Beware! ground squirrel slaughter

[youngkl]

Yesterday I came home from taking my daughter to a birthday party and heard the chicks in our garage making tons of noise. My husband had been working outside and had left the garage door open for a while. It sounded like screaming, so I went to see what was going on. When I looked in their livestock tank, I saw a ground squirrel looking up at me. Two chicks were dead, two were terribly maimed, and we just lost another one this morning that I had hoped would make it because her small injury looked minor. He ate off beaks and feet and bit them all over the place. It was so terrible I don't think I'll ever forget the sight of it. I had no idea that ground squirrels could be predatory. He jumped out and ran when I called my husband out and later my husband was able to spot him near the yard and shot him. We think this might explain losing one of our adult hens last week. The hen was dragged all around and barely eaten- just a small surface area was nibbled.

We live in Oregon. Just a word of caution if you have these around your house. I guess in early spring this is most likely to happen as they are needing protein and calcium and food can still be hard to find. From now on, we will be killing any ground squirrel we see.

 

[Ducclelover10]

Okay, question: What is a "Ground squirrel"?

 

[Hotspurious]

My neighbor had a very similar situation with newly cooped pullets a few years back. Several died. Wounds inflicted were identical. The onset of a couple neighborhood cats has reduced the ground squirrel pop to zero.

The last slaughter was skunk related. He's now buried and done with.

Whats next, birds of prey?

Too bad for your chicks...

Hotspurious
Walnut Creek, CA

 

[youngkl]

they look like a cross between a tree squirrel and a prairie dog. If you google California ground squirrel you can see pics. We have them in this part of Oregon. Apparently any squirrel will eat small birds, squirrel babies, and rodents especially in early spring. Ours had apparently developed an affinity for chicken.

 

[Ducclelover10]

they look like a cross between a tree squirrel and a prairie dog. If you google California ground squirrel you can see pics. We have them in this part of Oregon. Apparently any squirrel will eat small birds, squirrel babies, and rodents especially in early spring. Ours had apparently developed an affinity for chicken.

Thanks, we should not have to worry about them, since we live in Florida.

 

[blucoondawg]

We have 13 lined ground squirrels around here, I have always called them gophers but that isn't what they are actually called, luckily I don't have many of them in my immeidate area, we have heavy soil and rock here, the ground squirrels seem to prefer the sandier areas, my grandparent's old house was loaded with them.

 

[Mattemma]

Squirrelnator works great. I use it for tree rats.

http://www.squirrelinator.com/

I have seen it at my local feed store for $40

 

[kidsbme3]

We have problems with hawks mostly. I think so anyhow. we had 3 pullets disappear last spring and a full grown free range rooster recently disappeared. No feathers lying around. so we think it was a quick grab and run.

 

[bottomsupranch]

The squirrelinator does work wonders on the ground squirrels and Have-A-Hart traps. We live in the high desert in CA and have a ton of them...due to a neighbor who thinks it's great to feed them along with the crows/ravens AND coyotes. I also know for a fact they eat my eggs, caught them in the act along with rats that the neighbor thinks is soooooooooo cute also. Neither rat or squirrel has harmed any of my chickens yet thank god. The other day I set the trap out with some chicken scratch and caught 12 in the trap. Last year we trapped almost 200. It comes with a plastic trough you fill with water; place the trap in there so you can give them a good long drink.

Make sure you dispose of them properly or you'll have other predators after the remains.

 

[chkn]

What a nightmare.