmo; it's me whining and ranting about something that bothers me. You might wanna just scroll to the next post. The little scrollbar is there on the right side of the screen. Go ahead and scroll away; you won't hurt my feelings.

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Alrighty, on with the rant.

A few weeks ago, a little girl who lives in my neighborhood (I'd guess her to be somewhere between 12 and 14?) showed up at my door with some leopard geckos in a cardboard box. She was tired of them, and apparently someone in the neighborhood told her that I'd take them.

"Why do you need to find a new home for them?"

"I'm bored of them and my mom says I have to get rid of them before she'll buy me a new guinea pig."

". . . What were you planning on doing if I couldn't take them?"

"Oh, I'd just let them go outside."

I could've choked that mom. Way to teach a kid that pets are expendable! I called her mother and had her come over, just to verify what I'd been told and to make sure that she had honestly OKed her daughter abandoning the pets like that.

Yes, mom was in on it and 100% okay with it. Some people should not be allowed to purchase animals.

I asked them a few basic questions about guinea pigs, since that was apparently the next poor animal these people were bringing home. They answered most of the questions accurately enough, but one of the ones they had no idea on made me cringe. They didn't have the faintest idea how long guinea pigs lived!

Well, I explained to them that guinea pigs generally live from 5 to 12 years when properly cared for, but can also live considerably longer than that (I had a guinea pig named Sparkle that died at the ripe old age of 14). I also said that I would take the geckos because reptiles are notoriously hard to re-home, but that I would NOT be the dumping ground for unwanted pets; I would not take the guinea pig when she was "bored with it", so she better be SURE she was going to stay interested in it throughout it's lifespan.

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Well, I got the geckos all set up in a new tank. The best I could manage on such short notice was a 10-gallon, which is on the small side for two full-grown geckos, so to give them a bit more "room" in it I added a burrow.

(Note: These aren't my geckos; but that is the same burrow I bought.)

Well, a few days later, the girl came over wanting to see Gizmo, and I reluctantly agreed. Then, as an afterthought, she wanted to know how the geckos were doing. When I took her over to their new terrarium, they were both asleep down in the burrow in a pile.

"Can you get them out?"

"No, they're asleep. Besides, I'd have to dismantle the whole thing to get the burrow out. You're just gonna have to look and not touch right now."

So she proceeds to start banging her knuckles on the glass to wake them up. Needless to say, I quickly escorted the brat out of my room.

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First off: One of the most important questions when bringing a pet home is how long of a commitment is it going to be? I bought Gizmo knowing full well that I could still have him when I was 35. Do you really think that kid is still gonna want that guinea pig when she's 20?

The leopard geckos still have their baby stripes faintly visible. They can't be more than a year old, and she was already "bored of them".

Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting a short-term pet. If you want a pet, but you only want to deal with it for a year or two, buy a mouse or a hamster. I love tortoises, and I love conures. However, I don't want to deal with a pet that might live 30 years or more, so I don't have a tortoise or a conure!

Secondly, just letting them go outside? How awful, and for more reasons than one. There are a few different hypothetical ways that could end, all of them horrible. In this case: a terrible, unnecessary death. No desert reptile is going to survive a winter in Ohio.

But, say that they were a species that was capable of thriving here. Well, just "letting them go" is one of the ways that invasive species can get a foothold, causing untold damage to native flora and fauna. Never, EVER let a pet go into the wild.

Finally, it's a living creature. Show it some respect. All of my pets have a "don't mess with me" zone where I will not hassle them unless it's an emergency. And "letting the neighbor kid pet it" is NOT an emergency. I don't pull the geckos out of their burrow. I don't pull my snakes out of their hide-rocks. I don't hassle my cats when they're asleep in their beds. And I don't drag Gizmo out of the log-cabin in his play yard.

People need to teach their kids a basic respect for living things; the golden rule applies to animals too. If you wouldn't want someone to do it to you, don't do it to your pet! I don't like being teased, I don't like being suddenly awakened when I'm napping, and I don't enjoy having my hair pulled or ears pinched, so I don't do any of those things to my pets!

Trick Files: Sit

The first (and arguably the easiest) trick to teach a fox or most any other four-legged creature is to sit. You can start teaching this one very early on. Gizmo had a good handle on it by the time he was ten weeks old. It makes for a great "trick preschool", as it's easy to learn and gets your fox used to the whole training routine with very little stress or confusion on their part.

Another good reason to start with "Sit" is that it's something of a gateway trick. A lot of the tricks I'll be teaching later on involve starting with a sitting fox; it's much easier and more effective to have them sit on command than to try and manhandle them into position.

Prerequisites: For this trick, I assume that your fox has already been conditioned to a training clicker. "Eyes On Me" is also useful, though not necessary.

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For A Kit:

This is easiest if your kit is in a pretty mellow mood--don't try to teach sit right in the middle of playtime. You want him to be alert, but not bouncing off the walls. Get something your fox really likes (ham, little bits of hardboiled egg, and cat treats all work well.)

Sit on the floor with the kit standing in front of you. Hold the treat so that he can see it and smell it. If he noms on your fingers, do NOT release the treat, or you'll be rewarding him for biting at you, which is not the lesson you want to teach.

Slowly move the treat over his head, right between his eyes and back towards his ears, and say "Sit" (Only say it once). To continue watching the treat move, the kit will sit down to keep it in his field of vision. The second his rump hits the ground, click the clicker and give him his treat, praising lavishly.

Repeat this a few times a day, and he'll have caught on in no time.

Troubleshooting: If your kit turns around to watch the treat instead of sitting down, you're moving it too quickly.

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For An Adult Fox:

Get something your fox really likes (ham, little bits of hardboiled egg, and cat treats all work well.) Let him see that you have the treat, then hold it up over his head, out of reach. Calmly say "Sit."

The fox will probably respond by jumping for the treat, and perhaps screaming hysterically. Don't give it to them. Continue holding the treat out of reach, and repeat the command "Sit" every now and then. Eventually, your fox will sit, if only to give you an exasperated look. The instant it's rump hits the ground, click your clicker and toss it the treat, enthusing "Good sit! Good fox!".

Repeat this process a few times in a row. I recommend 3-to-5 treats, 3-to-5 times a day. After a week or so, your fox should have definitely caught on that sitting down is what's getting them the treat. Once this happens, you can work on "polishing" the trick.

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Polishing The Trick:

You can increase the amount of time that your fox has to stay sitting. Tell your fox to sit, and do a brief count in your head before clicking and rewarding. 1-2-treat. Later on, up it to 1-2-3-treat. So long as you increase the amount of time your fox has to stay sitting slowly enough, they should pick up on this in no time.

You can also tighten up their response time by making it so they have to respond faster to get the treat. Give the command, and mentally count to five slowly. If your fox doesn't sit within that count, don't give them the treat. (Note: If they never sit that quickly, you're starting with too short of a count. You might have to start with a seven or even a ten count, depending on your fox and how quickly you count)

Once your fox is consistantly sitting within the count you've specified, subtract a number from it--in this case, make it so the fox has to respond within the count of four instead of the count of five. As always, make sure these changes happen slowly and gradually, and your fox will be responding to you in the blink of an eye.

Oh, it's also best to focus on ONE area of polishing at a time. If one day you're working on making them sit longer, and the next you're trying to make them sit faster, your fox may become confused and frustrated, as they're not sure what you want. Focus on one or the other first, and once your fox has mastered either sitting for a while or sitting quickly, then move on to the other one and focus on it.

Happy training! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Eyes On Me
• Trick Files: Shake

Gizmo the Fox Q and A

This summer, we left on vacation, and boarded Gizmo for the first time ever. He spent 10 days away from us at the vet's office.

As usual, having Gizmo in public quickly turned into a Q&A session. I realized that I'd never posted it before, so I figured I'd share:

Trick Files: Eyes On Me

Like conditioning to a clicker, "Eyes On Me" is more of a training tool than it is a trick in and of itself, but it can be incredibly useful. Foxes have the attention spans of gnats, so it's helpful to have a way to quickly redirect them to looking at you when they're starting to get a bit off-task.

Prerequisites: For this trick, I assume that your fox has already been conditioned to a training clicker.

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I've heard people use a lot of different commands for this, everything from "Watch me!" to "Pay attention!" I prefer to use "Eyes on me!" because it's a phrase that is unlikely to come up in conversation. That way, every time you say "Eyes on me", it will be when you are trying to get your fox to look at you. Otherwise, every time you say "watch me" to someone else, your fox will look but get no treat, and the command will weaken over time.

Hold a treat out so that your fox can smell it, then slowly raise it so that it's at the level of your eyes, saying "Eyes on me". The instant your fox makes eye contact, click and reward. Rinse repeat multiple times a day with multiple treats per "session", making sure to only click when your fox makes eye contact.

After a few days of doing this, stop using the treat to "lead" them to your face. Just approach your fox and say "Eyes on me". If they look at your face at all, click and reward. Once they're consistently looking in the general direction of your face, start to only click and reward if they make eye contact.

Over the period of a few weeks, your fox should make eye contact whenever you say "Eyes on me".

Troubleshooting: If they immediately look for your hand instead of your face, it means they've misunderstood the concept. This is a pretty easy fix. Next time, hide your hands behind your back before saying "Eyes on me" again. If there's no hands to look at, the fox will generally look to your face in confusion as if to say "What do you want?". The instant it looks at you, click and reward.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Sit
• Trick Files: Shake

Puppy-Tails

Something I've noticed that Gizmo does when he's playing with dogs, or greeting children, is that he'll curl his tail up over his back like a husky, and lay his ears back (not the angry way, the submissive/friendly way). He doesn't do it when he's first greeting a dog, only if the dog initiate's play.

The tail being all curled up and slightly wagging, along with the ears being down and the big silly tongue-hanging-out grin he gets, make him look very, very puppy-like. We've nicknamed it "putting his puppy tail on". (Another thing he'll do sometimes is "put his ornery ears on". Those of you with reds will definitely know that expression.)

I think he's figured out that he looks like a friendly, adorable doggy when he does that, because he tends to put his puppy-tail on when he's around children, older folks, and anyone else who may seem a bit intimidated by him and not pet him.

He's also figured out that one of the tricks I've taught him, "sneak", will just make people melt. I really need to get it on film; it's the cutest thing I've ever trained any of my animals to do. He drops flat so his belly is flat on the ground, sticks his forelegs out in front of him, and "army-crawls" forward on his belly, one inch at a time. (Usually when he's doing it he also wags his tail wildly, completely ruining any "stealth" he might have).

Generally him sneaking is immediately met with a cute-squeal, an "Awww! Look at him! That's so cute!", an "Oh, how sweet, he's being sneaky!" or the like, and he just laps the attention up. Sneaking on his belly really has become his new way of "begging" for attention.

Another thing Gizmo absolutely adores is laughter--he gets this great big grin whenever anyone laughs, and laughs right along with them. And once a behavior makes someone laugh, he'll do it a million more times just to try and get that same response. For example, he's learned that people find him chasing his tail to be about the funniest thing ever, so he never misses an opportunity to chase his tail in front of strangers. (And if they do laugh, I have the fun of walking home with a fox who every fifteen feet will stop and spin like a top, just to see if someone will laugh at him again for it).

I had always thought that as a "wild" critter, Gizmo would be somewhat less responsive to my signals and the signals of other people. After all, dogs and cats have been selected for thousands of years for their responsiveness--a "cave dog" that was expressive and could read his master probably lived a lot longer than one that couldn't. Foxes, obviously, really haven't been bred for that (at least, not for very long), so I figured Gizmo really wouldn't read much into me other than basic body language ("angry", "friendly", "sad", etc.)

What's really amazed me with him is not only does he really seem to put a lot of effort into watching and reading people, he pays a lot of attention as to what will get him the response that he wants--in particular, he generally wants people to think he's cute, and he wants people to laugh at him. He really must consider it to be rewarding, as having someone genuinely laugh at him seems to be much more effective at rewarding a behavior than any treat I could ever give.

He's also got the most expressive face of any animal I have ever owned--dogs and cats included. With a dog or a cat, you need the ears, the posture, the tail, all of it to get the complete picture. With Gizmo, all you really need is his face to know if he's happy, angry, scared, hungry, etc. In a lot of cases, all you need are his eyes.

I just think it's amazing how an animal that's not "domestic" can match or out-do a cat or dog in so many ways; it's really taken me off-guard.

Back On My Soapbox--The "Natural" Pet Movement

Alrighty, just to give you a heads-up, this is a soapbox rant that has little to do with Gizmo. So you might wanna just skip this post. Nobody'll judge you. The scrollbar's right there on the right side of the window.

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Okay, who all is still here? Two people? Cool. Okay, anyway, I've been seeing some trends among the more "naturalistic" pet owners that is really, really starting to bother me.

One individual messaged me wanting to discuss raw diets for canines. She seemed to be very friendly and articulate, so I chatted with her a while. Part way through the conversation, she linked me to a journal entry she ad written on the topic that she was quite proud of.

Honestly, I was shocked and appalled by what I read. She had posted quite a long, barely intelligible rant. I would re-post it here, but quite frankly, I try to keep that sort of language and mindless filth off of this blog. The gist was that if you had your pet spayed/neutered, gave it vaccinations other than rabies, fed it anything other than home-cooked food, or disagreed with her in any way, shape, or form, you were a complete idiot who was clearly not interested in the welfare of your animal, and you should just go die.

Yikes. And she was proud enough of this to be sending it out to other people?

The people in the "natural" pet community need to understand something. When you post garbage like that, you're coming across as just as ignorant, if not more ignorant, than the people who say that you should always neuter or spay, or vaccinate, or whatever. That kind of outburst just makes those of us who feed raw look like lunatics. Quite frankly, even though I agree with many of your views, if I had read that post before speaking to you via PMs, I would have labeled you a whackjob and avoided you. Do you really think that you're helping your cause at ALL by doing your damnedest to alienate everyone who isn't currently feeding raw?

There are a LOT of valid reasons to spay and neuter, just as there are a lot of reasons not to. The same goes for vaccinations. Any intelligent person is likely to have mixed feelings on this issue. Leaving a dog intact has different health risks than spaying or neutering, but it still has health risks. A lot of the decision as to whether or not spaying or neutering is a good idea can be based on the breed as well--the last dog I'd leave intact would be a male german shepard, as they're incredibly prone to prostate issues. However, a male Jack Russel would be better off intact due to the fact that they're more prone to bone cancer, which would be exacerbated by neutering.

In short, educate yourself before declaring everyone else to be ignorant, and keep in mind that no matter how much you've learned, you still don't know everything. I don't appreciate being called an uneducated idiot because I acknowledge that there are valid reasons to have an animal sterilized. Likewise, depending on what area you live in, there are good reasons to give vaccinations other than rabies. In some areas, for example, parvo kills more dogs than the highway does--and any intelligent person would have their dog given parvo vaccinations if they lived in said area.

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And on another note, most of the people who 100% support spay/neuter, give the whole cocktail of vaccines every year w/o running titers, feed only bagged food, etc. aren't morons, they're simply trying to do what's best for their pet, based on the information they've been given. Most are very intelligent people who care very deeply about their animals, and are making their decisions based on what they know. When just about every single vet and every single book on dogs says the best thing you can do is put them on a good, store-brand dog food, it makes logical sense to them that that's the correct thing to do.

You have to remember, people who feed raw food are the oddballs. If anyone's going to give our views and ideas any respect, we have to present them appropriately. Nobody's going to take us seriously if we scream and swear like a 12-year-old on Xbox Live.

If you use that sort of vitriol frequently in an attempt to get your point across, you're doing the "Natural Pet" community a lot more harm than good.

Cinnamon Fox

When people hear the term "Red Fox" most of them picture what's known as a "classic red". Rust-colored fur, black socks, white belly. The thing is, reds come in a pretty amazing range of colors.

One unusual coloration that you don't see too much of is what's known as a "Cinnamon Fox". A friend of mine was kind enough to give me permission to share some pics of her Cinnamon Fox, Sionnach. Sion is about the same age as Gizmo, and from what I gather, about three times as ornery. Enjoy:

 

 

A Message For Prospective Fox Owners

Today on our walk, we saw a couple walking towards us, so, as always, we stepped off onto the grass and yielded the sidewalk. Gizmo laid down without me having to tell him to, and he sat there politely, smiling with his tail wagging, as they walked past. He was being good as gold.

Naturally, the first words out of the man's mouth were, "The fox isn't gonna attack us, is it?"

Keeping my tone sweet, I replied, "No, he's very friendly."

"Yeah. That's what you keep saying." And they hurried past like he was going to snap at any moment.

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I think that this is something that a lot of prospective fox owners really need to understand. No matter how well-trained your animal is, how friendly it is, or how much better behaved than most people's dogs/children it is, some folks will always see it as a wild animal. They will see it as a threat, and there is nothing you can do to reassure them.

I think a lot of people get this picture in their heads that they're going to get it as a baby and raise it and carefully train it and socialize it and it will be a perfectly behaved animal, so they will never have a single problem with any of their neighbors. This is not how the real world works. You could have honest-to-god Lassie reincarnated as a fox, and someone will still call the cops on you.

I have been very fortunate, in that the neighbors that all live immediately nextdoor to me have been very accepting of Gizmo, and seem to like him well enough. Many, many people with exotic pets are not that fortunate. Unless you are already very good friends with your neighbors before you bring an exotic home, plan on having issues with them. And if you are good friends with them, understand that you getting a pet "wild animal" may end that friendship.

People who are doing research on potential exotics often get so caught up in learning about feeding/housing/care/behavior that they neglect to consider the impact it may have on their relationships with their family members or neighbors. And, as Sybil's Den member MBouncer once said,

"... sometimes it starts with calling the police and ends up with somebody throwing a piece of meat over your backyard fence laced with de-con..."

Things can escalate. If you're already in a bad relationship with your surrounding neighbors, getting an exotic pet is probably not the best idea, even if you're fully capable of providing for it.

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Picture Taken On: May 25, 2008