What kills this way?

Joshie · #1 04/24/13, 10:16 AM

Don't read any further if you don't want to get totally and completely grossed out.

When DD got home from school yesterday she went out to check the kittens. Mama kitty had them in a pen in a horse stall that we sectioned off for chicks. The slats aren't perfectly flat on the bottom so some creatures could get in (and it's obvious they did). Anyway, DD found a dead kitten that appeared to get stuck under the back of the pen. When she pulled the thing out the top of its body was gone. There was absolutely nothing there from the waist down. There was no blood to speak of. The one kitten DD wanted to keep was missing.

We moved the kittens to the hay rack, putting them in a den surrounded by hay and topped with a very large Rubbermaid lid. Mama has room to come and go. I really hope Mama leaves them there so the ba IRS can remain friendly and nobody else gets killed. Poor Mama is beside herself.

Would a badger do this?

Bearfootfarm · #2 04/24/13, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Would a badger do this?

I suspect a Badger would have torn into the pen and killed them all.
It's more likely the kitten died on it's own, and was eaten by rats/mice

farmerDale · #3 04/24/13, 03:59 PM

Tom cat? They are brutal with kittens.

Joshie · #4 04/24/13, 05:06 PM

We moved the remaining kittens up into the hay. When we had chickens we had a couple this way. One kitten is missing and one was cut in two like it had but cut like it'd been through a guillotine. We have had bats, skunks, raccoons, and at least one badger. The cats keep the mice at a minimum. A couple years ago we had rats a couple years ago but haven't seen any evidence of them since we poisoned them.

The reason I wondered about badgers is that we recently had a strange hole dug in the yard. Somebody here suggested it might have been dug by a badger. When I googled badger claw marks they mirrored the claw marks we had. Two or three years ago DH killed one when it was a bit too nasty.

I haven't seen any strange toms hanging around but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been one. Just another strange critter week out on the farm.

fordy · #5 04/24/13, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

Don't read any further if you don't want to get totally and completely grossed out.

When DD got home from school yesterday she went out to check the kittens. Mama kitty had them in a pen in a horse stall that we sectioned off for chicks. The slats aren't perfectly flat on the bottom so some creatures could get in (and it's obvious they did). Anyway, DD found a dead kitten that appeared to get stuck under the back of the pen. When she pulled the thing out the top of its body was gone. There was absolutely nothing there from the waist down. There was no blood to speak of. The one kitten DD wanted to keep was missing.

We moved the kittens to the hay rack, putting them in a den surrounded by hay and topped with a very large Rubbermaid lid. Mama has room to come and go. I really hope Mama leaves them there so the ba IRS can remain friendly and nobody else gets killed. Poor Mama is beside herself.

Would a badger do this?

....................When foreign male lions move into a new area and kill and or run off the established males of an existing pride with numerous females and babies , the second thing they do is to KIll the babies , which , brings the females back into heat so the new males can breed with them and produce their own offspring ! Would domestic Tom cats do otherwise IF they are provided the right set of circumstances ? , fordy

Bearfootfarm · #6 04/24/13, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Would domestic Tom cats do otherwise IF they are provided the right set of circumstances ?

They might kill them, but they wouldn't eat them

Ravenlost · #7 04/24/13, 08:53 PM

My sister had the same thing happen to a couple litters of puppies a few years ago. Exact same scenario right down to the remains of a pup that had obviously tried to squeeze out of the pen, but something got it...half of it. Some of the puppies were just completely missing.

They never did figure out what it was.

Chief Cook · #8 04/24/13, 09:11 PM

We had a male racoon here for awhile and he made a habit of grabbing any kitten that got close to his pen. He then ate the head, or a hind leg, or half a kitten. He was rather disgusting and I was glad when his time was up and he was released back on the river. Sorry for what you are going through.

jwal10 · #9 04/25/13, 08:52 AM

Skunks are the worst. They kill way more than they could ever eat. They are vicious killers and have a reputation as always looking for trouble and when they find it show no mercy. Killing machines and they do it all at night....James

Danaus29 · #10 04/25/13, 01:36 PM

Mink did something like that to a litter of rabbits at Mom's house. She found part of one baby and the rest were totally gone.

missythemom · #11 04/25/13, 08:03 PM

could be a weasel

ChickadeeL · #12 04/25/13, 10:08 PM

When I was a little girl I found our newest batch of kittens in pieces up in the hayloft. There was even a detached leg of one laying there. It was so horrible.

My parents guessed it was a tom but we never knew for sure.

farmerDale · #13 04/25/13, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearfootfarm

They might kill them, but they wouldn't eat them

Actually we have had toms kill and eat/dismember new kittens many times. It is a weird thing they sometimes do. I have caught stray toms in the act a couple of times now. Blech! Dead, dismembered, and half eaten bodies scattered about. Caught one under my truck eating new kittens a few years back. Went to shoot it, but it got away.

Disgusting.

JawjaBoy · #14 04/25/13, 10:58 PM

If I had to bet, it'd be on a tom cat.

Had a mama cat lose 2 consecutive litters to toms some years back. When she had her next litter, it took me over a week to find them. She had gotten up on the roof of the house where the eave overhung the carport. There was a pile of pecan leaves that had settled there that we hadn't gotten around to sweeping off and she had made a nest in them. To get on/off the house she went so far as to go all the way over the roof of the house, jump into a crab apple tree that had limbs over the house, go through the crab apple and tap a magnolia that had limbs growing into it and then come down to the ground.

Joshie · #15 04/25/13, 11:52 PM

I'd be surprised if it was a tom simply because we have two young toms here. I would think that they would go after the boys. Not a hair has been harmed on any adult cat's head... or body. Who really knows? Ravenlost, it's awfully strange and sad, isn't it? Mama and her babies are doing well in their new hay den up on the hay rack. I guess we will make their dens there next year.

The one thing that prevents us from putting a trap out is that we're afraid we'll catch another skunk. What the heck do you do with a skunk when you catch it where the hay is stored?

Hmm, late this winter we started being visited by the largest raccoon we have ever seen. This thing is the size of a medium sized dog. It is ginormous! Do they kill this way?