Hopefully using just the feed as bait did the trick and no cats were trapped. But there is a big chance it will catch possum too! Further preventative measures as suggested would hopefully deter future trouble.
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Got a raccoon coming by. Saw him 2 nights ago around 4 am hanging around. Caught him again last night around 11pm. I scared him off but I know he'll be back. He's not trying to get in the run but he is reaching through the wire and grabbing handfuls of chicken feed. I know this because he leaves a mess of feed just outside the wire. We have a live trap and I'd like to catch him. I'm not sure if the trap is big enough...hes a big coon. Very fat. He might have been doing this a while now and we just caught him. Need some advice on dealing with this pest. I worry he'll get sick of the feed and seek out my girls. He'd have to dig into the run (the wire is about 6 inches out in the ground so he'd have to be very diligent) and then lift the weighted coop door to get in. Since they're more likely to go for easy opportunities I doubt he'd try.
The DNR here has laws against relocation. You need to have it approved by them and agreed upon by the landowner you release it at. No laws against live trap and dispatch though. In fact they say to only live trap and dispatch as it is more humane. I always check before doing any thing along those lines. The other option that we've done is to simply call animal control and they cart it away. I'm not sure what they do with them but I'm relieved it's no longer my problem.Be realistic when it comes to cost effective pen construction. I saw really expensive pens that my male Pyrenees could destroy in minutes .I watched him tear a hole in a chain link kennel, five feet of the ground and climb through it . Don't kid yourself no such thing as all predator proof . Snakes are predators too. Any varmint that gets in my pens or kills my livestock is fair game . Because the natural predators for most predators have been wiped out by man . Man has to intervene to a certain extent. Fish and wildlife sell hunting and fishing licensees to help pay for just that. Varmints thrive in the fringes of southern cities . Coyotes are so numerous here they kill even small pets in subdivisions . I learned how to trap them isn't that learning to live with them ? Squirrels cute little gray squirrels do thousands of dollars in damage to homes and roofs every year .I guess it's ok if it isn't your roof Critter relocates are simply making their problem someone else's problem . Nope they leave me and mine alone I leave them alone .That simple . They are allowed to live outside of the no varmint zone . Possums coons coyotes all have a place in nature ,it just isn't in side my pens and coops .
"He" ended up being a "she" actually. We didnt investigate but we think part of the reason she was so fat was because she was pregnant. So fortunately no babies will go hungry in the wild. I think we saved ourselves a bigger problem by getting rid of her. I havent caught anything more and we are looking into electric wireYou can trap and kill predators forever. There will always be more to fill in the void. Instead of wasting your time trapping and killing, put your efforts into making a predator proof pen. Also, trapping in the spring can be quite cruel if you catch either a mother or a baby. The babies are dependent on the mother until fall and will likely starve or get predated upon. Learn to live with your local wildlife rather than blowing it all away with a .22 or trapping it all because you left free food out for it. https://www.cwrescue.org/predatorproofhousing