A raccoon ate my chicken when we went to dinner, part 2

[Animalfisherwoman]

For background, https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...hile-a-raccoon-ate-our-chicken.1468318/page-2

The coon came back the next night. He dragged poor White Owl's carcass out of the garbage can, consumed it and left...parts...all over the yard.

The trap went out two hours later. We used tuna. It caught a young skunk that ended up spraying the backyard while trying to spray SO. He got back out there anyway and managed to spring the trap so the skunk could leave.

But I'm still dead-set on the raccoon. I can't prove it, but am pretty sure it's just one or two adults. If there are kits in the nest, frankly, GOOD. Don't expect me to care about that anymore than I would a nest of rat pups.

So.. what's the best thing to catch them while not overly attracting skunks? Marshmallows?

 

[neo71665]

Marshmallows

My 2 girls also love sunflower seeds but that can be tricky to bait a trap with.

 

[nuthatched]

I've heard marshmallows work for coons, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[FrappcinoObsession]

For background, https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...hile-a-raccoon-ate-our-chicken.1468318/page-2

The coon came back the next night. He dragged poor White Owl's carcass out of the garbage can, consumed it and left...parts...all over the yard.

The trap went out two hours later. We used tuna. It caught a young skunk that ended up spraying the backyard while trying to spray SO. He got back out there anyway and managed to spring the trap so the skunk could leave.

But I'm still dead-set on the raccoon. I can't prove it, but am pretty sure it's just one or two adults. If there are kits in the nest, frankly, GOOD. Don't expect me to care about that anymore than I would a nest of rat pups.

So.. what's the best thing to catch them while not overly attracting skunks? Marshmallows?

Just trap that racoon and shot it done and a ease and please make sure your coop is secure and dig rocks under your coop and locked doors make it difficult and kill that racoon

 

[FuzzyOwlFeet]

I use sardines anyway, yes I get a lot of other varmints (but I euthanize anything that doesn't belong on the farm).

One thing I tried and liked is chicken feed. I noticed on my trail cameras the raccoons always tried to get the chicken feed first, before pursuing a birds. I put a decent mound of it in the back of the trap and caught my chicken killer THAT night.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Just trap that racoon and shot it done and a ease and please make sure your coop is secure and dig rocks under your coop and locked doors make it difficult and kill that racoon

We will realistically have to use pellets rather than our real 9 for this as we're in the middle of the suburbs. I also don't want to piss off any of these Animal Rights (TM) folks. Look, I've heard all their suggestions. They don't work, or if they do, the solution could cost thousands of dollars. It's more than just "oh reinforce the coop" and "get a big dog."

My friend had a coon try to attack his big dog. So much for the deterrent effect. He came up ag in California. The way he handles it is with water and a garbage can. To me that's wasting water, so how about dry ice? How much of that is needed for a family sized square bin?

I'm sure Annette Jones could tell us. Remember her? Head vet of California who dispatched a bunch of $14/hour temps to go yank pet chickens out of homes because of some Marek's like illness that's so innocuous toward humans that there is even a COVID vaccine planned with that virus as that platform? Yes, very smart humans are talking about injecting VND into people, and yet Annette was going around in 2018 saying that VND was really influenza and a threat to human health.

See, no one cares about the chickens. Not like overpopulated wildlife. Not like dogs either. Not even like feral cats. They're all ranked higher than chickens, despite chickens actually producing for you WHILE being your pet.