Rabbits from Mars?

[desertlady]

Im in a battle with cottontail rabbits ! I never had a problem with them in the past. Now they found my garden! Last night I put chicken wire around my garden. This morning I came across the strangest thing I ever saw ! little patches of chicken feed around my garden ! NO kids were around. Any idea what caused this?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Wow we get an answer to Montys chicken taste problem and now this. I dont know if my brain can take this in the weakened stage its in after that chicken taste problem.

First I wish you luck with your cottontails. I had that problem last summer during out drought. My garden was the only thing watered in this valley. If anything wanted to eat anything green it had to come to my garden. I permanently removed 18 cottontails before they stopped eating my beans as they sprouted.

Other than someone playing a practical joke on you, two things come to mind with the chicken feed, especially clumped together like that. Sometimes grain will pass straight through an animals digestive system without being digested. Youre looking at it. Do you think this might be the case? I'd expect rabbits to chew their food, not swallow it whole like that.

The other is even more of a stretch. How far from the chicken feed are these deposits? Some animals will store grain for future use. If that were the case Id expect it to be buried or somehow hidden, not right on top of the ground. That looks kind of like Id expect it to look if an animal had cached some grain, but not on top of the ground like that.

Ill go pop an aspirin and follow this mystery too. There is probably a simple solution. I hope someone comes up with it quickly.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ya know, the Bigfoot kids are on their way back from vacationing at Baja.

Look around and see if you spot any small bigfoot foot prints. These bigfoot kids have very high arches. Those kids. They do this kind of thing on dark nights, and not even dogs can tell they are there.

 

[so lucky]

A lady I know had problems like inside her house. She would find several pieces of food placed together on a shelf, or behind something. Sometimes little household items, as well, like paperclips, a piece of plastic, etc. If I remember correctly, they finally attributed it to mice. Don't know exactly the reasoning behind the food hiding.
Don't certain birds do that too? Like crows? But yes, out in the open like that is weird.

 

[desertlady]

Honestly, , no kids ! I came home from work, birds ate the seeds.I raked the area smooth and will find out tomorrow morning if it happens again! . Its possible that rabbits left waste behind. the looked perfectly round and they are about 2 feet away from other deposits. what about mice? its really strange!

 

[bobm]

Two possibilities that I could think of would be coyote vomit or packrat stash.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any updates? Did that happen again?

 

[desertlady]

No I didn't find any more. I fenced it up good! I will have to look out side of fence.

 

[MontyJ]

Im in a battle with cottontail rabbits ! I never had a problem with them in the past. Now they found my garden! Last night I put chicken wire around my garden. This morning I came across the strangest thing I ever saw ! little patches of chicken feed around my garden ! NO kids were around. Any idea what caused this?

Meanwhile, in the chicken coop...

Hen 1, "Did you see the look on her face?"

General cackles of amusement from the flock.

Hen 2, "That was priceless! Hey mouse, great job. Thanks for carrying that food out for us. We've really got her scratching her head on this one!"

More cackles...

Mouse, "No problem, thanks for the chow!"

Hen 1, "OK, what do we do now?"

Hen 2, "Maybe the mouse could bring us some golf balls to put the nesting boxes!"

Even more amused cackles.

To be continued...

 

[ducks4you]

My dog, "Rose" is going nuts!! She's almost 6yo, a little bit slower, but she's caught and eaten over 20 rabbits over the last few years. They # of rabbits THIS year looks like someone is cloning them!! Rose just missed one this morning. Oh, well, she'll get the nests and share with my other dog, "Pyg" and give the leftovers to the cats.