25 February 2024 , 14:27
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A woman who loves foxes has shared how she always gives them any leftover food she has - but some people were left baffled by some of the items she gave to the wild animals.
Saffron Marie regularly shares clips from her life on social media, and recently she shared an insight into how she likes to "feed the wildlife" with her leftover food - meaning they are fed and she gets rid of any waste.
Taking to TikTok, the 24-year-old said: "Feed your wildlife when and where you can. It's actually really simple - and I don't know why more people don't do it. Any leftover food that you have, just make it for them and give it to them."
In the clip, the content creator can be seen chopping up and cooking potatoes and spring rolls for the foxes and popping them in a plastic bag, before adding a tin of spaghetti hoops, pears and broken-up bits of Toblerone. She continued: "I was worried that there wasn't going to be enough flavour, so I just poured some syrup in there, because I always remember that my nanny says that they like bread with syrup, so so here we go, just putting some syrup on potatoes and pears."
Unfortunately for the animal lover, the foxes weren't there when she went to find them, so instead she emptied the food onto the grass. She explained that they usually come out during the night to eat the grub she leaves for them. When she came back the next morning, she said the food had gone "apart from a couple of little bits".
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The clip has racked up over 560,000 views, and while many thought it was "cute" and thanked her for feeding them, others were completely baffled by the items she'd decided to feed them. One person wrote: "Love this but it hurt me to see the Toblerone go in, it's so good."
Another added: "It's a nice thought, I used to do it but was advised to not as the foxes will start to rely on you and lose their natural hunting instincts," while someone else said: "That's so nice. Chocolate is toxic to dogs I'm wondering if it's toxic for foxes?"
In a follow-up video, Saffron admitted that she shouldn't have given the foxes chocolate. She explained: "Yes, I shouldn't have given the foxes any chocolate, and I have learned from that. Everyone makes mistakes. No, of course I would never give a dog it. To me, the purpose of the video was more showing that you can use whatever you have lying around because you're going to chuck it away anway."
Luckily, the response wasn't all negative, as many people loved that Saffron was being kind to the animals. One person wrote: "This is literally too sweet, I love this," while another added: "Genuinely ignore haters! You are a sweetie, sweet pie! The foxes are vvv happy you're feeding them! biggest love."
According to the Woodland Trust, foxes can be fed all year round, but should follow a set feeding routine. This will encourage them to return to your garden at a certain time, so that food isn't left standing, which could encourage rats. According to the charity, the bulk of a fox's diet is made up of meat protein, so the best thing to feed your local fox is cooked or raw meat, or tinned dog food. They are also fond of peanuts, fruit and cheese.