Do dogs pick around the innerds? *gross description, sorry*

[ChickenPox]

Would a dog eat a leg, clean out the breast meat, but leave internal organs like the liver? Or do they just maul and eat everything?

Dead bird, no injuries or feathers missing other than the entire leg and breast, some internal organ left intact, still inside chest cavity. Very "clean" looking. Other side of bird still intact. And if so, how long would it take a dog to do something like this? 5-10 minutes? or longer.

I'm asking for someone else, not one of my birds, thankfully! They said they are losing birds left and right. They let them free range unsupervised and I know there are lots of hawks in the area......but I also know hawks go for the head. I don't know if they lock them up at night or not. They think it's a dog, I think it's something else.

Thoughts?

(And I actually have a picture of the damage done, if anyone is terribly curious.)

 

[Stiggy]

yes pictures please. it doesn't sound like a dog as unless it was wild/ starving they rarely eat the killed chickens. they usually kill it for fun and play with it for a while then leave it. or kill it and leave it. I would suspect something else other than a dog or hawk, unless you have wild dogs in your area

 

[ChickenPox]

No wild dogs, just people's pets that roam around. Everyone lets thier dogs "free range" that neighborhood. Perhaps not the most responsible pet ownership. The feathers were ruffled and slobbered up enough to make me think dog.......but the time frame just isn't working for the particular dog in question I don't think. To me it seems like perhaps the dog found already eaten carcass. Dogs are great at bringing things home.....I used to have a couple of dogs who would bring home deer legs and such the hunters would cut off and leave in the woods. They would drag home all kinds of smelly stuff......once a dead cat that was flattened. Yuck.

I'm trying to help solve a mystery. These poor folks are losing birds left and right. But they swear that a dog is doing it, even though they have never seen it happen. I personally think another predator is to blame.

I would love to let my birds free range, but I commute to a full time job and am just not home enough to watch them. And I don't want to lose any. And my neighborhood is fairly safe. We have built chicken Fort Knox anyway. I have lost a couple young ones recently to a suspected cocci overgrowth, I don't need to add to the loss by making my babies available to predators.

I will PM you pics if I can figure it out on my phone. Thanks for being willing to take a look!

 

[Stiggy]

That's ok, and the sad thing is ive seen worse injuries.....
I would suggest to them that they also build fort knox for their birds, and only free range when supervised ( which sucks I know but its better for them to be safe) some types of dogs are natural killers, they can never be trusted around stock no matter how cute and harmless they appear