...but they're so cute

[D'Angelo N Va.]

you will not think it is so cute when you wake up one morning to a bloody mess because of them...

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

Yes, cuteness is relative. Choose: cute baby possums or cute productive biddies. Not too hard, IMO.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We've never had a problem with them here. We see them a few nights out of the year, cleaning up under the bird feeders. Once in awhile I see the tracks in the snow under the feeders in the morning. The chickens are always locked up securely at night. That keeps them safe from raccoons or anything else that's out at night, too.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Yeah, yeah...I know what they turn into. It's just that this little guy wasn't there yet and my chunnel/coop arrangement has deterred every predator it's seen. I think the only thing it could not withstand is a bear.

My dogs take care of just about anything that comes through the yard that can't outrun them, so there was no need for me to take action for this little one.

I've put several non-layers in the soup pot this summer, and deer season is fast approaching. I just didn't want to take a life, and there was no need to do it right now.

But I really appreciate everyone reminding me that taking care of the girls is Job #1, just in case I was new to all this.

 

[Rozzie]

Used to have a semi-pet possum. It's mother showed it where the cat food was one night. Once weaned, it showed up on our porch. It spent the winter living on our porch for a few years, eating cat food, of course, then went off to live in a more natural possum home somewhere (probably further out on our property) visiting at night for its cat food. This past winter it didn't show up. Probably went to Possum Heaven finally. (I'd moved, but family members still live there and had continued to feed it.) Never bothered the poultry, but it was one well fed possum that thought it was at least 1/4 cat...

 

[BayouPoules]

Everyone is right,.. absolutely, completely correct.




,.. but I can totally relate,.. baby things are cute and now and then it's nice not to have to kill everything that comes in the yard. It helps to have a fortress too.

 

[3chimama]

Ugghhh! Just about as cute as raccoons....not! ;D

 

[BayouPoules]

Ok,.. to each his own,.. but I think they're adorable,..
,.. and they taste like,... chicken!

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[oesdog]

OMG they look like some kind of RAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We don;t have them here and if we did I would think they were RATS and probably kill them. Sorry folks!
As for tasting like chicken - well of course they do if they are RATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loads of folk say they have been fobbed off with Rat instead of chicken especially from some well known resturaunts.
And RATS KILL CHICKENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oesdog -

 

[drdoolittle]

I think they are cute, too. Ever since I saw a domestic one on Captain Kangaroo as a child, I thought it would be neat to have one for a pet. Of course, they are quite a bit stinkier in their wild state! I accidentally caught a baby one in a live-trap this summer (was trying to trap my cat, who had got loose). My hubby said, "You took it way away from here to let it go, right?" No, I just opened the trap, and actually had to shake it very forcefully to disodge the critter-----he had a death-grip in the wire bottom----and let him go on his very, very slow way. My chickens are all locked up before it even gets dark at night-----I go to bed at 7:30!!