What would eat part of a mouse?

[aart]

My coop shed has a separate storage area from the 1/2" HC enclosed coop where the chickens reside.

Found a this in the shed this morning, right inside the exterior shed door.
Partially eviscerated mouse, there was another farther away from door that I stepped on.

Spoiler: Graphic Pic

View attachment 3090389

 

[Isadora]

My cats will occasionally leave a half-eaten mouse.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Almost looks like the gifts my cat used to bring home. She would never eat them, just mutilate them a little.

But… it looks like something went for organs.

 

[Madhouse Pullet]

It could have been your chickens... oh, unless it was outside their enclosure.

 

[RoyalChick]

Mice will do that to dead mice. I have never heard of them killing other mice.
Rats on the other hand do kill and eat mice. Don’t know if they go for the organs specifically.

Edited to add: I just found this which supports the rat theory in terms of mode of kill and focusing on organs.
http://www.wildlife-removal.com/ratkillmice.html

 

[SilverBirds]

My cats will eat a little bit of the mice and leave the rest. It's very odd though that they seem to be hallowed out.

 

[SilverBirds]

It could have been your chickens... oh, unless it was outside their enclosure.

Chickens would gobble them up in one bite.

 

[aart]

Mice will do that to dead mice.

That's gotta be what it is....what else could make such a small hole/hollow in the corpse?
And it did hollow in deeply.....and the corpse was rather small, like a 'baby' mouse.
I failed to put a quarter for scale to show accurate size......it's still out there, so I could take more pics.

No cats, chickens don't have access to that part of the shed.
I would think that anything larger than another mouse would really mangle or eat the whole thing.

 

[aart]

I failed to put a quarter for scale to show accurate size......it's still out there, so I could take more pics.

Spoiler: Graphic Pics-scale and Hollow

 

[SilverBirds]

The way it's hallowed out is bizarre!