I have a bird that must have been killed by a VERY large predator.
The head/part of the neck was missing, as was a VERY large chunk of meat from the thigh. The head/neck told me possum but the thigh confused me. After "safeguarding" the coop...I awoke the next night to my birds scattered EVERYWHERE. I figured it was the full moon spooking them so I didn't worry about it until morning (which was about 30 minutes away).
I go outside...and there's feathers everywhere, but no dead birds. I found the feather-less rearend of one of my Brahmas. For some reason...this predator has ONLY gone after my Brahmas and ONLY gone after the hens.
I moved the flock and am locking them up every night and opening them every morning when I get up. We have trapped 2 things. One...a very large orange cat that is NOT ours and was caught by us wiring a chicken thigh into the cage. The second was a pack rat...again...with a chicken thigh wired to the cage.
So...I suppose my question is...which is more likely? Should I keep trapping for that possum...which we have yet to catch...or should I assume it was the cat doing it the whole time? (The cat is NOT ours and was feral.)
The head/part of the neck was missing, as was a VERY large chunk of meat from the thigh. The head/neck told me possum but the thigh confused me. After "safeguarding" the coop...I awoke the next night to my birds scattered EVERYWHERE. I figured it was the full moon spooking them so I didn't worry about it until morning (which was about 30 minutes away).
I go outside...and there's feathers everywhere, but no dead birds. I found the feather-less rearend of one of my Brahmas. For some reason...this predator has ONLY gone after my Brahmas and ONLY gone after the hens.
I moved the flock and am locking them up every night and opening them every morning when I get up. We have trapped 2 things. One...a very large orange cat that is NOT ours and was caught by us wiring a chicken thigh into the cage. The second was a pack rat...again...with a chicken thigh wired to the cage.
So...I suppose my question is...which is more likely? Should I keep trapping for that possum...which we have yet to catch...or should I assume it was the cat doing it the whole time? (The cat is NOT ours and was feral.)