What kills turkeys, ducks, chickens and just leaves the carcasses?

[BeakSanctuary]

I'm tending to think it's a dog or dogs at this point based upon what I've seen written on this subject.

There's no "obvious damage" and I just came back from finding two downed, still warm bodies (dark brahma cockerel and chocolate turkey). I've lost at least 9 birds this way aside from these in the past 10 days. I'd been out with the birds only a few hours earlier and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, everything was free-ranging on the property at that time and I noticed the deaths after dark when everyone else had gone home to roost. It's getting very disheartening!

Two cockerels - Welsummer and Buckeye, three chocolate Indian Runner ducks, one splash Blue Swedish duck, two white Cochins, one red Cochin.

 

[BirdBrain]

Sounds like dogs.

 

[Cackel]

So sorry for your loss

That is the reason I do not let my chickens free range , I am so afraid something will kill them , They have a large place to roam in their pin , I even put wire on top of my pin after reading things in here . They are my babies .

 

[TexasVet]

It's dogs. Possums eat the breast and soft insides. Raccoons usually carry them off. A cat "plays" with them before hauling them off, so there's usually a trail of feathers.

I hate dogs. They kill for sport, not to eat. They broke into my mother's coop one time and killed all 30 birds before they quit. Didn't eat a single one.

Kathy in Texas

 

[BeakSanctuary]

Thanks for the replies and support. It's like a losing battle in my own yard, which isn't right as I feel my birds deserve to enjoy their lives here, if only I could guarantee their safety - which apparently I cannot, after a huge investment in capital this year for my birds.

Just paid someone $216 for 12 visits to feed/put away/get out while I was on vacation and the 9 were killed then and now 2 more on my own watch.

I have seen the same dogs here twice but they didn't seem to be causing havoc then - not sure I can accuse them but it's leaning that way.

Would really hate to make them stay inside their pen, which is a decent size, like 50x80, 8' tall because it's quaint compared to the surroundings when they can roam. And get killed...

Darn. Maybe tomorrow I won't let them out of the pan anyway and see if i can catch the dogs coming by.

 

[BeakSanctuary]

Cackel, I know what you mean - these are my babies, too, and aside from that, I'm slowly losing any breeding potential I have now - have only breeding sets now of red, white, and blue Cochin and Turkens when I originally had sets of about three times as many breeds. With only one cockerel each of those types, my whole 2009 plans might be ruined because I might lose them soon.

But breeding is secondary to just letting them live out of love for their beauty alone.

KHayward, so sorry about your mother's loss of 30 birds to dogs. I can't imagine losing so much at once and it's just awful.

 

[BeakSanctuary]

IHO: The cute little boy lost today:

 

[davidb]

probably dogs

 

[Cara]

Usually a good way to tell if it's a dog is whether the tail feathers are missing. They tend to chase for fun rather than food, and often pull the tail feathers out. There are usually puncture wounds on the back too, you may have to brush the feathers the wrong way to see them.

Animals that kill for food tend to be more efficient in their killing method; in most cases the throat is damaged, or the head removed.

 

[BeakSanctuary]

This morning, I discovered an injury to one of my other truly FAVORITE turkeys, pictured below, as she was sitting on her roosting spot inside the fence. I do think this injury is survivable - looks like feathers were just plucked from the back behind the neck - but I wonder if this is still consistent with a dog attack or could point to something else? At this point, I'm "assuming" she was attacked while outside the pen yesterday, not overnight inside the pen.

I also smelled a skunk odor on my property down the woodline from where I found the animals yesterday and by today one turkey had been hauled off and the chicken partially eaten. Found the body of yet another turkey near the road, which isn't in the direction of where the dogs I suspected live.