Lost our pullets to predator

[lisancelet]

Over the past 2 weeks we've lost our 4 chickens to what we think are raccoons based on the feces. However, we had one lone survivor and so we were keeping her in a medium sized pet cage (the plastic ones with the metal door)

We had kept the larger of the 4 chicks in this pet taxi at night for about 2 months while the other 3 caught up in size and she was fine the whole time. The first night we tried integrating them, the 3 smaller ones were enclosed in the coop as usual and the bigger one was placed in the cage but in her pet cage. That night we lost her and another one. Then the next night we lost a 3rd one. We had one remaining survivor so we put her into the pet taxi at night and moved her back into the green house where the other one had slept for two months or so.

She made it 3 nights in the pet taxi before they found her. They also got her WITHOUT opening the cage. There are feathers all over the greenhouse and I found the feet on the other side of the greenhouse, but no other parts were there.

My question is: Could raccoons have done this? The only difference was that the pet cage was on its side but it remained completely closed. There were no feathers inside the cage. The only openings are 1in wide by 2 in tall.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[shmccarthy]

That does sound like a raccoon. They are very good with their hands and don't usually have a problem grabbing chickens and pulling them through the fence. :/

 

[MercyMe03]

I agree. That sounds just like a raccoon. I learned the hard way that they can reach their little hands Into cages and chicken wire and pull chicks and even full grown chickens out.