Any ideas on what could be doing This??

[Melissakins]

Hubby and I moved our pen and coop yesterday to greener pastures. All the girls and the two boys had free range of the back yard while we did our task. While moving the pen, hubby noticed that the clips that hold the chainlink to the bars at the top of the pen were chewed on. Literally ALL of them.

The top of the pen is covered in plastic chicken wire and thus far nothing has gotten into the pen or coop to hurt any of the birds (we do have a dog in the yard OUTSIDE of their pen who is very good at alerting us to anything amiss, but at night he's inside with us).

Here's two pics of two of the clips that have been chewed on:

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Wow, that is just weird!

 

[#1California Chick]

Something that is VERY determined to get your chickens!!

 

[19hhbelgian]

OMG!!!!

If I was your dog I think I'd be afraid of something that would rather chew on metal clips than plastic fencing!!

Maybe a raccoon? They climb and have some serious chompers on 'em...

 

[Andora]

Yikes!

I've had 2 different dogs (pets) that could chew through metal. My dachshund would get canned cat food and chew it in a circle around the edges until the lid popped off, just like a can opener!

One of my cats, a very fat cat who has an oral fixation, can also chew up thin metal like hair clips.

I would guess a possum or a raccoon would chew like that. I think you need to set up a hidden camera at night and find out!

 

[Melissakins]

We were thinking Racoon or possum but figured we'd ask here to see if anyone had any ideas.. We have a ton of both of those down here. Last night, Mowglie was down in the back yard instead of the deck where he usually hangs out when it's dark barking his fool head off.

We installled a chicken cam (for Chicken TV of course) INSIDE their coop so we can watch them and hear them when they lay eggs and switched the TV over to the cam when we heard him barking. He was down on the side of the yard where their coop is now, but I figured it was deer. Nothing scraping or anything outside their coop and no one seemed distressed while he was barking. They stayed asleep.

We've been closing their window hatch (which has fine mesh wire across the front of it too) up at night due to the cold and closing their sliding door which leads to the ramp that goes out into their pen so I wasn't afraid of them being attacked, but I think I'm going to go out tonight and see what it is if Mowglie barks again.

We have a friend who might have a live trap that we can set and see if anything wants to become caught.

 

[Melissakins]

Quote:
This is a 10 foot high pen

I think we might move the camera this afternoon and see what we can see - or take the one from the front of the house and mount it on one of the corners of the pen and see if any creatures are lurking about.

 

[Melissakins]

Quote:
This is a 8 foot high pen

(Hubby just said it's 8 ft tall LOL) I think we might move the camera this afternoon and see what we can see - or take the one from the front of the house and mount it on one of the corners of the pen and see if any creatures are lurking about.

 

[thecochincoop]

kind of looks like rodent teeth to me. I was thinking maybe a squirrel or something. They like to chew just for the heck of it. Doesn't look like coon or possum to me. If something were trying to get in I think it would have chewed or dug somewhere else too. Squirrels are known for chewing up weird things for the fun of it.

 

[MimiChick]

In the picture, those clips look like heavy plastic. I've heard that possums like to chew on plastic.