Taking care of your fox, housing it, feeding it, providing it entertainment, and especially grooming it, is not as easy as with other common pets like cats and dogs. Foxes are beautiful, clever, and captivating pets belonging to the canine family, but unlike dogs, who are also from the canine family, they are not domesticated; although for the past half a century, fox breeders have been selectively breeding tame foxes for keeping as pets, that is why foxes retain a wild streak in their nature proving to be more difficult to groom and keep clean than other animals.

If you plan on adopting a fox, the best age to adopt them is when they are young; less than six months old, as during their early age they are more docile and can be easily trained to go through the grooming process, whether that is bathing, brushing, or clipping of their nails, without going in a full-fledged defensive mode like an adult fox might, who hasn’t been previously trained to be calm during grooming. When grooming your kit, be patient, talk to him, and offer him treats so that your baby fox will learn to associate grooming with a positive activity rather than be afraid of it.

Bathing

 Foxes are pretty good at keeping themselves clean and rarely need to be bathed, once every month is good enough. To bathe your fox lay a rubber mat in your bathtub, so that your fox doesn’t lose his footing on the slippery floor of the tub and fill it with warm water making sure that it is not too hot that it burns your fox’s skin or so cold that it is uncomfortable for your fox. You should not overfill the tub; the water should be just enough that it submerges half the leg of your fox.

Place your fox in the tub and after pouring the animal body soap on its fur, start rubbing the soap gently in its fur, making sure to thoroughly wash any matted fur. Start lathering soap on the body of your fox first, its legs and tails, saving the head for last as water or soap entering the fox’s eyes, nose, and ears can make it agitated, and remember to wash the soap off the head before any other body part. After bathing make sure to completely dry your fox by gently using a towel.

Clipping Fox’s Nails

Foxes are efficient diggers therefore their nails are in a shape that aids them in digging but that also means that their nails get dirty quite a lot, becoming a prospective site for bacterial or fungal growth and the rate at which their nails grow is also quite fast, that’s why you need to clip their nails quite often. You can take your fox to the vet to have its nails clipped or you can do it by yourself, granted that you have trained your fox from a young age to stay calm during nail clipping. 

File the nails carefully, making sure to not rush the process as you might nick your pet by mistake, you should also provide treats and lots of positive reinforcement during the process, whether that’s petting your fox or scratching it lightly to make the experience a nice and less stressful for your fox as well as you. Nail clipping is also one of the acts in which you must slowly win your fox’s trust and that is easier achieved during their early days when they are young and more impressionable.

Brushing Your Fox’s Coat

Like other members of the canine family, including dogs, foxes also shed their hair. Once a year they will shed their entire coat with fur coming off in large clumps, it is called blowing and they generally do it in springs. During this shedding period, it is essential to brush their coat to avoid matting and to prevent any mess from occurring as the hair will stick to any type of furniture, carpets, or clothes the fox touches.

To brush the fox’s coat, spray a small amount of clean water onto the fox’s fur, to help ease the glide of the brush, work through the tangles slowly and gently and remember to award your fox during the process. Some foxes even enjoy getting brushed, if done right with the correct amount of positive support your fox will learn to enjoy the process too.

You should consider brushing your fox before giving it a bath, if it sheds a lot of hair during the bath it may end up making a mess or in the worst case, clogging your drain.

Brushing Your Fox’s Teeth

A common mistake that pet owners make, especially fox owners, is that they often disregard the dental hygiene of their pets. Not taking proper care of dental hygiene of a pet can result in serious cavities, tartar build-up, and other disorders, which ultimately will cause lots of pain to your poor fox and not be light on your wallet either as for most of the dental procedures the pet has to be under full anesthesia.

Most foxes love sugary treats, if your fox consumes them too you should try to brush its teeth daily with fox-specific toothpaste and a toothbrush; although, once a week teeth brushing is good enough. too, to prevent any tartar accumulation, and to keep your fox’s teeth healthy.

FAQs

Does bathing help in getting rid of the fox’s smell?

Anyone who owns a fox can attest that they have a particular stench. Their smell is not only due to their urine and feces but can also be caused by the violet glands they possess, which secrete the foul-smelling moisture on their skin. Bathing will not help in getting rid of this smell especially after your fox hits maturity and starts marking its territory with urine and feces, too. One thing that helps with the territorial behavior of foxes and controlling their stench is getting them spayed or neutered, which along with lessening their smell will also help in controlling undesirable behaviors during mating season.