By Donna Ralph, Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

It started about 3 weeks ago. Just like every year, the fox calls begin coming from the Denver area first and then steadily down south. With bad weather and mother foxes becoming much more active in an effort to feed their kits in the den, problems are more likely to occur for them right now than during other times of the year.

Sick, injured, and orphaned fox kits have been coming to rehab almost daily for the past few weeks. Usually the mother has suffered an accident; hit by a car or caught in a fence, causing injuries that render her less able to hunt and care for her kits. And kits are falling into window wells, some perishing before being found. Please cover your window wells!

The youngsters that come to rehab at EWRC are provided with medical care if they need it, and properly raised and socialized to other foxes to ensure optimal health and timely release, setting them up for success back in the wild. Currently they are young and require more time-intensive care than in just a few short weeks from now, when they will be "real" foxes; moved to outdoor enclosures, hiding during the daytime and becoming most active at night, playing, digging, burying their food, and preparing for release.

Fox kits cost about $8 per day per each to feed, for about 8-12 weeks, and you can help by donating toward their care.

Healthy kits and foxes aren't relocated or brought to rehab "just because." Although homeowners are sometimes unhappy with what the digging foxes do to their landscaping and because they are concerned about their dogs and cats, the law doesn't allow relocation of healthy animals. The best thing we can do for the healthy fox and her babies right now is bring the pets inside for about 3 weeks, and let the mother raise her babies and let them move off on their own. Once they are gone, filling in the damage in the landscaping can safely happen. Foxes can benefit humans because they provide effective rodent control, consuming mice and other rodents.

www.ellicottwildlife.com

P.O. Box 75069

Colorado Springs, CO. 80970

719-683-8152