What kind of predator eats just the head and/or guts?

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redbone

redbone

Songster
10 Years
May 24, 2009
118
0
109
Rockvale, TN
This week I've had 2 chickens killed in their coop. The only entrance for anything to get in would be a gap from the loft or a couple of places that is about 2" wide x 12" long or so.

Earlier this week there was a juvenile about 3-4 months old that just had its head and guts eaten. Last night something ate nothing but the head off of a chicken. What do you guys think this is? Today I'm going to fill in the gaps... but I still would like to know the possible predators. I did kill a small young possum that managed to get in there before I closed them up after free ranging a few days ago... think its another possum or something else?
 
Yeah, probably a coon-----the reason the head is only eaten, is probably because that is the part that got pulled through the gap.
sad.png
 
The birds weren't tried to pull through any gap.... they were both laying in the middle of the coop... not near a wall at all.
 
We have had that problem too. An Opossum was getting them. It would eat the head guts and a little of the breast. We also lost some of our bantams to hawks. The hawks would land on the sides of the cages and reach in. They would only eat the head and crop because that is all they could get through the wire.
 
A weasel will not usually do more than kill the bird by biting the neck and lapping up the blood, if they feed on the carcass they will go for the breast. I've lost birds to both weasels and coons and I'm still voting coon based on you description of what is eaten. Could also be a rat but they generally won't kill more than one bird at a time and usually aren't specific about what they eat.
 

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