Guide to Foxes as Pets
It would be a wonderful thing to have a fox for a pet. Foxes are charming and intelligent animals and if you have them as a pet then you will be proud to be one of the few who owns something that not many people have. You don’t treat a pet fox like a pet dog because they are different and foxes are ideal pets for someone with time and resources to take care of them.
All dogs have a very strong pack mentality. Dogs sees their owners as their alpha and they are hard-wired to want to obey the leader. Every dogs has only the pleasure of his master in mind. While foxes are intelligent, their core motivation is different than that of a dog. While dogs are happy to please their master, foxes are happy to get a treat from their master.
Foxes have very strong odor. Dogs stink after a few weeks without a bath, but foxes stink all the time. The strong, musky odor cannot be entirely eliminated but it can be lessened if the fox is neutered.
A lot of people imagine a fox to be an awesome pet that they can show off to their friends and neighbors. The sad reality is that this is not true. While foxes become very attached and affectionate with their families, they are impossibly shy around visitors and strangers.
Outside of a dog, foxes have special dietary and exercise requirement. They are extremely energetic and require loads of exercise everyday. They need a large, carefully-built outdoor enclosure.
Foxes have great proficiency at getting out of enclosures and they can beat a dog on that. It is truly amazing what foxes can do like leaping as high as six feet in the air, climbing fences, clinging upside down to climb along a chain link ceiling for short distances. If you mean to keep a fox in an enclosure then it must not only be large, but it must be impossible to dig out of and have a full roof.
One thing that people are mistaken with is to think that foxes can be good indoor pets that can be left alone in the house while they are away at work. There is no truth to this especially if you pet is a red fox. Foxes steal things, and they hide things that are small enough to carry, and they love destroying or shredding things with their teeth. Even if your train foxes, it is difficult to break this behavior. The difference of foxes with dogs is that dogs can be trained not to chew things but foxes will not chew things only if you are there and watching.