Its small size, long life expectancy, and sweet personality make it a good choice as a pet fox. It may not be suitable for households with small children or other pets since they tend to get nippy. As the world's smallest fox breed, it is delicate and needs protection from rougher housemates. It also has a large repertoire of vocalizations: Whimpers, growls, shrieks, wails, whines, barks, squeaks, and howls. Physical Characteristics: Long, thick hair cream or fawn in color; extremely large bat-like ears; hairy feet.
The red fox Vulpes vulpes is not as popular as a fennec fox for a pet, but those who have them say that they are as sweet as house cats. They are not domesticated and have a few drawbacks. Perhaps their worst offense is that they have the smelliest urine of the fox breeds.
Spaying or neutering may help reduce the odor a little bit. They also have a propensity to dig and need much more room to dig and play than other breeds. Silver foxes are a domesticated variety of red fox that has been bred exclusively in Russia. This domesticated fox program has reduced the fox's urine odor and improved upon their overall temperament. Physical Characteristics: Long snouts with large pointy ears; red fur across the face, back, sides, and tail; grayish-white throat, chin, and belly; black feet and black-tipped ears; fluffy white-tipped tail.
Also called the tame Siberian fox, the tame Arctic fox, Sibfoxes, the domesticated fox, and other names, the silver fox is a true domesticated fox. Also classified as Vulpes vulpes, it is a different color variation of the red fox. Through a selective breeding program in Russia, these foxes have some different characteristics and slight genetic differences from red foxes.
A true domesticated silver fox is only available from Russia. These foxes have a dog-like disposition and very little smell. Some dog behaviors bred into silver foxes included tail-wagging when happy, barking and vocalization, and ear floppiness.
Care for these foxes is not any different than other breeds of foxes. If you are looking for an easier fox to care for, you may want to consider a fennec or gray fox.
Physical Characteristics: Long snouts with large pointy ears; black to bluish-gray to silver coat with a white-tipped tail; silver hairs may be scattered all over. The arctic fox Vulpes lagopus is very similar to the red fox but is typically smaller and not as commonly kept as a pet. An animal that has adapted to life in the Arctic, it is sensitive to hot temperatures and may overheat easier than other foxes.
Measures to keep it cool may be necessary. Due to a small breeding stock in the U. Like red foxes, its urine and scenting glands make it a smelly choice for a pet. It is not well suited to life indoors since it scent marks its territory. It also loves to play in sand and dirt and may make their litter box more of a pleasure sandbox than a bathroom spot. As far as foxes go, it can have a pleasant disposition. Physical Characteristics: Dark gray to brown to bluish-brown coat in the summer; white or creamy white thick coat in winter; long, bushy tail; short nose; small curled-back ears; short, stubby legs.
Gray foxes Urocyon cinereoargenteus used to be the most common fox found in the U. Over the centuries, human encroachment and deforestation have allowed red foxes to become the most dominant species. Gray foxes are the calmest and friendliest fox species. Usually, most foxes are wary of strangers, however, gray foxes are amiable and affectionate with most people.
Grays and most other foxes will never be truly housebroken, even though gray fox urine is not as pungent as other species. They can be troublemakers in the house by digging up carpets, marking territory, and eating or chewing random things that they shouldn't.
Physical Characteristics: Peppery gray coat on top, reddish-brown on its sides, chest and back of head; reddish-colored legs and feet; long, bushy tail with a black stripe on top; pointed ears; pointed muzzle; long, hooked claws. A small species, the bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis is an uncommon species to find and to keep.
These foxes are native to the plains of Africa. In the wild, they are primarily an insectivorous species with termites and dung beetles making up 80 percent of their natural diet. As pets, they can be fed meat, and vegetables. These foxes have been kept indoors by owners.
But, similar to other fox species, bat-eared foxes need an escape-proof enclosure. Beware of digging and scent marking with this fox species, too. Physical Characteristics: Unusually large ears; yellowish-gray coat; black face and legs; black-tipped ears and tail.
His research team visited fur farms across the Soviet Union and purchased the tamest foxes on hand. They figured using the most docile of the wild foxes for their breeding program would hasten the pace of domestication, relative to the thousands of years it took to breed dogs.
Instead of being outgoing and excited by encountering people, these foxes were defensive and aggressive. Unfortunately, Belyaev died before seeing the final results. But today, 58 years after the start of the program, there is now a large, sustainable population of domesticated foxes.
These animals have no fear of humans, and actively seek out human companionship. University of Illinois biologist Anna Kukekova has been studying these domesticated foxes since the late s. Her lab digs into the genes behind the desirable traits in the animals. Two domesticated foxes, produced as part of a long-term breeding program in Russia, begging for pets. Photo by Judith A. Bassett Canid Education and Conservation Center.
Their ears show weird traits, too. Like puppies, young foxes have floppy ears. But the ears of domesticated foxes stay floppier for a longer time after birth, said Jennifer Johnson, a biologist who has worked with Kukekova since the early s.
Johnson said it has been difficult to decipher these genetic secrets, because unlike for humans and dogs, no one has sequenced the genome of foxes … yet. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the domesticated fox experiment fell on hard times as public funding for the project evaporated.
The researchers realized quickly that keeping more than foxes is an expensive enterprise. In the s, the lab switched to selling some of the foxes as fur pelts to sustain the breeding program.
And it kind of is that simple. She wanted a fox! No big deal! After she discovered the Siberian institute, Fedewa got curious. No one had ever done that before.
He also has three domesticated foxes. Those different licenses cover the various jobs he has—he maintains exotic animals on his property, but he also ventures across the world to obtain animals for zoos, laboratories, private customers, and whoever else needs a herd of watusi or a couple of dolphins.
He insures zoos, circuses, private facilities, labs—pretty much anyone who needs insurance on an exotic, they call Mitch. I got the sense he found traditional schooling a waste of time, an imprecise way to get where he wanted to go. He is an off-putting person to talk to. I think Mitch Kalmanson might be a weirdo. That has absolutely no bearing on his professional aptitude, which is considerable, but makes for a curious phone conversation.
Mitch does not; it was like he was reading a prepared statement and when he finished it, he was done talking. But he also knows his stuff very, very deeply. The effect of his odd conversational style is an impression of total confidence and competence. He seemed much more comfortable talking dispassionately about his work and his facilities—when I asked for his opinion on these domesticated foxes, he hesitated, for the first and only time.
Unique and curious animals. When Fedewa called him up and asked him about going to Siberia to retrieve domesticated foxes, Kalmanson did his homework, interviewed her repeatedly, and decided she was up to his standards. She was deemed an acceptable business partner.
So last February, he got on a plane and flew out to Siberia. Then he flew back. The foxes are available in several color morphs—these are all red foxes, Vulpes vulpes , but their fur can vary in color from the classic red to black to silver to white.
If you contact her now, you can snag a fox born this spring, and receive it sometime in fall Anya is prone to digging up potted plants and chewing on them; foxes have a much stronger digging impulse than domesticated dogs. They also need an outdoor enclosure. Anya is also not quite as trainable as a domestic dog; she can obey some commands, but has a shorter attention span than most dogs. Going for walks is also tricky. Neighbors, too, have been a problem.
Fedewa had to move once already. A neighbor called the city, who sent over investigators and told her she was not allowed to have the fox.
So she moved, to a more forgiving property with about an acre of land in the southeastern corner of Michigan. Those are minor hurdles for Fedewa, if they even are hurdles. And in truth, those are very minor issues in the world of exotics.
Anya is affectionate, which hardly any exotics are; she plays, she recognizes and craves attention from her owner. She has quirks, but she is, distinctly, a pet. Both Fedewa and Kalmanson are vocal about this distinction: exotic, non-domesticated animals are not pets, and during my interviews, both Fedewa and Kalmanson expressed disdain mild from Fedewa, blunt from Kalmanson for private citizens who want to make wild animals their pets. But Anya is a pet. Wanting a pet is not peculiar, of course.
They bred with other dogs that could tolerate being around humans, self-selecting for tameness. Then humans found that these animals could serve a purpose, and bred them accordingly.
Domesticated animals are useful. Dogs are used for hunting, herding, and security; cats are used for pest control, horses for transportation, and a host of livestock animals cows, sheep, goats, pigs for food, milk, or fur. But for a large percentage of the first world, that kind of usefulness is mostly a bonus now, in our pursuit of owning a sentient warm cute furry thing that likes us.
Your cat caught a mouse? Oh, and call the exterminator when you get a chance.
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