What is a baby fox called?
A baby fox is called a kit or kitten, whereas some people may call baby foxes cubs.
Other baby animals that are called a kit include beavers, squirrels and cats. Baby wolves and bears are also called cubs. A group of baby foxes are called a litter and a group of foxes are called a skulk.
Most baby foxes are born with tan, brown, or charcoal-colored fur. They are extremely fuzzy and look very different from their parents. After a few months their red fur starts to show.
How much does a baby fox weigh?
Baby foxes are very small when they are born. When they are born they weigh between 2.5 – 4 ounces or 70-100 grams. After they are born they start to grow very quickly, tripling in size, in just over a week. Baby foxes start hunting on their own, killing small prey such as insects and rodents, after about the third month.
Although foxes are the smallest members of the dog family, the largest species of Red fox may reach an adult weight of 3 – 11 kilograms (6.5 – 24 pounds). The average head and body length is 18 to 33.75 inches (46 to 86 centimetres), with a tail length of 12 to 21 inches (30.5 to 55 centimetres). The size of a fox can be estimated from their tracks.
Red fox footprints are normally about 4.4 centimetres wide and 5.7 centimetres long. A normal trotting stride is about 33 – 38 centimetres.
Where do baby foxes live?
While they are young baby foxes will live in a den.
The fox is a remarkably resourceful creature, able to cope in a very wide range of different environmental conditions, from sub-tropical regions to icy tundra, the fox is able to find food and keep warm. Foxes inhabit almost every habitat – sea cliffs, sand dunes, salt marshes, peat bogs, high mountains, woodland and are particularly abundant in urban areas. They make ‘lairs’ in a foxes ‘earth’, under tree trunks, in hollow trees, in bracken or in a deserted buzzard nests.
At around 7-10 months, the young foxes leave their parents, to start their own lives, and eventually find mates. The average red fox in the wild only lives to be 2-3 years old, so their lifecycle is very short.
What do baby foxes eat?
Foxes are mammals which means they feed on the milk of their mother for about four weeks, until the parents start regurgitating food into their mouths. Their little stomachs are so small that they must eat several small meals throughout the day to stay full. When they’re babies, foxes can eat up to four times per day. As babies, they must drink about 500 mL of milk a day to grow and thrive.
Red foxes are mainly carnivores but are generally classed as omnivores. In Britain, the red fox feeds mainly on small rodents such as field mice, voles and rabbits, however, they will also eat birds, insects, earthworms, grasshoppers, beetles, blackberries, plums and mollusks and crayfish, amphibians, small reptiles and fish. A fox will eat almost anything it finds, often eating carrion (dead animal carcass) or preying on new-born lambs in the spring.
Foxes have also been known to kill deer fawns. Foxes typically eat 0.5 – 1 kilograms (1 – 2 pounds) of food a day.
Do Baby Foxes have Teeth?
Just like with most mammals, fox babies are born with no teeth. They start to get their first teeth or milk teeth, a few weeks after they are born. A few weeks later, they get the rest of their baby teeth, 28 in total.
Later they lose their baby teeth, which are replaced with 42 adult teeth. Some foxes, such as bat-eared foxes have six extra molars, giving them 48 adult teeth.
Check out this fun Red Fox Quiz.