The raccoons here (just outside Tampa) seem to like cat food.
Speaking of predators, I had a very large rooster killed last night (15-20lb). I heard a noise, nothing dramatic, just a fussing kind of sound, but got up to check anyway. The first thing that hit me was a smell, kind of an animal smell, not raw meat or blood, but maybe fur and some kind of chemical - adrenelin maybe? Similiar to the way the cat smells when she's scared, but different. I heard something running, not fast and only a few steps - it sounded like 80-100 lbs. but at night things like that can sound heavier than they are. I checked the hen house, which the chickens abandoned after a coon attack a couple of weeks ago (they are roosting in the trees and won't use the hen house anymore), and heard running again. I'm thinking that whatever it was tried to wait for me to leave - it had already killed the rooster but hadn't had a chance to eat him yet.
There were a LOT of owl sounds across the road, very excited sounds. Then this morning I looked more carefully at the dead rooster, there was one hole 3/8" in diameter in the back of his neck. When I went to bury him, I found poop in the yard, much larger than any animal that lives here, kind of spherical shaped, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
Does anyone know what this might have been? It doesn't seem logical that there could be 2 different predators at the same time and the owl sounds, the small hole in the neck and the poop are really not consistant as coming from the same animal.
Thanks for whatever opinions anyone may have!
! 2 traps are better than one. Keep setting the traps until nothing gets in them. Racoons travel in packs usually and could be as many as eight in one family. Really bad for chickens, little birds and small pets. Good Luck!
