scyllarus
Songster
Welp...I don't really need advice for this, just sharing my stupidity and getting things off my chest.
We left the cage door open overnight. Not a single bird tried to escape, but a little juvenile opossum clambered in at 5:30AM and caught one of the birds. Luckily it wasn't a favorite bird - it was one of our juveniles that I was still monitoring for signs of being a male/ deciding if I would keep as a more permanent covey member. We have cameras set up in the cage (I like to watch the birds) so we got lucky - I woke up early and was watching the birds when I caught the possum on film and called for the Husband. We caught the possum and we'll be releasing him at a local nature trail.
Things we've learned:
The birds apparently love their cage and have no interest in leaving.
We definitely have opportunistic predators nearby. Our cage is elevated about 3 feet off the ground on narrow metal legs, yet this little guy was able to notice the door was open and climb in.
Possums eat super fast. Warning to stop reading here if you're squeamish! The possum had started eating the bird from the thigh/belly and had eaten about half of the entire bird after maybe 3-5 minutes. We had to finish putting the poor bird down when we noticed it wasn't fully dead. It's just more evidence to me that, if you care for an animal, you shouldn't release it into the wild. Nature is brutal and cruel.
Link to the camera footage of the possum getting in. No violence or gore involved, he caught the bird off screen. We come out and catch the possum a few minutes after the video ends.
We left the cage door open overnight. Not a single bird tried to escape, but a little juvenile opossum clambered in at 5:30AM and caught one of the birds. Luckily it wasn't a favorite bird - it was one of our juveniles that I was still monitoring for signs of being a male/ deciding if I would keep as a more permanent covey member. We have cameras set up in the cage (I like to watch the birds) so we got lucky - I woke up early and was watching the birds when I caught the possum on film and called for the Husband. We caught the possum and we'll be releasing him at a local nature trail.
Things we've learned:
The birds apparently love their cage and have no interest in leaving.
We definitely have opportunistic predators nearby. Our cage is elevated about 3 feet off the ground on narrow metal legs, yet this little guy was able to notice the door was open and climb in.
Possums eat super fast. Warning to stop reading here if you're squeamish! The possum had started eating the bird from the thigh/belly and had eaten about half of the entire bird after maybe 3-5 minutes. We had to finish putting the poor bird down when we noticed it wasn't fully dead. It's just more evidence to me that, if you care for an animal, you shouldn't release it into the wild. Nature is brutal and cruel.
Link to the camera footage of the possum getting in. No violence or gore involved, he caught the bird off screen. We come out and catch the possum a few minutes after the video ends.