Raccoon Attack, please help!

[ducksinarow]

I hope all stay safe. An outside dog can sometimes keep preditors at bay. Best of luck. Ducks are well sitting ducks. If it is not one predator it is another. Ducks seem to require a cage made like Fort Knox. Animals tend to be territorial. For me what works best is making my existing raccoons, skunks, opossums think that they cannot get into the cage rather than having a new animal move in and test the cage again and again. I know a lady that is a wildlife rehaber. She takes and releases trapped animals. I have found several orphaned babies and taken them to her. Again best of luck and stay safe.

 

[cath892]

thank you!

 

[MimiEggs]

I am so sorry for your loss, a terrible thing to happen to a beloved pet.

On the surviving ducks: Animals are much more resilient than we humans. A temporary change in their location (your garage) could be all that is necessary to give them time to get back to their normal routine. I would leave them in the garage area for a week or two, then take them back to their normal home and see what happens. By then you will have had plenty of time to remove all old bedding, clean all surfaces with a 10:1 water/bleach solution (rinsing well), let it air out and air dry, and replace with fresh new bedding. This will also give you some time to make any predator proof modifications to their entire enclosure.

On predator proofing: You can make a completely "fenced in" enclosure for the ducks, complete with aviary netting and create a predator proof environment. It is very costly. We have done this for our chickens and our ducks are currently housed with them. If this is the route you decide to go let me give you a few words of advice: We used 4 X 4 treated posts and then connected them with 2 X 4 treated lumber a quarter inch above ground level, half-way up the middle and then again across the top, so it's like a 3 rail fence. On the bottom section we used 1/4 inch hardware cloth, this prevent any little hands (raccoon, mink, etc.) from reaching in and grabbing dinner(which they WILL DO if you use anything larger). On the top half we used 1 inch chicken wire, this allows flying bugs to still get in the enclosure, across the top we have aviary netting, this prevents the resident hawk from gaining access from the sky. On the outside along the fence line (on the ground) we place 12 inch X 12 inch concrete pavers, these are way too heavy for any form of wildlife to pick up and move. Internet advice says to bury your wire two feet underground, however we did this before and had stray dogs dig under and gain access to our birds, concrete pavers have done the trick for 3 years now and nothing has been able to dig under.

If you decide you would rather not go to this extreme consider this: If your "sleeping enclosure" has a wooden floor, put a "door" on the front that you can close and lock up after the ducks have gone to bed. Having a wood floor protects them from anything trying to dig under the structure, it can dig all it wants but never get through the wood floor. Having a door that you can close up and lock means nothing can "get in and at them" after you have put them to bed at night. Of course this also means that you have an added responsibility of letting them out in the morning and putting them to bed at night.

On wildlife in general: There are livestock/pet owners that look at wildlife and say, hey, they're hungry, they're just looking for a meal, we are encroaching on their territory, etc. I get that, I understand and to a certain extent I agree. It is definitely a dilemma. Two years ago we "live trapped" 6 (yes six!) raccoons in our vegetable garden in 2 months! Relocated those puppies 50 miles from our home (husband dropped them off at the river bottom on his way to work). Two weekends ago we had to shoot one in our yard at 1:30 in the afternoon. We live in Texas which is under a rabies state health emergency, so when you see a raccoon in the middle of the afternoon you dispatch the thing to protect yourself, your own livestock, your neighbors, their livestock and every bodies pets in between. To Mr. Raccoon I say, "Go hunt and eat Mr. Squirrel who also likes to eat my tomatoes and leave my chickens and ducks alone (or else)."

 

[cath892]

Thank you! We are rebuilding the existing cage. The cage will be raised a foot off the ground with a wood floor and cinder blocks under the floor so nothing can dig in. We have to completely rebuild the roof. Any ideas on that? The old roof was ok but there are a couple holes forming so we just tore it off and decided on building a new one. As for their little house, I would really like to get rid of it, I cant even look at it without getting upset but my boyfriend is insisting on scrubbing it out and keeping it since it was built very well.
The ducks are adjusting to the garage well I keep them outside for most of the day in my fenced in side yard and they have no problem going into the garage for the night, They seem to be doing much better

 

[ocap]

Relocated those puppies 50 miles from our home (husband dropped them off at the river bottom on his way to work).

Did you place the racoons at the bottom of the river?

 

[MimiEggs]

On the roof I would make it at a slight angle (just a couple of inches) to allow for the rain to run off the back. That way rain will not create a puddle at the entrance. If you have the materials, a piece of plywood decking and some shingles would make a really nice roof. You might check with a hardware supply store to see if they have scrap leftover from a roofing job or see if they have some they can sell individually so you don't have to purchase an entire bundle. You could also use tin, but that would make it really loud during a heavy rain storm unless you put decking down first. You might also do a 10 inch overhang across the front to help keep the entrance dry.

I understand how you feel about the old house, a very traumatic event took place there. However, it is more traumatic for you than for your birds. Realistically it does not make good financial sense to waste a perfectly good duck house that in an of itself did not cause what happened. Scrub the house clean and let it air dry. Then using non-toxic paint----paint the outside. Be creative. You could paint the main outside white or yellow, then paint grass across the bottom with flowers coming out of the grass and butterflies flying above. Okay, I know that just sounded really silly considering this is for ducks and all, but my point is to change it up, make it better, alter the way your mind(heart) is looking at it, ya know what I mean?

Good Luck duck mommie!

 

[MimiEggs]

Hahahahahahahahaha

No, thought about it, but no. We look at it like this: If you are prowling around in the middle of the night eating our tomatoes, you need to find another place to live. On the other hand, if you are prowling around in the middle of the night, destroying our property and making a meal out of something that I raised from a day old chick/duckling, spent tons of money on housing, feed and supplements, put time, effort and my heartstings into, I will hunt your butt down and give you what you deserve cause I dang sure know there are plenty of squirrels, rabbits, mice and lizards out there for you to munch on.

They did however make a very uncomfortable trip trapped in a cage, stuck in the trunk of my husbands car.

Interestingly enough, we have had raccoon tracks go right past our chicken coop with no attempts to get inside.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Ya I must pipe in now: Billy the Exterminator said that if you are seeing a raccoon during the day, then that is a sign that something is really wrong. Like it has rabies. Habitat loss or not, in this area they are not a protected species. So just because it can't be released doesn't mean that it can't be taken care of. And when livestock is under attack, you as the owner have the responsibility to protect your ducks.

Had a Raccoon "watching" my coop one evening out in the yard. It was June and 9:30 pm. so still light out but thankfully everybody all tucked in. I wasn't home, and DH took the liberty of giving her "lead poisoning" with his .22. We thought it odd that she was already out looking for food given it was light out. Turns out she had little mouths to feed, and I later read it is not uncommon for female raccoons taking care of their litters to come out for "daylight" excursions. Saw the babies 2 weeks later one night up on our deck. Dog woke us up going nuts.

 

[cosbackyard]

I lost mine to raccoons in november. Their coop/run was finally animal proof by using the methods others have suggested. Most notably hardware cloth secured very well. It's pricey but they'll tear right through chicken wire. The monsters. But one mistake not latching a door properly and they'll get in and leave an awful mess.

I get that it's the circle of life and all but not in my backyard. Our new ones arrive in a few weeks and once they're here I'll be trapping any raccoons. Not taking any chances this time.

 

[cath892]

I'm really not sure about what happened to this raccoon, we trapped it and I wanted to set it free somewhere far away but I came home from work on Monday and the raccoon was gone, I asked my boyfriend and brother what they did with it and they wont tell me. So I'm assuming they took care of it some way or another.
And yes the boys will be redoing the little house for the ducks, it's more traumatic for me than it is for the ducks so a good scrub and paint to cover anything that might be left should be good.
Where would i find this heavy duty cloth?