Help identify cause of death

[CozyDia]

My precious 3-month old D'uccle chick died today in the morning. She was the only one that hatched in her batch. Based on my mom's account, the chick had a bleeding wound on her neck and a bunch of feathers in her playpen. Whatever happened occurred in the morning at 7-8AM.

The chick was temporarily living in a mesh playpen that can be zipped up entirely. The playpen was placed in chicken wire steel walk-in coops. The coop was used as a makeshift shed and was pretty run down with large holes in the wires and large gaps above the door and below the coop. I know the coop itself was unsafe, but I was sure it could at least survive a few days within the playpen and coop combined. I was halfway done with her permanent coop and would've finished today..

I live in SE Texas in a small quiet neighborhood and the main predators around my area are animals like possums, cats, dogs, owls, and hawks. Raccoons are rarely seen around here. Foxes and coyotes don't exist near me. Snakes are even rarer and usually are just harmless small ones. My best guess is a regular rat, but I never seen a rat around here for the past 20+ years especially outdoors (I seen a few in people's houses).

If it was a possum or a similar animal, wouldn't it make sense for them to attempt to rip a hole into the weak mesh or yank the chick out? There was NO holes or any signs of damage on the playpen. There was no sign of blood stains anywhere (white playpen). Also don't they primarily hunt at night?

There was a brick inside the playpen (to prevent it from flying off) along with a food/water container. It might be a long shot, but could the chick accidently sliced its own neck open on the brick? The brick is pretty rough around the edges. The chick does like to hug objects while sleeping (she doesn't perch/roost for some reason).

My mom and me have been thinking about the cause the whole day and can't figure out what could've caused it. My question is what animal could have done this? We plan to set up a trap tomorrow near the scene of the crime.

I know there was a lot of things I could've done to prevent this, but what's done is done. I just want to know who or what the culprit is for the chick's death.

 

[Debbie292d]

My precious 3-month old D'uccle chick died today in the morning. She was the only one that hatched in her batch. Based on my mom's account, the chick had a bleeding wound on her neck and a bunch of feathers in her playpen. Whatever happened occurred in the morning at 7-8AM.

The chick was temporarily living in a mesh playpen that can be zipped up entirely. The playpen was placed in chicken wire steel walk-in coops. The coop was used as a makeshift shed and was pretty run down with large holes in the wires and large gaps above the door and below the coop. I know the coop itself was unsafe, but I was sure it could at least survive a few days within the playpen and coop combined. I was halfway done with her permanent coop and would've finished today..

I live in SE Texas in a small quiet neighborhood and the main predators around my area are animals like possums, cats, dogs, owls, and hawks. Raccoons are rarely seen around here. Foxes and coyotes don't exist near me. Snakes are even rarer and usually are just harmless small ones. My best guess is a regular rat, but I never seen a rat around here for the past 20+ years especially outdoors (I seen a few in people's houses).

If it was a possum or a similar animal, wouldn't it make sense for them to attempt to rip a hole into the weak mesh or yank the chick out? There was NO holes or any signs of damage on the playpen. There was no sign of blood stains anywhere (white playpen). Also don't they primarily hunt at night?

There was a brick inside the playpen (to prevent it from flying off) along with a food/water container. It might be a long shot, but could the chick accidently sliced its own neck open on the brick? The brick is pretty rough around the edges. The chick does like to hug objects while sleeping (she doesn't perch/roost for some reason).

My mom and me have been thinking about the cause the whole day and can't figure out what could've caused it. My question is what animal could have done this? We plan to set up a trap tomorrow near the scene of the crime.

I know there was a lot of things I could've done to prevent this, but what's done is done. I just want to know who or what the culprit is for the chick's death.

I commented on your other post how sad I am for your loss of Carrot. I highly doubt she injured herself on the brick to the extent of killing herself. I'm stumped how something got in there to do that though, and yes, most, but not all, predatory animals hunt at night. A rat can get through a hole slightly smaller than the size of a nickel though.

The best way to find out what it is, is a camera. We use Blink, but that might be overkill as a cheaper kind would work since it's so close to your house. Our cameras have to go as far as 300' and wifi doesn't reach that far, but their own connection to a base module does. Plus, Blink has a monthly charge and you don't need anything this extensive.

Maybe have a friend with a deer cam you can borrow? Those usually have a memory card in them you'd have to plug in to a laptop or something to view it.

 

[McChooky]

I use 1/2" 16 gauge steel hardware mesh with an apron around the sides of all my coops and brooders to keep out rats and snakes.I suspect you have one or more rat(s) but I could be wrong. Sorry for your loss!

 

[Squawkers]

I commented on your other post how sad I am for your loss of Carrot. I highly doubt she injured herself on the brick to the extent of killing herself. I'm stumped how something got in there to do that though, and yes, most, but not all, predatory animals hunt at night. A rat can get through a hole slightly smaller than the size of a nickel though.

The best way to find out what it is, is a camera. We use Blink, but that might be overkill as a cheaper kind would work since it's so close to your house. Our cameras have to go as far as 300' and wifi doesn't reach that far, but their own connection to a base module does. Plus, Blink has a monthly charge and you don't need anything this extensive.

Maybe have a friend with a deer cam you can borrow? Those usually have a memory card in them you'd have to plug in to a laptop or something to view it.

I’m currently looking for a coop camera and was wondering if you wouldn’t mind posting the link of the camera you have? I found one blink camera I was considering (although it is pretty inexpensive, so probably not the exact one you have)

 

[CozyDia]

Update: Possibly found the predator.

I set up a trap tonight thought it would be a rat, possum, or raccoon. It end up catching a stray cat. As much as I want to get revenge for my favorite chicken, I simply can't do that to a cat even if it was the culprit. I plan to move it far away from my area and release it or drop it off at a local animal shelter.

In case this was a false capture. I'll set up the trap again for a few more days.

 

[Debbie292d]

I’m currently looking for a coop camera and was wondering if you wouldn’t mind posting the link of the camera you have? I found one blink camera I was considering (although it is pretty inexpensive, so probably not the exact one you have)

This set is the last one we bought. I already had a sync module for all of the rest, but I wanted the new breeder coop in its own group, so I bought these two indoor/outdoor cameras that come with a sync module. I could have purchased indoor cameras, but one plug-in one we found didn't reach our Wi-Fi, so those must be weaker signal than the outdoor battery ones. Makes sense as most folks would want the plug in ones for inside their home, not 2-300' away like us.

I was surprised they now come with lithium AA batteries. We had our own lithiums we put in them as the ones they used to send weren't. Those lithiums last a couple of years on some cameras, others about a year. It's the driveway one that doesn't last as long as the others.

I stuck one in my incubator for fun. I found out you can shut that blue light off in the app. That's why this chick looks like that.

 

[Squawkers]

This set is the last one we bought. I already had a sync module for all of the rest, but I wanted the new breeder coop in its own group, so I bought these two indoor/outdoor cameras that come with a sync module. I could have purchased indoor cameras, but one plug-in one we found didn't reach our Wi-Fi, so those must be weaker signal than the outdoor battery ones. Makes sense as most folks would want the plug in ones for inside their home, not 2-300' away like us.

I was surprised they now come with lithium AA batteries. We had our own lithiums we put in them as the ones they used to send weren't. Those lithiums last a couple of years on some cameras, others about a year. It's the driveway one that doesn't last as long as the others.

I stuck one in my incubator for fun. I found out you can shut that blue light off in the app. That's why this chick looks like that.

View attachment 3960601

Thanks! That little silkie is too cute

 

[Squawkers]

This set is the last one we bought. I already had a sync module for all of the rest, but I wanted the new breeder coop in its own group, so I bought these two indoor/outdoor cameras that come with a sync module. I could have purchased indoor cameras, but one plug-in one we found didn't reach our Wi-Fi, so those must be weaker signal than the outdoor battery ones. Makes sense as most folks would want the plug in ones for inside their home, not 2-300' away like us.

I was surprised they now come with lithium AA batteries. We had our own lithiums we put in them as the ones they used to send weren't. Those lithiums last a couple of years on some cameras, others about a year. It's the driveway one that doesn't last as long as the others.

I stuck one in my incubator for fun. I found out you can shut that blue light off in the app. That's why this chick looks like that.

View attachment 3960601

That’s the exact one I was looking at! I was confused though, can I just buy one? Also, does it record full time? (Or at least the last 24 hours?)

 

[Debbie292d]

That’s the exact one I was looking at! I was confused though, can I just buy one? Also, does it record full time? (Or at least the last 24 hours?)

They just go off by motion, and you can set zones it doesn't detect motion in if you want to focus in on one small area. We leave the ones off in the coops because nothing can get in there anyway, I just use them to peek in on them, plus, they have built in thermometers so in the winter it's a nice way to check the temp.

I don't believe these were meant for 24/7 recording, but they're on 24/7 ready to record should anything move.

I'm sure they sell those single. I'll go look. You need/want the sync module though I presume.

 

[Debbie292d]

This is a single one, seems we bought that one too a couple of years ago. We must have about 8.

Here's that same one with the sync module for another couple of bucks is all.