coyote vs dog, can you tell?

[redhen]

Were ANY of your birds eaten? If not... i would say dog...
Coyotes are HUNGRY... they need to eat.... i think they would eat a bird of they caught it, because they simply arent stupid....
Maybe not ALL of them would be eaten... but at least one of them...
Just my opinion..

 

[aprophet]

A lot of animals will kill as much as they can and continue to visit the kill site and eat until the food cache runs out then they go kill some more food Cats tend to bury their food cache somewhat

 

[sugarjax06]

redhen- I'll answer the question even though we do believe it was coyotes. The first day it would be hard to say whether any were fully eaten on site because there were feathers everywhere - one was definitely eaten at the abdomen, one's neck was eaten and maybe a little more, some were completely missing so either they were eaten on site or taken off to be eaten, most we just dead. The second day - one was missing and the other was eaten on site with very little left behind.

Based on the responses, I would say that sometimes you can tell if it was a dog or coyote but not all the time

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Where there is one coyote there are several. They will snatch a dog at your feet if they're hungry enough. I just had one staring at me through the kitchen window just ten yards away.
It does sound like coyotes to me.

I feel for these animals...they have to eat too. I keep my birds in a run because there are way too many predators where I'm at, including coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, etc....You could have
been hit by several coyotes traveling together. I don't know if you have foxes but they can do a lot of damage too.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Which is why we keep our flock safely enclosed unless we are in the safe area yard with them. Coyotes get loose dogs and cats, if coyotes don't get dogs we shoot trespassing dogs which manage to get in our safe area.

 

[Stingrayg4]

One raccoon can go berserk and kill every chicken it can catch, only eating one or two. Unless you have a reason to believe that it was either dogs or coyotes, my guess based on your description of the scene would be raccoons.

-S

 

[cgtara3]

I would look for paw prints as well. We saw the paw prints, and saw scat on the ground after our birds were killed. One has to be like a forensics investigator looking for clues--or calling cards with those critters.

 

[skillswife]

Quote:
This was my first thought. chickens drive racoons crazy, they hate chickens, and only like to eat eggs generally. Raccoons can get into an amazing amount of protection too, which is unfortunate for the chickens and you. My MIL had to completely fence her ducks in and add a layer of electric fencing on the outside to keep them out.

 

[Shadowgrass]

There are probably as many opinions as possibilities unfortunately. What I would be most concerned about is that whatever it was, is bound to come back to feed at the trough. I would be locking them in at night, I do with mine, and I have a fenced run. It's hog wire with chicken wire attached to it. Regular chicken wire won't keep much of anything of large size out (i.e. dogs/coyotes).

The forensic chicken evidence aside, did you happen to see any tracks? If I had to put money on it, I would say it was 2-3 coyotes. Got a few bites, grabbed what they could carry and split. I don't think a dog would carry one off (of course possible). Kill and eat some sure, but I believe you would find all the bodies. Those dang things...don't get me started. Plus, what your neighbor alleged. Time to get the neighborhood watch eliminating the threat.

Off topic, but funny story:
I had a large cat stalking my chickens on Sunday. I went flying out back and I threw the closest thing I had, a stick, and missed completely of course, and it took off and ran into my chain link fence full speed, picked itself up and ran off. Hopefully he won't come back to the "crazy's" house. Mind you, this was no ordinary house cat, it was enormous. It was stalking my one and only banty hen (she just showed up one day).