Water for foxes

[JohnC6]

During the heatwave someone on here asked that we put out a bowl of water for foxes which I see from time to time. They're about each night. I think it might have been Dale or Stu P who suggested it. Anyway, I did that. We have a 12m wide grass verge opposite and then a brook/trees but the brook had dried up. There's still barely any water in it now. We once had two Retrievers and still have the good quality 'glazed clay' (? ) large water bowl for visitor's dogs but I think it might get nicked so I use a 550gm ice cream box. I put it out at about 10.00pm each evening often with food next to it and retrieve it at 8.30 the next morning. Sometimes most of the water has gone but most times it's 2/3. gone I'm going to keep this up whatever the weather as it's clean tap water. A passer-by saw me putting it out one evening and suggested that hedgehogs might take a drink.

Anyway..big thanks to whoever it was who gave the heads-up.

 

[Box Brownie]

All creatures need water, so whichever the species are making use of it to you

 

[Gav.]

I think it might have been Dale or Stu P who suggested it.

It was @Stuart Philpott
Good to hear you did this and someone is going for it, I leave water out all year, our users are hedgehogs and birds mainly, yet to see a fox this far up the village

Edit to add link

Hot init

Guys not been about much my humbles. silly time pressed........ a request.... would ya do my ickle beasties a simple favour.pop a shallow bowl of water out front an back of your gaff tonight......see in times of extremes,that lets face it, are caused by us (we do own this.heat) .... a drink...

www.talkphotography.co.uk

 

[Stuart Philpott]

It was @Stuart Philpott
Good to hear you did this and someone is going for it, I leave water out all year, our users are hedgehogs and birds mainly, yet to see a fox this far up the village

Edit to add link

Hot init

Guys not been about much my humbles. silly time pressed........ a request.... would ya do my ickle beasties a simple favour.pop a shallow bowl of water out front an back of your gaff tonight......see in times of extremes,that lets face it, are caused by us (we do own this.heat) .... a drink...

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Nameless and shameless in it Gav ............. chilled with the fact I'm not remembered. don't want limelight bro want the best for beasties an folks Thrilled too bit's that a my wafflings made both a beastie an John Happy




Guilty as charged John




My own story

well the hodge heg that hates me is still here.yeah the one I risked being mauled by a rancid russel for .the one I made a gaff for.................the one I gave water to. Tonight the b****r ate the food poppet ( my lady) bunged in front of it, ( that I PAID for) but when I turned up ran off into nettles and curled into a ball......B******D

I know it's' the same prickley sod it's got white spines all across it's back it's unmistakable....so in many ways Mr Snuffles an I have a dept to settle......an I am owed a soul I WILL steal said soul it's a given I'm just patient tis all

For now though just happiness.read glee . ................................we have 2 maybe 3 hodgehegs doing ok ....we have rarely seen one is 30 years.......that's enough for right now while times are hard ......................a bit of water is no hardship and 3 hodheheg is a fair reward......they wont always hate me

it's just a matter of time !!

OK snuffles might........................ bloody thing.............................but I repeat I'm patient and I AM owed a soul


Aside from my personal love hate relationship with prickley sods. a more serious note

water is our life blood it's a hell of a lot of what we are made of, cherish it share it

We only have enough ( for the moment cause others go without

those others don't always have a voice

so maybe we need to speak for 'em all.quiet like


an do little things





.

 

[Raincloud]

Blimey, not seen a hedgehog in years!

 

[tikkathreebarrel]

Blimey, not seen a hedgehog in years!

But seen plenty of badgers? They will account for hedgehogs.

 

[swanseamale47]

Blimey, not seen a hedgehog in years!

I've got at least one in my garden, and oddly I've seen a lot more about this and last year than for decades. What I'm not seeing is adders, haven't seen one for donkeys years, used to see them all the time.

 

[Cobra]

I've got at least one in my garden, and oddly I've seen a lot more about this and last year than for decades.

Same here, back last summer ( about a year ago) I saw one, late evening, and started to feed it.
I actually found its hibernating nest, when tidying the garden late spring, a big pile of leaves neatly arranged tight between the shed and
the cotton Easter hedge.

This year I have had a total of 5, regular visitors, all identifiable by behaviour, size and slight anomalies.
And the includes the 2 I saw mating. Sadly she moved on, as there hasn't been any babies visiting.
Having said that, I've not had one visiting now for about 4 weeks, inc. Hoggy the brave who sits by the back door if I'm late with the food.

 

[Gav.]

We had 3 visiting this year but in the last 2 weeks (speeding) traffic has taken 4 hogs on my road we no longer get visits...

Please look after them if you have them, they need our support

 

[Gav.]

Sorry, everyone for dragging the tone down

@JohnC6 sorry to mention this on your thread

 

[JohnC6]

Sorry, everyone for dragging the tone down

@JohnC6 sorry to mention this on your thread

No need to apologise, Gav. Nothing to apologise for. Some of our stories are uplifting and some are sad but we need to hear them all.

 

[JohnC6]

Would you Adam and Eve it...

At 7.50 am this morning I went to collect the, hopefully empty, ice cream box from across the road and it's gone. I mean, surely, someone must have realised ,as it was full of water, that it was for foxes or any other creature that needed a drink. I'll put out another one but maybe behind some of the bramble/brush and being generous of mind assume whoever it was didn't think that and thought it was litter. The other thought is that not everyone likes foxes. It's a really quiet road .It must have been someone walking along the 12m wide verge. I placed it in the open but at the back of the verge near the stream (all but dried up now) People walk their dogs along there. Did their dog run ahead and drink the water and the owner was concerned ? Most dog-walking is done by dusk and I didn't put out the water until 9.45 pm anyway. Sunset is 9.12.

I did mention about not putting out our quality dog-water bowl we have in case it was nicked.

 

[Gav.]

@JohnC6 may be it was picked as litter? You could use a marker pen or label and write 'water for wildlife' on it, throw a few stones or a clean brick in it too in case the wind has blown it over/away

 

[JohnC6]

@JohnC6 may be it was picked as litter? You could use a marker pen or label and write 'water for wildlife' on it, throw a few stones or a clean brick in it too in case the wind has blown it over/away

Yes...I did mention that, Gav..ie...it might have been viewed as litter .I had a good look in the brambles 30m either side and it's not there. I did retrieve two empty drinks bottles,though..lol. I still have one more 556gm empty ice cream box, a good size, so I'll try again with that. The others are the size you get from Chinese/Indian take-aways which are smaller. I'll try your suggestion, then.. ie a label. We haven't had strong enough winds that would blow it away and it wouldn't get far,anyway. However, bearing that in mind, I'll go over and walk along the verge a bit further in case it did blow away.

I place it on the green grass between the tree trunks but thought tonight, maybe to the right tucked in behind the brambles out of sight of passers-by ..but not for foxes etc. If that is removed I'll have to eat what's left in the ice cream box in the freezer in one go....

 

[JohnC6]

@JohnC6 may be it was picked as litter? You could use a marker pen or label and write 'water for wildlife' on it, throw a few stones or a clean brick in it too in case the wind has blown it over/away

I put four sticky labels on. "NOT LITTER..Animal water" I collected it at 7.30 this morning and it was empty. That was a good idea

 

[nog]

We put a ceramic bowl out which has a dog paw print pattern so all know what its for, think it cost 99p from home bargains, see lots of birds/dogs drinking from it and a few dog walkers have thanked us for leaving it out- one said their dog loves our bowl and she apologised for her dog drinking so much

 

[JohnC6]

@JohnC6 may be it was picked as litter? You could use a marker pen or label and write 'water for wildlife' on it, throw a few stones or a clean brick in it too in case the wind has blown it over/away

We put a ceramic bowl out which has a dog paw print pattern so all know what its for, think it cost 99p from home bargains, see lots of birds/dogs drinking from it and a few dog walkers have thanked us for leaving it out- one said their dog loves our bowl and she apologised for her dog drinking so much

Someone took the box again last night or early this morning. It had a label on each side. "Not litter animal water'. The only people who would go past it are dog-walkers. Why would they do that ? Maybe they don't want their dogs drinking from it as they think they might pick up a disease from a fox. One lady who saw me putting it out on another occasion said that a few people up the road put out a bowl of water outside their front doors. Maybe I could hide it in the undergrowth.I assume the foxes would find it, especially as I often put out food alongside it. It was chicken last night. We have two brooks in the area. One natural and the other man-made ( a concrete channel) so they won't go short.

 

[sphexx]

Someone took the box again last night or early this morning. It had a label on each side. "Not litter animal water'. The only people who would go past it are dog-walkers. Why would they do that ? Maybe they don't want their dogs drinking from it as they think they might pick up a disease from a fox. One lady who saw me putting it out on another occasion said that a few people up the road put out a bowl of water outside their front doors. Maybe I could hide it in the undergrowth.I assume the foxes would find it, especially as I often put out food alongside it. It was chicken last night. We have two brooks in the area. One natural and the other man-made ( a concrete channel) so they won't go short.

Possibly the fox stole it — who wouldn’t want a magic box that filled itself with water every day? Handy accessory in a burrow!

 

[Gav.]

If you have cubs local they may use it as a toy.

 

[JohnC6]

Possibly the fox stole it — who wouldn’t want a magic box that filled itself with water every day? Handy accessory in a burrow!

I did wonder if that might be the case but dismissed it. It's only the 556gm ice-cream box that's gone. The smaller transparent one that you get with Chinese/Indian take-aways was still there after I'd put it out two days ago and completely empty so I thought maybe it's not enough water and tried the large box again.

 

[Dale.]

I did wonder if that might be the case but dismissed it. It's only the 556gm ice-cream box that's gone. The smaller transparent one that you get with Chinese/Indian take-aways was still there after I'd put it out two days ago and completely empty so I thought maybe it's not enough water and tried the large box again.

Our fox often drags his bowl up the garden, spilling his food as he goes. It is a plastic container that had sweets in it and it's about the size of the old style Quality Street tins.

I'm considering changing it to a ceramic bowl, our dog eats from one outside as she is raw fed. It's brough indoors and cleaned when she's done eating. We have spares though and I'm going to start using a spare for the fox food, which hopefully he won't be able to drag away.

You could maybe try a large ceramic bowl too John, with labels on it as well? They're cheap as chips in the likes of Home Bargains, B+M etc. If it gets lifted, you'll know it's humans that are removing it.

 

[sphexx]

I did wonder if that might be the case but dismissed it. It's only the 556gm ice-cream box that's gone. The smaller transparent one that you get with Chinese/Indian take-aways was still there after I'd put it out two days ago and completely empty so I thought maybe it's not enough water and tried the large box again.

Joking apart, it’s very difficult to get rid of all the smells fro a plastic container, even to my nose, so I guess foxy may be detecting the smell of food in some of the drink boxes.

 

[JohnC6]

Joking apart, it’s very difficult to get rid of all the smells fro a plastic container, even to my nose, so I guess foxy may be detecting the smell of food in some of the drink boxes.

I was across the road this morning (where the carton was) and a lady dog-walker came along and we got chatting about it and she said that a fox twice took her children's plastic toys from her garden and thinks that is what's happened .After now r reading Dale's experience with his boxes I think that's what's happened. I'll look for a heavy ceramic bowl as recommended by Dale. We have a B&M not far away.

Yes, I agree re the smell, especially from the take-aways but I'd have thought the ice cream carton would have been ok. We put them in the dishwasher to clean them.

 

[JohnC6]

Our fox often drags his bowl up the garden, spilling his food as he goes. It is a plastic container that had sweets in it and it's about the size of the old style Quality Street tins.

I'm considering changing it to a ceramic bowl, our dog eats from one outside as she is raw fed. It's brough indoors and cleaned when she's done eating. We have spares though and I'm going to start using a spare for the fox food, which hopefully he won't be able to drag away.

You could maybe try a large ceramic bowl too John, with labels on it as well? They're cheap as chips in the likes of Home Bargains, B+M etc. If it gets lifted, you'll know it's humans that are removing it.

Thanks, Dale. Re the heavy ceramic bowl....I'm on the case

 

[swanseamale47]

Our fox used to drag a plastic dogs food bowl right down the bottom of the garden. He struggles with a bigger china bowl.

 

[JohnC6]

Our fox used to drag a plastic dogs food bowl right down the bottom of the garden. He struggles with a bigger china bowl.

The heavy ceramic bowl I got from B&M has remained in place so it must have been the fox that took the ice-cream boxes (2) Not much water has gone from it each night though but I'll keep putting it out. I retrieve it each morning and refill it. We're getting heavy downpours now ..even a thundertsorm last night and the brook will be filling so maybe it drinks there. I've been told that people further along the road put out a bowl on their driveways. Anyway, as long as they have access to water that's all that matters.

 

[sphexx]

The heavy ceramic bowl I got from B&M has remained in place so it must have been the fox that took the ice-cream boxes (2) Not much water has gone from it each night though but I'll keep putting it out. I retrieve it each morning and refill it. We're getting heavy downpours now ..even a thundertsorm last night and the brook will be filling so maybe it drinks there. I've been told that people further along the road put out a bowl on their driveways. Anyway, as long as they have access to water that's all that matters.

Judging by my dogs over the years, animals always prefer rainwater etc to fresh drawn tap water — I suspect they don’t like the residual chlorine pong.

 

[JohnC6]

Judging by my dogs over the years, animals always prefer rainwater etc to fresh drawn tap water — I suspect they don’t like the residual chlorine pong.

Yes. That did cross my mind. It would take ages to fill it with rain water, though Sometimes when Severn Trent dose the water it doesn't taste very nice because of the chlorine.

 

[sphexx]

Yes. That did cross my mind. It would take ages to fill it with rain water, though Sometimes when Severn Trent dose the water it doesn't taste very nice because of the chlorine.

I have the problem sometimes. You can boil the water — expensive currently - or just let it stand somewhere. Alternatively draw it off after the tap has been running for sone time.

I had a routine random spot check on water quality by Yorkshire Water a few weeks ago — which he swore was unconnected with their replacing a water main near me! — and he ran the water for some time before drawing his samples and when I discussed the chlorine with him he said exactly that — run it first. To be honest I can’t see how the chlorine is going to accuulste in the first drawn sample but …