Found one of our girls dead lastnight

[guinea fowl galore]

We had been out the whole afternoon and only discovered that night before bed at about 12, that one of our girls was missing. the boys were up on the roof so we got up there and had a look and she wasn't there, so we had a look in the places she liked to hang around thinking she might be sitting on an unnown nest, so we went crawling (the trees were too thick to stand up ) into the scrub and looked everywhere and just as we were giving up i thought we should probably look over there and there she was lying under the gingers with all her intestines come out of her rear. we have come to the conclusion that it was probably a snake thats eyes were too big for it's stomach.
the most sadest thing is that her mate is looking for her and calling to her, it just makes me so sad.

 

[shelleyd2008]

You must have some big snakes!! Are you sure it wasn't a vent prolapse?

 

[guinea fowl galore]

Quote:
Umm, I don't know what a vent prolapse is.
yes we do have big snakes the two that are hanging around now are pythons (as well as all the other more scary snakes), the small one with the big ideas is arond 4 foot long and the big one is about 8-9 feet long but on the property we lived in before our place now there was a 11-12 foot python which we named rug.

 

[annaserv]

Oh, I'm so sorry for what happened.

Every night when I go to lock mine up, I count my 9 and breathe a sigh of relief and am amazed their all there. As soon as it gets dark I feel an urgency to rush down there and shut the doors, afraid some night predator could just waltz in.

Thankfully, snakes is one thing we don't have to worry about here. only have garter snakes.

 

[Lollipop]

Doubt if it was a snake. Snakes swallow their prey whole.......Pop

 

[starforever61]

But maybe, just maybe, the snake was constricting it and the pop of guts scared it off, or it saw some headlights, or something???

 

[Guinea Goonie]

So very sorry for your loss. I understand the affection you have for your "goonie" birds.

 

[TedsFarms]

wow, sorry on the loss. I really do not think a snake is the culprit at the moment. Once engaged, a python will continue to constrict and eat. At least from what I have seen.

 

[guinea fowl galore]

the snake that we think it was is the small one and could easily kill our birds if it could catch them, but then discover it could not acually eat for it's prey was too big.
If this particular snake had never tried this before then I might have some second thoughts but it has tried this twice with the guinea fowl and about six times with our chook who roosts up in a tree ( which saves its life because when the snake tries to grab it it flies out of the tree ). we are just lucky the big snake hasn't found our birds yet, if it did they would all be gone by now, which is exactly what happend to our neighbours.

 

[racuda]

Any chance your dog did this?

When I first got chickens, I found one of mine nipped in the rear, dead. I'm pretty sure that my dog did it. I have since trained her not to bother them, and she has been a good girl for the past 8 months.