➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[Glitterchicks]

If she responds to this I am going to die.

 

[NanaKat]

My cat would say otherwise. A full bowl of food? But it’s been sitting out for 0.0000000000001 seconds so it’s garbage now.

Barn cat wasn't particular...dry food, mice, chicken scraps...
Our gray barn kitty hasn't stopped by in a few weeks.... think the coyotes got him.
I was putting food in the bowl in the barn and it was disappearing so we just thought we were simply missing his food visits.
So I set up the animal camera and got pictures of a possum, a raccoon, a skunk and a yellow tabby cat visiting the bowl.
We secured all possible access points, stopped the raccoon and possum from coming in the barn. Now we think the skunk has a nest under the lumber stack in the back of the barn because it still visits the food bowl.
The yellow cat still crawls under the barn door to get to the feed.
Tonight I set a live trap for the skunk and put the food dish up higher off the floor for the cat and set up the camera again.
Here Kitty, kitty, kitty!
Will report in the morning the results.

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

Barn cat wasn't particular...dry food, mice, chicken scraps...
Our gray barn kitty hasn't stopped by in a few weeks.... think the coyotes got him.
I was putting food in the bowl in the barn and it was disappearing so we just thought we were simply missing his food visits.
So I set up the animal camera and got pictures of a possum, a raccoon, a skunk and a yellow tabby cat visiting the bowl.
We secured all possible access points, stopped the raccoon and possum from coming in the barn. Now we think the skunk has a nest under the lumber stack in the back of the barn because it still visits the food bowl.
The yellow cat still crawls under the barn door to get to the feed.
Tonight I set a live trap for the skunk and put the food dish up higher off the floor for the cat and set up the camera again.
Here Kitty, kitty, kitty!

My uncle has lost most of his flock to coons this week. They ripped through the wood siding on the coop and just killed the chickens, didn’t even eat any of the meat off of them. They’re the worst

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

Don't worry, I got it!

 

[Glitterchicks]

My uncle has lost most of his flock to coons this week. They ripped through the wood siding on the coop and just killed the chickens, didn’t even eat any of the meat off of them. They’re the worst

That's terrible.
They're so darn cute, it's too bad they're so evil.

 

[debid]

My uncle has lost most of his flock to coons this week. They ripped through the wood siding on the coop and just killed the chickens, didn’t even eat any of the meat off of them. They’re the worst

That's awful! We have a lot of predators around here. We just saw the resident bobcat around dusk crossing from one forested area to another at the edge of the yard. We know it's around and this is hardly new but seeing it always puts my hair on end.

 

[Kiki]

Barn cat wasn't particular...dry food, mice, chicken scraps...
Our gray barn kitty hasn't stopped by in a few weeks.... think the coyotes got him.
I was putting food in the bowl in the barn and it was disappearing so we just thought we were simply missing his food visits.
So I set up the animal camera and got pictures of a possum, a raccoon, a skunk and a yellow tabby cat visiting the bowl.
We secured all possible access points, stopped the raccoon and possum from coming in the barn. Now we think the skunk has a nest under the lumber stack in the back of the barn because it still visits the food bowl.
The yellow cat still crawls under the barn door to get to the feed.
Tonight I set a live trap for the skunk and put the food dish up higher off the floor for the cat and set up the camera again.
Here Kitty, kitty, kitty!
Will report in the morning the results.

Tell us you trapped him last night.

 

[NanaKat]

Got the skunk! Only two pictures on the animal cam at 4:04 am
It rained last night...guessing that is why the cat didn't visit the barn.

Going to my younger sister's home to help her in her garden and taking her more compost. She is still in a sling since shoulder reconstruction.

Bbl

 

[Kiki]

Got the skunk! Only two pictures on the animal cam at 4:04 am
It rained last night...guessing that is why the cat didn't visit the barn.

Going to my younger sister's home to help her in her garden and taking her more compost. She is still in a sling since shoulder reconstruction.

Bbl

 

[debid]

Barn cat wasn't particular...dry food, mice, chicken scraps...
Our gray barn kitty hasn't stopped by in a few weeks.... think the coyotes got him.
I was putting food in the bowl in the barn and it was disappearing so we just thought we were simply missing his food visits.
So I set up the animal camera and got pictures of a possum, a raccoon, a skunk and a yellow tabby cat visiting the bowl.
We secured all possible access points, stopped the raccoon and possum from coming in the barn. Now we think the skunk has a nest under the lumber stack in the back of the barn because it still visits the food bowl.
The yellow cat still crawls under the barn door to get to the feed.
Tonight I set a live trap for the skunk and put the food dish up higher off the floor for the cat and set up the camera again.
Here Kitty, kitty, kitty!
Will report in the morning the results.

We don't leave food out at night around here. The food dish goes on the deck right next to the house while my coffee brews and the dish gets brought in at dusk when I'm cleaning up the after-dinner mess.

Otherwise, we're feeding every critter within a mile or five. And I know because I've collected the dish with a broom in hand to fend off an opossum and raccoons back before we learned.

I've watched some YouTube videos on making raccoon-proof feeders. It's essentially relying on a cat being able to jump and raccoons/skunks/opossums being rather limited in that regard. The one thing that strikes me as a design flaw is that none of them seem to try to make the pole itself climb-resistant. I'd trim the 4*4 post down enough to slide a piece of pvc drain pipe over it so the suckers can't easily get up there to try and reach the skirted edge.

I haven't built one, though. Mostly because I fear that even with every other trick, foxes can jump as well as a cat and I'd still be feeding them.