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What would kill and mangle a baby kitten on a farm besides a coyote2007-11-25 12:29:42

We recently moved to a farm and took along three small dogs and a mama cat and her 3 kittens. My daughter ran in very upset and had found that one of the kittens had been killed. It was a very hard thing to see and it was badly mangled. I have a hard time thinking that a coyote came right up on the porch and only took the one kitten. Any ideas on what else might have done this??

Answers:

Our shelter is located in the boondocks, and this sounds like an owl to me. If it tried to get the kitten, and got interrupted by the return of the mama cat or one of the dogs, it may have taken flight and had to leave it behind. There may even have been a struggle over it, which resulted in it being mangled. Owls are pretty rough with their prey.

Most anything else would have carried off the kitten to eat it instead of mangling it and leaving it behind, including coyotes, foxes or coons. They would have to be very desperate for food to get that close to your house, especially if you have dogs, so I vote for an owl.

We have enormous owls out here, and they've become very bold, including eating left-over dog food at night. We're very careful with our kittens and puppies because of them. They are wonderful birds, tho, it's just nature, so please don't hate them for being what they are.

I'm so sorry your little girl was the one to find the kitten. She will need lots of reassurance that there aren't "bad things" outside at night now. We use a lot of lights around our animal kennels to deter unwelcome visitors. This might help her a bit. The country is a great place to raise kids. Please don't take the one incident to heart. GOod luck to you.

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A dog! Honestly I've seen some kittens/cats get pretty mangled up by dogs. Or it could have came across an opossum, raccoon, or something along them lines. Kittens are pretty small and fragile. I wouldn't be surprised though if it was maybe a stray dog out running in the country!

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Fox ,raccoons, possum. Coyotes and foxes would of ate it. But racoons would just kill it.

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Fox, Raccoon, Another Male cat. I've even heard of Hawks picking them off, but they don't usually leave them behind.

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If it was a small kitten, it might have been a dog, a racoon or any medium sized wild animal that might hang around a farm.

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A fox, possum, snake.

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If it went near the pigs, one of them might have done it too. It is just so hard to tell, because there are so many things that could have done it.