Family Portrait

Why feed foxes dog food?

Because they’re part of the dog family! Do you see the family resemblance? Foxes look kind of like long haired, pointy-nosed dogs with bushy tails. (The canine family also includes wolves, dogs, and jackals.)

A Fox for All Places

Arctic foxes use their snowy white fur for camouflage in the world’s coldest spots. Fennec foxes, on the other hand, call the desert home-sweet-home. Their giant ears release heat. Foxes can live on farmland or in woods, suburbs, and even cities.

On the Menu

Foxes eat rodents, dead animals, grain, trash, berries, chickens right from the coop, and, of course, dog food. On the American prairie, foxes gobble up around a million wild ducks each year. Keep in mind: It’s not safe to feed a fox by hand or keep one as a pet. They’re wild animals and can get aggressive.

Everyone’s Favorite Trickster

Foxes live in all parts of the world, and people from many cultures tell fables about foxes. Foxes are smart. They’re great at finding food, surviving extreme weather, and outwitting enemies. Foxes in stories often outsmart another character with a trick.

Do you know Aesop’s story “The Fox and the Crow”? The ancient Greek tale describes a fox who meets a crow holding cheese in her beak. “What a charming creature she is!” the fox flatters.

The fox wants the cheese. So he asks the crow to sing for him.

Crows don’t have a reputation for singing well. But the crow in the story loves the fox’s praise. She opens her beak to caw—and the cheese falls right into the fox’s mouth. “Thank you,” the fox says. “Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?”

For more about foxes, see Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl in our Recommended Reading.