How to skin a cat

[Scooby_Doo16]

Well i had 3 chickens as pets and now have 2 :mad:

i need to get these wild cats, ie make them dead.

any ideas?

[Askari]

I have a similar problem with my chickens. I loose a good few of them to civets and mongooses. My fowl are free range and at night they roost in the trees. Its when they are still young and near the ground that they get taken.

The upside is Im left with the fittest and strongest and the population actually grows so I have to sell off or give away the surplus.

My big problem lately is that there is a mongoose who is eating all their eggs out of the nests.

[Voicy]

We hunted a "misseljaatkat" at my gran's farm who kept chowing the chickens... eventually after a few nights we found it heading for a tree - shone the torch in its eyes high up in the branches and took it out with the .22 hunting rifle.

pretty animal, but it had to go.

Good luck dude...

[stoke]

For the Mongoose, you have to trap it in a cage with an egg offering, DO NOT TOUCH THE EGGS/CAGE WITH YOUR human smelling hands and stuff. Use surgical gloves, those yellow rubber gloves also leave a bad smell. One of the eggs must be the trap trigger. The cage must be able to trap a snake, cos mongees are uber rare, so it's probably a snake.

For the cats, leave some tinned cat food out to feed them, only 2 tablespoons worth. Note that the cats will hunt in the early morning or at about 22H00 at night. The rest of the nighttime is used up on territorial and breeding stuff. After 3 weeks or so they will be in the habit of eating the tinned food and then it's easy to trap them. The smell of the tinned food will attract more cats than the smell of chikkins does though. An interesting territorial battle may ensue .. typically resulting in high pitch screams at about 03H30 in the morning, but the one who stole your chikkin will win and will then also have to defend that territory. If it's not a cat/wildcat though, then you've just caused yourself some catfight trouble for the fun of it. Do you have any eagles/hawkes around?

[Askari]

Wise words oh Stokiepoo.

Well it is a Mongoose stealing the eggs cos Ive seen it. Chicken eggs are rarely taken by snakes as they are too big for most. Ive also seen the civet so i know its him as well.

There are eagles around and I have lost a few to them too. But most of the losses are occuring at night when the birdies are roosting. I know when the mongoose or civet is around cos the dogs go bananas. They can sense them from a long way away.

All in all Im in two minds as to whether to do anything about it. My losses are not greater than my gains and its giving the nature a wee bit of a helping hand. We do so much to harm the nature so giving a little back is ok I think.

Its just the egg stealing that is now a problem...

[stoke]

Gewd point on the size of the eggs.
But now, next year you'll have mongeese and their kids running around looking for a helping hand.

P.S. How much is a free range chikkin worth nowdays? I know them imprisoned and fed hormone pumped chikkins are worth about R10 each.

[Hoss]

Yeah well, just catch the things and send them packing some far way off. Try not to kill them, they're just trying live

[Scooby_Doo16]

I hate cats , so dead is prob easier than catching them. Stupid people in our complex leave some food out for them and its attracting more and more cats, i think some anti freeze might do the trick. Abit that maybe cruel even for me and my cat hating disposition.

[Badapple]

I'm with you Hoss,

Scooby, think again dude, if you hate them so much rather catch them or get the SPCA to do it for you.

How would you like to be poisoned? let me go rather...

[Scooby_Doo16]

I'm with you Hoss,

Scooby, think again dude, if you hate them so much rather catch them or get the SPCA to do it for you.

How would you like to be poisoned? let me go rather...

how would you like to be eaten alive by a lion?

[Badapple]

don't be daft, thats nature dude, intervening with poison ain't!

why don't you close them away at night, my mother-in-law does it with all her chickens, peacocks etc. each night.

[Scooby_Doo16]

don't be daft, thats nature dude, intervening with poison ain't!

why don't you close them away at night, my mother-in-law does it with all her chickens, peacocks etc. each night.

no rather a long term solution, lucky i don't get the monkeys at the same time... and if nature wants my chickens it will have to go through me.

[Voicy]

we have monkees :D

They get rid of the cat problem :gyes:

[Askari]

How much is a free range chikkin worth nowdays? I know them imprisoned and fed hormone pumped chikkins are worth about R10 each.

I sell my roosters for R50-70 and hens from R30-60. It all depends on colour and size. For Hindi religious ceremonies I can get R150 for a black cockerel.

I would never kill a mongoose or civet. I would try to trap and relocate or another thing I try do is put a mesh cage over the hens once they have started to sit. Problem is they pick the awkwardest spots for nests and thats only the ones I can find. At any given time I probably have 10 -15 hens M.I.A. and then suddenly they are back with babas. When people ask me how many chickens I have.....I really dont know!

[Hoss]

I hate cats , so dead is prob easier than catching them. Stupid people in our complex leave some food out for them and its attracting more and more cats, i think some anti freeze might do the trick. Abit that maybe cruel even for me and my cat hating disposition.

Admit it, you're just a chicken lover; Hendrik

[Askari]

LOL. Havent heard that for ages.

[Arbythep00nage]

hahaha Hendrik! I always laugh at that one.

[stoke]

Dang ... 30-60 ... impressive. So ... about that farm you wanted to setup ... :p

[Askari]

im tuning you my bru. One thing that you cannot do wong in Africa is sell chickens.

[WingNut]

trudat... my brother audits a lot of companies (ISO 14000 and OSHA 18000, environmental and OH&S stuff) , and he reckons KFC sells 18 000 tons of chicken a month in SA! :jawdrop:

[stoke]

And themz aint even reel chikkinses.

[Drusky]

Ja they call them Cs. Kentucky Fired C. Velly odd that.