Gray Fox

I am working a family of Gray Fox that are living under a deck in a pretty decent size city.

I have ZERO experience with gray fox and the one I caught this morning was the first one I have ever seen yet caught.

Do you treat gray fox the same as reds? Are the habits the same?


I know when I do a red fox job by the second or third catch the parents usually take the remaining kits and flee.

To me they seem to be a lot more tolerable
Of ppl. You can catch the adults fairly easy in
A cage trap! Once you get the mom you will get
The pups! Also look up in the tree when your there
Sometimes the mom will look over the den from up
In the tree!

Kasey personally I love red fox jobs. I get a few each year and always look forward to them.

Imagine my surprise when I came around the corner and saw a gray sitting in the cage waiting for me.

On a normal red fox job I will use cages and after the first few the rest leave. On the rare occasion they don't get the hint I will eventually have to switch to cable restraints once they get cage smart.

Should I expect the same?

I am guessing that you will catch the whole
Family before they decide to move, good thing is
That they should be old enough to be self sufficient
By now if you plan to release them! Did you positive
Set for them or Have baited cages?

Baited for now.

Positive set will be very difficult on this location.

Yes the kit I caught today should be just fine on its own.

All will be relocated.

Nate, I've caged a lot of adult red fox but rarely an adult grey. I have caught a fair amount of grey fox pups however. If a customer told me he saw 8 grey fox pups I would probably set 8 cages.

Greys seem to be the dumbest animal around here. I've caught them on marshmallows.
A little long call past the pan gets them too.
A positive set and the foxpro with grey fox distress makes for quick work.

Grey fox have a pretty good sweet tooth, needless to say they are suckers for coon sets. The first grey I ever caught was on a bait that I made of chunked groundhog soaked in a mix of molasses, syrup and honey. Even caught them on mini donuts(there ya go LT).

block off the deck to force trap them in a colony trap/ excluder set up.

I looked at it again today Bob because I was thinking the same thing but the obstacles around the deck will not allow me to fence it off for a positive set.

I am actually going to enjoy trapping these guys the old fashion way. It is something different and after 5 months of nothing but raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and woodchucks it is actually nice to have a change of pace.

I've been scouting a lot of grey fox this summer and Pre baiting them in some spots . Right now I'm finding there eating black berrys and voles . Greys love there fruit and common place to mistake there droppings for coon because of the seeds . Fish oil is highly attractive to grey fox if your looking to draw them in a cage . Just put a little stuffed animal in the cage squirt some fish oil on it . The family will be feeding on berrys nere by so look for the food sorce it must be there .

Pesky you are dead on with the berries in the droppings.

Have been catching them so far on cat food but today I will switch it up with some freshly picked berries out of my yard. My dogs won't stop eating them so only makes sense a fox would enjoy them as well.

I worked a grey fox job about a month ago. Had a family of greys live about 50ft out the back door of this guys house. the pup could almost give a care less that someone was there and the guy did not want his grandkids running up to pet the puppies. I used caged and soft catches with the soft catches getting all the action. I could not get them to go in to a cage.

If I had a fox ( any kind of a fox ) that wouldn't get caught in my Wickenkamps, I have another cage in mind. Maybe some of you might have heard of it; it's called a Comstock. If Nate takes his berries and trails them through a Comstock, ( Okay, first he has to get rid of 6 raccoons, 3 opossums, and a skunk, ) but then he should catch the fox, right?

I never said use berries I said fish oil drives them nuts there crazy for fish oil for what ever reason . Berries do make sense but there getting all they can eat fresh off the bush I just don't see that working . If I was to use berries I would give the blue berries something different but would still add fish oil . Using berries better hide them from the birds . I know guys that do cage trap a lot grey fox and they use cheap stuffed animals with fish oil on them . Wickenkamp trap is a good trap I have one it's by fare the baited trap that gets refused less then the others even the Williams i think .Must be the open feel to it . Guy needs to paint them before he puts the wire on them would be a good thing .

Nate how did the job turn out? How many did
You catch?

I ended up with 2 kits before they moved to another yard. They just started returning to the customers yard the last couple days so I am going back tomorrow to reset.

I've caught fox in a Comstock beaver trap turned up on it's side. Got the job done.

Blackies Fur King and marshmallows is my secret bait for fox----all jobs had cats around and sweets avoided them.