Duck Predator

[Barbara Hamilton]

I live in Ohio and have 3 ducks. Recently, they were all killed by something even though they get locked up in a stall at night. I have had these ducks for a year and a half and have not had an issue until now. The strange thing is that they were all killed one by one. I found the one dead 3 days ago and the rest were alive, the next morning another was dead and the last duck was alive, and now my last duck was just killed today I just found a small window is missing from my doors. Is there any animal that would break through a small window and kill one at a time like this? any help would be greatly appreciated, i am deeply saddened and want to find what animal is doing this if it is in my barn hiding somewhere.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Are there any marks on the ducks, or parts eaten?

 

[Barbara Hamilton]

Are there any marks on the ducks, or parts eaten?

Yes. Not to be too graphic but the insides were torn apart and the heads were crushed including the beaks. I want to add that the window that was broken is about 5x8 and there are metal bars covering up a decent amount.

 

[Christalfunk]

I had a coon get in my coop a couple of weeks ago, he killed 2 of my hens and crushed the beak of my silver laced (I had to put her down). I opened the coop and he was sitting in the corner with a dead chicken, the 2 chickens he killed were hollowed out. He didn't touch any of my other chickens though. And he squeezed in through a tiny hole in the coop.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My guess would be a raccoon too.

 

[Barbara Hamilton]

a raccoon seems like the most reasonable explanation especially because of what you said about the beaks and the insides sorry to hear about your chickens. big thank you to the both of you for your help!!

 

[Barbara Hamilton]

I actually have one more question. I have two adult cats in the barn but i have moved them to my garage for safety until the window is fixed. Should I be concerned about moving the cats back in the barn once it is fixed? Do raccoons kill cats?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Generally no, cats just run from coons.