Do foxes eat cats?

Foxes will definately eat cats. I have been keeping and breeding cats for over 20 years. I never had a problem with foxes until about 20 months. A kitten disappeared from the patio and snarling noises were heard. No hard evidence but a few days later my son was woken by snarling and struggling outside his window. He got up and saw the mother cat being shaken by a fox. He threw something and frightened the fox off but the cat's jaw was broken in 2 places and her shoulder muscle was badly damaged. She needed 3 operations at a cost of £300. This happened in early morning in June when it was light.

The next summer we had kittens again with a different mother cat. This time a kitten disappeared from the kitchen after being snatched through the catflap while eating. I was out of the room so only heard and saw the cat family scatter. One kitten had gone afterwards though. A week later the kittens were in the garden when one got snatched again. My son gave chase and the kitten was dropped. She suffered spinal damage and was left paralysed. After careful nursing and hand feeding she managed to walk again in a very wobbly way. A month later the fox came back and attacked her mother. She wasn't eaten but left headless. I buried her but the fox dug her up. The final straw came this week when the young cat who had been paralysed was locked out by mistake for only an hour but disappeared, presumably fox snatched.

My cats are kept indoors except when I am with them but the last few attacks have happened when the cats have managed to get out accidentally. The quality of life they were used to has worsened as they have to be kept in most of the time. I feel I can no longer give them the life I would like them to have because of foxes. I have now given up breeding because it has become too dangerous for the cats. My surviving cats live in a state of siege and I have been left devastated and traumatised.

Possibly if the cat is a small kitten or near death. A fox isn't much of a predator, it's more of a scavenger and opportunist. They are about the same size and a cat is pretty vicious and not a scavenger. Then again, not even vultures will usually touch a dead cat on the road.

More of a scavanger/ small varment preditor. Perhaps if the cat got mixed up with a mother and pups, or was injured. Other than that, cats defend themselves better than say voles, mice, and in instances chickens.
Final Starman stikes again!

they will but I wish they didn't.

I went to sleep around 2 am and the window was slightly opened because it was to warm, i was getting to sleep when i heard a very loud cat snarling noise so i got out of bed to look out the window to see two foxes sitting on the road they were looking for food. I watched them as they were fighting with each other i think one was female and the other male. I was worried that any of my cats were out side as they are in and out door cats.I had to go down stairs to count all my cats and kittens to make sure they were all safe. I didn't realise what foxes could do to other animals i didnt think they were as vicious as that i am now keeping my cats in at night so i dont need to worrying about them. I looked up the internet the next day and it said Domesticated cats and foxes normally ignore each other. My mum found a fox two days previous at the side of our house with a big black rat in it's mouth, God know's what else it could catch. So keep your cat's and other animals in at night.

I'm sure if they are hungry, they will eat whatever they can sink their little foxy teeth into.

Foxes eat cats. But since foxes and cats can be comparable in size, it doesn't happen with high frequency. Coyotes are much more prone to prey on cats, since they hunt in packs, while foxes are often solitary.

yes they do. I hate foxes they are horrible, disturbing, vermin. Because they ate my cat. i saw that big, red, fox with black ears, tail, and feet dragging my cat off. to finish my cat off. When we drove home from the doctors appointment, we saw they big yellow-orange eyes glowing in front of the headlights, my cat got out two days before this and it was 8:00pm, we thought it could have been my cat but instead it was the fox that had eaten my poor baby. We chased him off and found my cat with it's abdomen cut open. We then the next day gave him a proper burriel and put all of his favorite things in the box with him so he could have those with him in heaven. We threw 4 roses in the hole and burried him. We said our last goodbyes. The next day we came back to the grave and the fox had burried up the box so we put rocks and logs on. But what i regret most was the last thing i said to him. i said i hate you because he did something that i was mad at him for and then he was gone. It's been, 5 monthes since and i'm still crying. It was my daughters cat and she was devistated. She had lots of problems and she really loved that cat and is some what depressed from it. We love that cat, his name is tango, we love tango so much. He was my daughters cat and she picked him out. Tango was also our very first cat as a family together. Rest in peace Tango, we love you.

I have just looked out my window 3.30am and seen a fox chasing a small cat they were not playing it was clear it was after it,
by the time i went out it had gone, So yes i believe foxes eat cats so keep your cats indoors at night
i live in bradford

A few days ago about 3am i witnessed a fight between a fox and the cat. By the time i reached outside the fox was eating the cat's intestines. I chased the fox away and it turned out that the cat was my neighbours. I always hear that foxes and cats 'avoid' each other- whatever that means- but I think that the fox must of being a hungry nursing mother.

It's possible if its a smaller cat.
I think they would have a problem with my cats though.
Mine are very well fed, most weigh 18-22 pounds which is as much or even more than some foxes weigh.
All of my cats except one are related and five are from the same litter and they have developed a "pride" or "pack" mentality.
I didn't think domestic cats would do that but I have one dog who is 3 times as big but they will send one or two cats out to play with her and distract her while 4 or 5 of the others sneak up from behind and flank her, Then they all attack at once and beat the crap out of the poor dog.
She is part pit bull by the way but still gives the cats a LOT of respect and wont act agressive towards them.
Short answer though.
A fox might be able to take a smaller cat on it's own but it would probably still be a tough battle.
As someone else said though with a coyote all bets are off.
Coyote's are much more aggressive.

Yes, they do. My cat has to stay inside because of them and the dogs around here.

I dont know about in the US, but foxes in England would not go near cats. They live on a diet of rabbit and have no need to chase such a speedy, quick witted animal let alone deal with it's savage teeth and claws.
Foxes aren't much bigger than (domestic) cats themselves. Rabbits are much safer and easier.

Fox is an oppurtunistic animal. Eat about anything

They are typically scavangers but can be predatory if they are hungry. Better safe than sorry, bring the cat in at nite.

They may try if they are very hungry they would normally go for Rabbits or Chickens which are much easier prey than cats.
They will eat pretty much what they can get.

No, not unless the cat is already severely injured or deilitated. A fox weighs the same , often less than a cat and doesn't have the claws a cat has. Most cats will kick a foxes a** with no problem. I have worked with foxes for 30 years. If a cat is outside where any animal, suc as a fox can get it, it is more likely to be killed by a car, an owl, a hawk, a domestic dog or a pi$$ed off neighbor. Often the neighbors don't want your cat hanging around so they will trap it and haul it off to the SPCA. Bottom line is this: If you don't want your cat to come up missing, keep it indoors

yes they do. I hate foxes they are horrible, disturbing, vermin. Because they ate my cat. i saw that big, red, fox with black ears, tail, and feet dragging my cat off. to finish my cat off. When we drove home from the doctors appointment, we saw they big yellow-orange eyes glowing in front of the headlights, my cat got out two days before this and it was 8:00pm, we thought it could have been my cat but instead it was the fox that had eaten my poor baby. We chased him off and found my cat with it's abdomen cut open. We then the next day gave him a proper burriel and put all of his favorite things in the box with him so he could have those with him in heaven. We threw 4 roses in the hole and burried him. We said our last goodbyes. The next day we came back to the grave and the fox had burried up the box so we put rocks and logs on. But what i regret most was the last thing i said to him. i said i hate you because he did something that i was mad at him for and then he was gone. It's been, 5 monthes since and i'm still crying. It was my daughters cat and she was devistated. She had lots of problems and she really loved that cat and is some what depressed from it. We love that cat, his name is tango, we love tango so much. He was my daughters cat and she picked him out. Tango was also our very first cat as a family together. Rest in peace Tango, we love you.

Not unless the cat is dead or nearly dead. why are the cats outside in the first place, where cars, domestic dogs, owls, hawks and neighbors can kill them?

Yes, they surely will if they can.

Today I was sitting on my couch watching tv at about 9:00 pm when I heard some odd door-slamming sounds coming from my porch. I went to investigate and as soon as I turned on the light, I saw my cat running from the door into the house and I could hear the faint sound of a running fox sprinting away from my porch. I know it was a fox because I have recently noticed a new one patrolling my neighborhood, often with a rabbit or squirrel in it's mouth. My screen door was ripped and it will require some repair, but my cat wasn't injured. In fact, as soon as I brought him back inside, he was frantically trying to go back out on the porch to fight the fox some more. Obviously the dang fox was trying to eat/attack my cat and I'm sure that if I let him out on the porch any more the fox will return and try to break through the door again.

By the way, my cat is gigantic. He is a big boy with a very gentle attitude, so it surprised me when he was trying to go back outside to try to tear that fox to pieces. He is hard to lift up sometimes because of how big he is. I don't even feed him that much food, so it is unclear to me why he is so huge.

This fox was definitely a hardcore predator. When I saw him the other day he looked like a humungous red labrador. His long black legs and black ears were just enormous, so I'm wondering whether or not he might be some kind of a cross-breed between a wolf pumped up on sterroids and some kind of super fox, idk. What I do know is that this fox is not some ordinary scavenger, and he went through the trouble to break through my porch door to eat my cat. I doubt he did it because he was starving, since I have seen him eating plenty of animals off in the woods behind my house.

If he eats my cat, it will be the last thing he ever does.

never heard of that ... but i know that american mink kill kittens ... EVIL AMERICAN MINK

I myself came across this thread because I was worried about a fox outside my house. My own kitten was injured, and and it was outside. A fox had come up to my garden, and was calling very early in the evening. I found it a bit weird, and obviously ran out and took my cat inside. Tried to scare the fox off, too, but it didn't go far.

Not letting my cat out anymore! :(

My cat disappeared just two mornings ago. She was the older sister of our two and very loving and sweet, and she always stayed inside the house during the day. That same morning my dad woke up at about 6:30 to a noise and said he saw a fox run through back yard. After searching the neighborhood for our cat all day we returned home. Now that enough time has passed that we can only assume the worst, I think I'm going to buy a trap to catch the little fox bastard. In the words of Anthony Hopkins from the Edge, "I'm gonna kill the motherf*&#er!" If not to avenge my kitty, then to protect all future generations of cats in my neighborhood.

I live on a farm, with tons of cats. they get dropped off or sometimes jus wonder from idk where and stay! i love cats but recently we have spotted a fox across the street! Now 6 of our cats are missing one of them we have had for 14 years and she was pregnant! along with the other mother to be, she is missing as well! im devastated! 6 cats in a week is hard to deal with! I HATE FOXES!

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If they get the chance, yes.

As an old saying says you should never trust the foxes. Ironically they say the same thing about the FOX too!

a friend of mine has a savannah cat, part serval and part domestic and he lives in casa grande Arizona, and one night the cat got out and a coyote tried to get it by the throat but my friends cat clawed the shit out of the coyote and it ran off hahahahaha pussy coyote!

Under normal conditions, a fox will avoid any type of confrontation with an adult cat. A fox might take a kitten, but a healthy adult male or female cat, can do a lot of damage to a fox.

A fox knows it cannot afford to suffer injury or harm from fighting with a cat, as it would impede its ability to hunt, which in turn would spell doom for the foxes survival.

I have seen times where a fox and a cat pass each other in the woods near me without so much as a glance at each other. Unfortunately, there are always those anamolies in nature where sometimes things are the exception rather than the rule, but for the most part, foxes will rarely attack a cat.

The main question here is will a fox eat a cat? Yes, it will eat a cat but it does so after the cat has been killed, but not necessarily killed by the fox. There has to be a distinction here between a fox actually killing a cat, as opposed to a fox eating a cat that has already been killed by something other than a fox.

I thought cats can over power small foxes?

Yes, they will, given the opportunity. Nature can be cruel. Owls will fly off with kittens and small animals, too.

A fox came onto our patio recently to eat some catfood and leftovers. My cat was sitting out of sight under our deck, but decided to run out aggressively and almost bully the fox away. I went out to get my cat (who is about 15 lbs), and the fox didn't seem to even mind I was near.

You guys letting your animals multiply, you need to have them fixed at a vet. So many animals are suffering because there is not enough homes. I also spay/trap/release ferals and you are defeating the purpose! Get your animal fixed!

I live on 13 acres, 6 of it is cleared and the other 7 is pine forest. Ever since my german shepherd passed away, my 13 year-old outside cat has lost her territory.

At first, it was my neighbor's HUGE outside tabby cat that would come over and fight with her occasionally. But then I started seeing rabbits all over the yard at night; there would be about twenty or so at a time, which I thought was awesome.

A couple nights ago, around 12 am, I heard cats fighting on the porch. Immediately, I thought it was the tabby cat. I ran out to break it up, didn't see my cat but I saw the tabby leaping off the handrail and run off to the woods. I then grabbed my flashlight to look for my cat, all the while I see eyes watching me from the woods.

I walk towards the eyes thinking its the tabby but was surprised to see a gray fox. He didn't run from me and I got within twenty feet or so from him. I backed off thinking it was kinda odd, this fox might be rabid...

Needless to say, I found my cat so she is ok. A couple of hours ago, I threw the remains of a turkey carcass in the woods to feed the fox; if he is attacking cats, he must be desperate for food.

I checked on the carcass an hour ago and I saw not one, but TWO foxes eating the carcass together. They weren't afraid of my presence or my flashlight, but when they saw my cat approach from the woods they grabbed the carcass and ran into the woods with it.

I think foxes will eat cats only if they are desperate or the cats are young / old. I checked Wikipedia and found out that foxes #1 prey are rabbits, which I no longer see in the yard, and that they mate for life AND hunt in pairs.

So if you see a fox, chances are there is another one. Also, if you fear for your cats safety, keep them inside. Foxes might not eat cats normally but they WILL fight which isn't good either.

After hearing a fox barking in the lane at the back of my garden I knew my large white cat was out. I rushed out and called him he appeared shortly very frightened. I knew he had been in conflict with a fox I guess he must of used one of his 9 lives.

They might, if they're hungry, and the cat is older or injured.

As another poster said upstream, they have to catch the cat first...

A coyote, on the other hand... no problem.

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Yes, and dinosaurs eat vegetables. And dogs eat monkeys when they can get them. Which they usually can.

First off, why are you breeding cats when there are so many unwanted cats everywhere? You should be neutering and spaying them instead of sotting back and watching them get picked off one by one by the FOX as you say! I do some TNR (trap,neuter,release) and feed these cat colonies afterwards and people like you whether in the states or out of the states are totally defeated everything that people like me are doing for the cat population. And of you are a BREEDER what are these bred cats doing outside? I have some fox around my home that I feed and medicate for mange. I have went to my wildlife person for the meds. Sometimes the fox and cats are very close to each other. The fox seems more afraid of the cats than vice versa. I'm sure it was a kitten or ailing cat, becausemy outside cats are at least the same size or larger than the fox. So, GET THE CATS AND KITTENS FIXED!!!!

It depends on the kind of fox. Red foxes are more dog-like and aggressive with cats than their more reclusive cousin, the gray fox. I am living on the Barrier Islands of North Carolina and as I type this message I'm watching two gray foxes and three feral cats curled up on a sand dune under a scrub oak tree, only a couple of feet apart from each other. We occasionally throw them food scraps and the cats, despite being half the foxes' size, will chase their canine cousins away from the food. Though a gray fox will flee from a full grown feral cat, they are opportunists and I have seen one scurrying through the brush with a newborn kitten in his mouth.

Generally speaking, our feral cats and foxes get along pretty well. The only real danger to the cats around here comes from a big male raccoon we call Rocky. The other critters know to stay out of his way.

Mike in Duck, North Carolina

It happens but a strong alpha male cat could very well prevent that from happening. I have one alpha male cat, Im not talking about just a fat cat, my cat is only about 10 pounds but used to hunt raccoons and other things much larger than him, thats alpha male no other cat who ever dared stand up to him ever survived without human help( meaning me dashing to grab my own cat before it could carve its initials on its adversary's liver ) If you can find one of those, you first get it used to your other cats and hopefully it will be like mine is, territorial and a defender, my cat always protected all his friends, females, kittens, even placed himself between me and a 200 pounds human who dared speak a little loud in my home lol, he is fearless and well as far as 10 pounds pets go ,he is extremely strong and agile. That is a rare cat but if you search you can certainly find one, failing that get a cat loving guard dog, preferably a female dog , an alpha male cat is bossy enough you dont really want an alpha male 150 pound dog lol unless you live in the middle of the woods and need serious protection. I would suggest a lab, they usually get along very well with any pet, defend them, are excellent company dogs who care for your kids as if they were their own and will go out of their ways to please you.

If you live in an area populated with big critters like leopards and/or wolf clans, I suggest a Dogo Argentino, if that fails, move somewhere else of train a friggin tiger .

i very much doubt it to be honest as most cats are bigger than fox's but my cat has gone missing its only almost one and is quite small! but he has a pair of claws bless him and i hope if he came across a fox he would use those claws and his teeth to kill the ugly fuckers;hopefully he comes back cause we love him:] and foxes mostly come out at night..so dont let your cats out at night..simples?

Loads of notices about missing cats on post-boxes,street light posts pretty much all the time around here (Brighton; south coast of the UK) Very disturbing....

Plenty of urban myths(?) about this
Cats stolen for medical research
Cats stolen to make gloves etc

whatever the cause it's very worrying
I keep my cat in at night as advised by wildlife groups as they do most of their killing then. But I'm worried he will rebel one day and stay out all night.

So - no help to those seeking answers, sorry