Are there any foods a fox will eat but a raccoon will not?

I doubt there is anything that a raccoon won’t eat – those ruffians!

how about feeding the fox by hand?

A few years ago I had a similar problem. I wanted to feed the Opossums not the Raccoons. I used timing to avoid feeding the Raccoons. Raccoons generally would show up early and then leave and the Opossums came later (around 10 pm). But it was interesting to watch the interactions of the two species when they both showed up at the same time. Never saw any physical aggression but the bigger Opossums seem to get their way with the food.

Both are opportunists and omnivores and will eat just about anything, pet foods, fruits, berries, meats, grains, bread on and on. Unless you can set up two feeding stations or more to give the foxes a chance to get their share I think you’re SOL. All wildlife quickly become accustomed to certain routine food sources and it’s a matter of discovery. Once discovered they will return again and again whether that is a feeding station or your hen house.

I used to give the raccoons at my my old house blackberry cobbler. Party, party! haha

Feed the family of raccoons a double barrel of rock salt and I am pretty sure they will not come around there no more. You could also go through the trouble of trapping and relocating them. Or do like @gondwanalon suggests and just put out the food later or when you hear the fox calling out.

Why not experiment and feed the fox some tasty raccoon?

Or…...get a bunch of meaty beef bones full of marrow and scatter them all over, that way the foxes will get their share and they will bury them for a rainy, snowy day too.

These are good suggestions: adjust timing, apply non-lethal persuasion, distribute food, etc. (I will not relocate.)
The fox family has been coming for a long time and I know its diet and caloric needs really well. They clean up the rodents I catch and take them away with no mess. They are fantastic neighbors. The raccoons are recent immigrants and are upsetting the apple cart. They make a mess, They trip my stealth camera over and over causing it to take hundreds of extra pictures per night.
The adult travels with three very young juveniles who are cute as all get out. I have a picture of one sitting on its butt in the empty frying pan with its tail up along its belly: a cute fur-ball. I know it will turn into a mischievous, destructive adult in a few months.
I must address this situation soon. Unfortunately it looks like diet won’t do it.

Fantastic Mr. Fox lives by you?

What a great movie.

I do not know his name but I will certainly investigate that movie. Thanks!

It’s a book by Roald Dahl and an animated movie by Wes Anderson. You’ll enjoy it.

[Mod says] Moved to Social with OP’s permission.

Thank you.
I did look up Fantastic Mr Fox Netflix streaming didn’t have it. Instead I watched the only movie they had with a similar title. Agent F.O.X. until I’d reached my limit – about 5 minutes. Bleah.

I went out last night at 8:30 with a head mounted light and a dissuader: a Crossman 2100 multipump BB gun that is adjustable from a very weak 200 feet per second to 650 feet per second. I didn’t see the raccoon but I did see the fox and he saw me. I will go out in a bit and retrieve the camera card to check who got the food.

I wonder if there are any spices a fox likes but a raccoon does not.

The three juvenile raccoon teamed up and took over the pans at 9:00 pm after I went back inside. The fox got nothing again. Arrgh!

I was thinking feed more raccoon friendly food in another location, but knowing raccoons, they’d multiply and bring their friends, and eat you out of house and home.

The fox is such a dainty eater and does not tear into things. Raccoon on the other hand…
I used to have cats living in a heated hay shelter in my barn. I’d buy cases of canned cat food and kept it in the barn so I could feed them easily. One day I noticed a can was open and the top pulled half way off. Surprising, but I ignored it thinking one of my kids did it. A couple of days later the carton was torn up and cans were opened and strewn all over the barn. Disgusting. A few days later I saw a raccoon in the barn when I slid the door open. How the heck did they get in? The ‘coon was able to pull the sliding door away from the barn and squeeze inside. That door is heavy! It takes a lot of force to do that. Now I put a concrete block in front of the door as a door stop. PIA.

Fascinating question!
Will be following for updates!

I tried time shifting the food delivery. The fox travels fast and far so I figured he would discover it befroe the others. (I was wrong.) I put out the food at 5:00 pm, chunks of prime rib fat and meat on top of two soft taco shells. No activity until 7:27 pm.
19:27 Possum shows up, grabs a piece, and runs away
19:31 Possum ditto
19:41 Possum ditto
19:49 I show up wearing LED headlamp carrying Crosman 2100. See eyes watching me deep in woods. Can’t ID so do not shoot.
19:57 Raccoon clears out one pan
20:26 – 20:31 I return and scan tree line and walk into woods path with headlamp and Crosman 2100. See eyes but cannot ID.
20:40 Raccoon clears out both pans.
No Fox.

I will put a cheap solar LED about 3 meters behind the pans so I can notice a change if/when a critter walks by.

@LuckyGuy instead of an LED lamp, use a night vision lamp (looks red).You’ll see more, and possibly get a shot at your thieves.

@snowberry I have 2, full night vision monoculars: Gen 1 and a new Hawke digital. Unfortunately they are hand held and require a lot of fiddling. The headlamp does both red and green. I will experiment. The white light sure reaches out far though.

@LuckyGuy Is there a way for you to set up a remote camera to watch live? I would be inclined to set up a hose that you could turn on when the raccoons show up. I am sure getting wet would ruin their appetites and after a couple times I would wager they would not return.

@LuckyGuy Well ya know, I admire your desire to give a handout to your foxy friends but really, you can’t control all the wild life on your hill.
I’d just toss out whatever and let the critters work it out. First come first serve. Really, we can’t say that any one animal is more or less important than another.

It’s not the raccoons and possums fault that they too have found your altruistic cornucopia of goodies. It is going to be impossible to single out just a couple animals for your offerings. Matter of discovery and now that the others have discovered where the goodies are they are going to capitalize on your offerings as well.
I really don’t know how to solve this dilemma other than quitting all food or providing for all. haha

@Cruiser You know me so well! I have already purchased this device: Contech ScareCrow. Just need to hook it up.

@Coloma It is just so hard to not favor the ones that actually help me out and keep the place neat and clean. Oh well… Maybe a couple of days of ScareCrow will change the raccoon’s mind. Then I’ll turn it off and see if Foxy returns and gets to the goods first.
I won’t give up.

@LuckyGuy I thought of a motion activated sprayer as well but thought how do you stop if from spraying the fox and why I did not include that in my last comment.

@Cruiser For the past 3 or 4 nights my camera has not picked up the fox at all. He made no visits at any time during the day or night. I think he was scared off by the raccoon family. I’ll let scarecrow do it’s thing for a night or two and turn it off in the hopes that the fox will return.

Is a fox more agile than a raccoon? I don’t know how easy this would be to do, but I was thinking that maybe you could put the food on a shelf that the fox would have to jump up on and that would be out of reach for the raccoon.

Do racoons get eaten by any predators which will not eat foxes? Maybe you could leave out a scary smell or recording?

@LostInParadise Very clever idea! Use the fox’s speed and agility. Hmm… Rats! Raccoons can climb trees so that is out. The fox is very fast. How can I use that? I’ll think about it.
@longgone Coyote are pretty fast. I imagine they can catch raccoon but would have difficulty grabbing a fox. This is an interesting problem.

the fox was howling in the woods again last night.

Suppose you had a shelf supported by a pedestal in the middle of the shelf, and for stability attach the pedestal to the floor. If the shelf is wide enough, even if the raccoons could climb the pedestal, they could not reach the edge.

Alternatively, you could suspend the shelf from the ceiling.

I am no engineer so I don’t know how feasible these ideas would be.

The fox is saying “Lucky! Where is my dinner?”

It’s coming Foxy! It’s coming!

@LostInParadise You give me too much credit for patience and tolerance.

I decided to experiment with diet. For the next week I will not serve “people food”. I will only put out critters. Tonight’s dinner is uncooked chipmunk served outdoors on a skillet. Camera is set. Water sprayer is off.

@LuckyGuy You could buy a big sack of middle of the road dog food, both the foxes and coons would be thrilled. They would have to eat it kibble by kibble so the coons couldn’t just carry off the entire meal.
I just read about pet fox diets and any rodents, like your chipmunk, rats, mice, rabbits etc. are big. They need more protein than veggie matter and eat lots of insects too.

They also need the whole animal, skin, bones, organs. Maybe you need to raise some rabbits and let them loose. haha
Raccoons don’t hunt and they are too slow to catch a rabbit.

@LuckyGuy maybe a high power night vision headlamp?

Morning report. I put 3 chipmunks out there last night before 7:30 pm.
The raccoon came about 8:30 and took nothing.
About 10 pm a possum came and took away one chipmunk
It returned 15 minutes later and got a second one.

The third stayed there until morning. No fox. :-(

@snowberry Both of my night vision units have built in IR sources. One is good to about 10 meters . The other is good to about 50 meters. Unfortunately neither one is deep IR. Humans can’t see them but the fox can. Very cool.

@Coloma Thanks for the info re: the fox needing the whole animal. I think I might be on the right track here.
I’ll keep it up for a week or so and continue to record everything.

I don’t remember this discussion, but coming across it now I can’t believe that I let the obvious slip past me me. The way I see it, you are never going to be able to improve the odds for the foxes as long as the coons are around. The coons are smarter, more adaptable and it’s all but impossible to imagine a place a fox can get into that a raccoon can’t. I would get some of those traps that are actually cages and try relocating the coons, though you’ll wind up
trapping foxes, skunks!!! as well. Over time you might weed out the coons, but by now you probably have a reputation as an establishment reputed for fine dining. Tough campaign!