Missing Guinea

[mrbstephens]

I think it was.......a vampire! LOL! I really don't know! My husband also thinks it flew into something, but why was there no blood besides the few drops? I had to really look through the feather to see the wound. The blood was actually near the wound and not on it. There are dogs in the neighborhood, but I'd think the wound would have been more jagged like with flesh removed.

 

[mrbstephens]

A friend of mine just pointed out that it may have been a weasel! I've never seen one in this area, but apparently they do live here. Here's some info I found about their eating habits:

Weasels are carnivores, which means that they mostly eat meat. Weasels are not scavengers; they don’t usually eat meat that they find. Instead, weasels prefer to eat animals that they kill themselves. Weasels also drink the blood of animals that they kill.
Weasels are very strong for their size. They can kill animals much bigger than they are such as rabbits and chickens. Weasels usually kill by biting their prey in the neck.

Weasels spend most of their time hunting. Weasels scurry around trying to smell mice or voles to eat. They also eat rabbits, chipmunks, shrews, rats, birds, and the occasional insect or earthworm. Once they smell them, the weasel does not give up and follows the trail. Often they follow the trail right into the animal’s burrow or den. Weasels eat half their body weight every day. Most weasels are nocturnal (active at night), but sometimes they hunt during the day.
Weasels have to eat a lot because they are very active. Sometimes they kill more than they can eat, so they will bury or store the extra food. They mark their food with their musk, making the food smell bad so that other animals won’t eat it.

 

[PeepsCA]

From what I've read, and going on info relayed from friends that have actually lost birds to weasels... weasels usually leave noticeable damage to the bird, there's a lot of blood loss and feather loss not just a slice and a little blood. Your husband's theory is entirely possible tho, and the bird may have just wandered off and died of shock from the injury. Whenever any of my injured Guineas have gone off (to die or sulk), they've stayed put and were well hidden. As for how/why the bird ended up on your neighbor's deck... I'm still leaning towards a dog or cat carrying/dragging it up there after they found it dead

Hope it's an isolated indecent tho!

 

[mrbstephens]

Hmmm. I wonder if it had died and then something carrying it made the wound with their teeth as they dragged it. That would explain the lack of blood since it may have already been dead. Did I just say, what you already said?

 

[aggiemae]

On Thanksgiving morning were alerted of our RIR got chased by our neighbors dog by an incredible hen ruckus. We couldn't find her anywhere that day or the next though I kept looking until Saturday and lost hope because it was so cold out and she was in the mist of a very hard molt. On Monday evening, five days after she disappeared, I went out to throw out some scratch and there she was. Skinny and missing half her tail feather but other wise fine.

After the inital sounds of alarm my hens didn't seem to notice or act differently but they did stop going over the fence into the neighbors yard.

I hop your hen finds her way home too.