We lost one of our female call ducks today "Pipsqueak". We are wondering what may have killed her, we have a hunch, but don't have proof, hopefully someone on here can help?
We had 12 ducks total, 3 Rouen's, 1 Pekin, 3 Muscovy, and 5 Call Ducks. I believe I may have posted a pic sometime on here that shows our duck house with the enclosure (5 1/2 feet tall fencing) area. They are let out of the duck house in the morning and spend the day in the enclosure while we are at work. The 2 female Muscovy's and 3 (2 female and 1 male) of the Calls sometimes fly out of the enclosure and hang out in the yard close by. We came home today to find Pipsqueak's body 3 feet from the fence, below a pine tree - the other 2 call ducks were huddled next to the fence (but outside of the enclosure) and the rest of the flock were huddled against the fence on the inside. Whatever got her did not take off with her and instead ate both her breasts and the meat off of one wing right there under the pine tree.
We are thinking a 'wild' predator would have taken off with the duck or at least eaten all of it, wouldn't it? We are leaning towards thinking it is our neighbor's cat, who I did witness (and had to step in) stalking the calls this weekend when they got separated from the bigger ducks - who the Muscovy's in particular actually were going after the cat.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to go to my neighbor if its possible its not their cat who did this. Is there any wild predator who would be comfortable enough to do this in daylight and stay there to eat the duck?
THanks for any advice.
We had 12 ducks total, 3 Rouen's, 1 Pekin, 3 Muscovy, and 5 Call Ducks. I believe I may have posted a pic sometime on here that shows our duck house with the enclosure (5 1/2 feet tall fencing) area. They are let out of the duck house in the morning and spend the day in the enclosure while we are at work. The 2 female Muscovy's and 3 (2 female and 1 male) of the Calls sometimes fly out of the enclosure and hang out in the yard close by. We came home today to find Pipsqueak's body 3 feet from the fence, below a pine tree - the other 2 call ducks were huddled next to the fence (but outside of the enclosure) and the rest of the flock were huddled against the fence on the inside. Whatever got her did not take off with her and instead ate both her breasts and the meat off of one wing right there under the pine tree.
We are thinking a 'wild' predator would have taken off with the duck or at least eaten all of it, wouldn't it? We are leaning towards thinking it is our neighbor's cat, who I did witness (and had to step in) stalking the calls this weekend when they got separated from the bigger ducks - who the Muscovy's in particular actually were going after the cat.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to go to my neighbor if its possible its not their cat who did this. Is there any wild predator who would be comfortable enough to do this in daylight and stay there to eat the duck?
THanks for any advice.
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