do squirrels eat a 5 week old silkie chick?

[Jost]

I did search the archives first, but no luck. I had my silkie hen with her two 5 week old chicks and another 10 week old chick in my chicken tractor. Yesterday, the hen made alot of noise and when I looked, a squirrel was looking like he wanted inside to get to the chicken feed. I scared him off. The next day, I put everybody back in the tractor but did not put the feed in, hoping the squirrel wouldn't scare my hen. It never occurred to me a squirrel would EAT a chick. A couple of hours later, I saw the water was turned over, there were grey feathers, (mom is a grey color) and the blonde baby (5 weejs) was gone, not a trace. Could it have been the squirrel? No sign of digging like a dog, or moved around tractor, but the ground was uneven. It is still in the 50's so I think it is too cold for snakes. any thoughts? jane in NC

 

[PurpleChicken]

My guess is no, a squirrel won't eat a chick. A rat will. Could the chick
have gotten out and wandered away or maybe grabbed by a different
predator?

 

[Guitartists]

Squirrels will eat birds...... saw one snatch a bird right off a limb once. But a 5 week old chick... pretty unlikely. But I wouldn;t put it past one if it were hungry enough! Ours tear up our trash bags something horrible!

 

[Jost]

I haven't ever seen a rat, but that doesn't mean there are no rats! He was so young I can't picture him wandering too far from momma. We have no dogs or cats that wander in, nor any of our own, tho I would love a chicken friendly dog, that's another story. I haven't seen raccoons or possums in the daytime, even the fox I have seen was after dark. This was about 10 feet from my bedroom window, now I am so scared to let anyone go out in the tractor. I am new to the site, how did you know I posted and was able to respond so fast? cool, jane in NC

 

[Guitartists]

A lot of us use the "Recent Posts" option

 

[THough1956]

I have wonder about squirrells also. I had 4 baby chicks disapear Thanksgiving weekend. I saw them one minute and the next they were gone. No feathers no nothing. My lot is a chain link fence reinforced at the bottom with small wire. I think it was to cold for snakes, the only other thing that could have gotten in would be a squirell or rat. I have not seen any rats.

 

[THough1956]

Typing fast makes me spell badly!! Haaa. Sorry about that.

 

[vote trump]

I am not sure that squirrels eat baby chicks, but I also have the same question as to what is eating the baby silkies. I have a coup and this morning I found two baby silkies dead, one with its leg eaten off and part of its stomach had been gnawed on. The other one had nothing wrong except it was dead. Two mother hens in there along with one baby chick still alive.
I am baffled along with you. The only thing that I have seen is large crows that will come and take away the babies and eat them. I would love for someone to put up a camera and record for awhile so we can know what is doing this. There was no way a crow could get in my coup, so
I am still wondering along with you. Maybe a rat?