Raccoon or Cat Attack? ***GRAPHIC AFTERMATH***

[RR MiniSatins]

I agree, I have a pretty good set up now. I still don't know how a raccoon got one of my chickens unless he got in during the day. They are locked up tight at night with no evidence of entry except for the dead chicken. Rabbits are double protected, but they still try to get in and that makes me nervous. I know I'll never get rid of them, but I'm not going to sit back and let them try, not in my nature! LOL

 

[wamplercathy]

It is best to wire down the bait in the trap. Raccoons are very smart. I foster and trust me they can get in/out of just about anything. I have seen some of my babies use a key to unlock the cage their siblings were in. Monkey see Monkey do. OR Raccoon see Raccoon do. No joke.

 

[alforddm]

Coon in a hen house is bad news. They don't kill to eat they will kill just for fun. Rip the heads off and leave them laying. I'm sure Rabbits would be the same. I've had my rabbits since Aug and thankfully haven't had a predator problem...yet. Our neighbor killed a bunch that were getting into this hog traps and eating the bait so hopefully that thinned them a bit in our area. We do have a bad feral hog problem but I don't think they will bother the rabbits.

Of course this little lady tends to keep the coons away from the house as well. Funny thing is that she is protective of the rabbits.

My hound population is about to increase. She is due Jan 9th. :lol:

 

[Sagebrush]

I was going to say that she looks ready to pop any day now LOL :lol: :lol:

 

[BC Belgians]

Coon in a hen house is bad news. They don't kill to eat they will kill just for fun. Rip the heads off and leave them laying. I'm sure Rabbits would be the same.

Really? I have heard mink do this. Its called food stashing. But I am not sure if any wild predator would truly kill for fun (except, perhaps, orcas) or if this is just our interpretation of a behavior we don't fully understand. Hunting a bunch of domesticated birds in an enclosed space is hardly natural and may lead to unnatural behavior by wild animals as a reaction to the situation.

We live in British Columbia, Canada, and everyone around us has loads of problems with raccoons and mink. We've been keeping chickens for 12 years and rabbits for just over one. Never lost anything to a raccoon or mink, because nothing can get into our hen house or rabbitry. Simple as that. Keeping pet food, chicken food or garbage out is like a welcome mat for those little opportunists, too. I used chicken food crumbles as cat litter and a raccoon climbed over the cat fence, went onto our deck, and scooped the cat litter/chicken food into its mouth with its little hands like it just hit the jack pot. It was really cute. Made me change to clay cat litter and our guest hasn't been back.

 

[michaels4gardens]

Coon in a hen house is bad news. They don't kill to eat they will kill just for fun. Rip the heads off and leave them laying. I'm sure Rabbits would be the same.

Really? I have heard mink do this. Its called food stashing. But I am not sure if any wild predator would truly kill for fun (except, perhaps, orcas) or if this is just our interpretation of a behavior we don't fully understand. Hunting a bunch of domesticated birds in an enclosed space is hardly natural and may lead to unnatural behavior by wild animals as a reaction to the situation.
.

weasels , and coons kill way more then they could eat, weasels will slash every throat in a coop, and-- coons will rip all of the chickens to pieces, and then settle down and eat a few bites from one of them, then leave. Coons will find a nest of ducks, or Pheasants , and kill all of them , and then eat a few and move on. A coyote , or fox will sneak into your coop or enclosure, make a kill, usually by removing the head, then carry its kill off ,usually leaving no mess, you will be left wondering what is "disappearing " your chickens, or rabbits.

 

[alforddm]

weasels , and coons kill way more then they could eat, weasels will slash every throat in a coop, and-- coons will rip all of the chickens to pieces, and then settle down and eat a few bites from one of them, then leave. Coons will find a nest of ducks, or Pheasants , and kill all of them , and then eat a few and move on. A coyote , or fox will sneak into your coop or enclosure, make a kill, usually by removing the head, then carry its kill off ,usually leaving no mess, you will be left wondering what is "disappearing " your chickens, or rabbits.

Amen to this. If they were food stashing you'd expect them to stash a few. Nope just kill ripe out a few gizzards and leave.

 

[BC Belgians]

There was a German study done with cats about this (Dr. Paul Leyhausen; Katzen, eine Verhaltenskunde; 1982, p.113). It was concluded that in cats the instinct to hunt overrules hunger. In a room with a continuous supply of mice, the cats played and killed one mouse after the other without eating the prey. Only when the stimuli to hunt was no longer triggered by a live mouse (movement) would the cats begin to eat. Usually they ate just one mouse (one meal) because they are not gorg feeders (like some of the big cats or wolves).

Perhaps raccoons and mustelidae react similar to cat when confronted with such a situation. Their drive to hunt gets trigger by continuous movement. This doesn't indicate that they are killing out of sport or fun, but that they can not override their hard-wired instinct to hunt. In the wild, these predators are confronted with only one prey animal at the time in the wide open. As opportunistic scavengers canides possibly approach this situation differently. They take what they can get and run to secure their food from competition.

 

[michaels4gardens]

There was a German study done with cats about this (Dr. Paul Leyhausen; Katzen, eine Verhaltenskunde; 1982, p.113). It was concluded that in cats the instinct to hunt overrules hunger. In a room with a continuous supply of mice, the cats played and killed one mouse after the other without eating the prey. Only when the stimuli to hunt was no longer triggered by a live mouse (movement) would the cats begin to eat. Usually they ate just one mouse (one meal) because they are not gorg feeders (like some of the big cats or wolves).

Perhaps raccoons and mustelidae react similar to cat when confronted with such a situation. Their drive to hunt gets trigger by continuous movement. This doesn't indicate that they are killing out of sport or fun, but that they can not override their hard-wired instinct to hunt. In the wild, these predators are confronted with only one prey animal at the time in the wide open. As opportunistic scavengers canides possibly approach this situation differently. They take what they can get and run to secure their food from competition.

I was referring to wild Ducks and pheasants . not caged domestic animals.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Perhaps raccoons and mustelidae react similar to cat when confronted with such a situation. Their drive to hunt gets trigger by continuous movement. This doesn't indicate that they are killing out of sport or fun, but that they can not override their hard-wired instinct to hunt.

That sounds very plausible.

Coons will find a nest of ducks, or Pheasants , and kill all of them , and then eat a few and move on.

I was referring to wild Ducks and pheasants

Still, the situation is similar- as long as something is moving in the nest, they have the stimuli to keep killing.

As opportunistic scavengers canides possibly approach this situation differently. They take what they can get and run to secure their food from competition.

Wild ones, maybe... but not domestic dogs. They will also kill multiple animals if given the chance.

About 12 years ago, there was a feral dog in the area that was causing all kinds of problems for everyone. It came here and killed several chickens, but only ate one- possibly because he was interrupted. When he came back a second time, he suffered a sudden onset of fatal lead poisoning.

My own dear departed JRT, Chase, never ate the animals he killed. When he would catch a ground squirrel, his interest only lasted as long as it was still a functioning "squeaky toy". Once it was dead, he would go over and poke it with his nose to see if it would squeak and if it was "broken" he didn't play with it anymore. :lol:

 

[BC Belgians]

You are right MamaSheepdog. Now that you said it I remember our neighbor pasture raising dozens of white geese for Christmas and his own dog killed every one of them! Went on a total rampage. Our own JRT just kills the rats, but doesn't eat them. We use her to go after mink that come too close, because they are so difficult to trap or shoot. We had a problem mink just once so far.

Biggest problem for us here are the Bald Eagles, and the law protects them. From May to July we are under siege and nobody (cats, rabbits, chickens) is allowed out during the day. Its a real nuisance.

 

[alforddm]

As opportunistic scavengers canides possibly approach this situation differently. They take what they can get and run to secure their food from competition.

Coyotes will overkill if the opportunity presents itself as well. A herd of deer caught in a snow drift will be dispatched even though there are far more than the coyote will eat.

I see being over come by prey drive as the same thing as their killing for fun. I dare say they get some enjoyment or pleasure out of the kill or they wouldn't do it unless hunger drove them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not natural. Just that nature is not the fuzzy happy happy joy joy scenario that to many people imagine this day and age. It's messy nasty and often includes animals being eaten alive (often happens with wolf kills). Being "humane" does not figure into animal on animal interactions.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I see being over come by prey drive as the same thing as their killing for fun. I dare say they get some enjoyment or pleasure out of the kill or they wouldn't do it unless hunger drove them.

I totally agree. Notice I used the word "play" about Chase and the squirrel. Our Aussies also clearly think killing small critters is "fun", although most of them will eat what they kill.

I'm sure we have all seen documentaries showing the strong "play drive" that is present in many animals- and all play really boils down to is to practice survival and communication skills.

But let's face it- a predator isn't going to calculate how many animals it will take to sate it's hunger, and doesn't have the capacity to reason that they can just return at a later time to kill another one.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not natural. Just that nature is not the fuzzy happy happy joy joy scenario that to many people imagine this day and age. It's messy nasty and often includes animals being eaten alive (often happens with wolf kills). Being "humane" does not figure into animal on animal interactions.

Yeah- I wonder where the saying that man is the only animal that kills for pleasure came from?

 

[BC Belgians]

Of course most would agree that nature is about the brutal truth of survival and that mercy generally doesn't play any part in it. However, humans have a way to interpret animal behavior by anthropomorphizing with said animal. While this is often essential as a starting point, it is often ill fated, because of misinterpretation. Instinct is not an emotion. It is hard-wired behavior, and hunting behavior is instinct. To say that the animal experiences joy by acting on instinct is speculation, but of course possible. The cat's play with the mouse is instinct, but can, of course, elicit a sense of joy.

Despite the possibility that predators experience joy when killing, I would strongly oppose the thought that they do so with malice. <br /><br /> -- Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:22 pm -- <br /><br />

Yeah- I wonder where the saying that man is the only animal that kills for pleasure came from?

Man may be the only animal that kills FOR pleasure. Animals may kill WITH pleasure. The root motive is what is the difference.

 

[Flamincactus]

I saw these pics and feel bad for you as I had something very similar happen to my rabbit. The difference is, your rabbit is still relitively whole besides chunk on hind and head. I came home from a 3 day sleepover and discoverd mine had been torn apart. Imagine as if it was half eaten everywhere and its been ripped apart, head, torso, limbs and all. Never have a rabbit live outside on its own. If you can, have a large dog live with it so it can protect the lil fluff if anything tries to harm your bunny