Something eats chicken feed and leaves wet lumps of it behind...

[Cinnaminute]

Hi, usually I pick up their feed at night, but I have had several times over the years where I've forgotten. Usually it goes untouched or it's just our giant water bugs that get into it during the summer. Twice in the past month I've left the dish out, once on my porch and the other time inside their run. Both times something was eating or gathering from the dish. I found moist clumps of the food in the dish and around the dish. We do have a ton of squirrels but we have three big oaks dropping acorns right now. We've also had a dove take interest in their run and it often hangs around the yard. We also have rats that come by from time to time, but don't typically stay thanks to the neighborhood cats. I've also seen an armadillo who started visiting last year, but he usually went for the eggs every once in a while, and the odd rat snake too (who I doubt wants any of the feed). Note that I've had chickens for almost 4 years and my forgetful self has yet to encounter this, haha.

My cameras are busted due to rain and age so I'm currently unable to see what's up. I know it's not much to go on, but I've included a picture. Any ideas?

 

[2ndTink]

I have never seen that before! Is there a water source nearby that it would be getting water from or would the moisture be coming from whatever is doing this?

 

[nuthatched]

Mice and rats urinate as they go, it could be causing clumps

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I second the rats. They leave a greasy trail wherever they go and if you’ve ever dug up a rat’s nest it looks just like that food—clumpy and moist. There are rat-proof feeders that might make things easier. I had to take my food in every single night because we had a horrid rat problem. @Al Gerhart is a good resource for this sort of thing.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you seeing any droppings? Mice, rats, possum, skunk, and other critters often leave droppings which could be used to identify them. If it were mice or rats hanging around long enough to do that I'de expect to see droppings.

Can you spread a light coat of flour on the floor before dark to see if you can get any paw prints to use to identify them.

That takes a lot of moisture if it is happening overnight. You would not think rats would do that much unless it were a lot of them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Slugs? Do you see a shiny sheen on the floor anywhere?

 

[Cinnaminute]

Thanks for all the ideas and advice! Both times this has happened, the food was in a covered location (their run and my porch). No rain or any dripping water nearby. I should've gotten a picture of the feeder itself, but I already started cleaning up the mess before I thought "maybe I should ask the folks on BYC" haha. If it's likely rats, I'm less concerned. Just gotta make sure I don't forget to bring the food in this time. They may even have a nest under the shed next to the coops & run. I wouldn't be surprised. The armadillo hung out under there for a while and taught me a lesson about forgetting to get the eggs.

Are you seeing any droppings?

Can you spread a light coat of flour on the floor before dark to see if you can get any paw prints to use to identify them.

I haven't seen any droppings, but the porch is a bit messy so I could've overlooked that. And thank you so much for the flour idea! I'll definitely give that a try tonight. I don't want to attract pests, but I'm really curious what's going on, so I'll leave a small dish out tonight. Thank you!

Slugs? Do you see a shiny sheen on the floor anywhere?

I didn't notice any shininess, but it was first thing in the morning. I'll definitely keep an eye out for that, thank you for the suggestion!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Also look for a shiny sheen going up the bag or whatever the feed is in. That would be a dead giveaway.

 

[Cinnaminute]

I typed this up but forgot to post it.

Thursday night when I went outside to check on my chickens, I saw something quite big & grey saunter up under the porch of our shed/tiny house thing on our property (the chicken run is right next to this shed-house). It looked awfully big, and definitely took off because of me coming outside, but it didn't run. It kinda just leisurely shambled away with a slight hint of urgency. That had to be either our resident armadillo or an opossum. I forgot we had an opossum show up for a few days back in the summer, so it might be the same one. The armadillo is more approachable but the opossum was equally as casual, but definitely more likely to move away hearing me exit the back door.

I proceeded to set up a small dish of food on the porch and surrounded it with baking powder (we had some expired and I couldn't find the flour). Nothing showed up overnight. No foot prints, food completely untouched. I found an egg on top of my coop that had been there since yesterday (my one girl just stops, drops, and rolls on with her day). And nobody bothered the egg either.

I haven't left any dishes out since, haven't noticed anything strange. That one egg on the coop I left and it's still untouched. Maybe I'll try the flour thing again in about a week~