Having lost a puppy to an eagle I need to know if predators like eagles are a threat to other animal

[jwirr]

especially little goats and lambs. If so, how do you protect them without caging them?

[randr]

1. Eagles would not be here were it not for the little goats and lambs--nc

[jwirr]

2. I know. But I chose to not want to feed them MY goats and lambs. There are a lot contradictions in

this world and protecting both domestic animals and wildlife is one of them. I am looking for a compromise that can protect both. That eagle has a lot of other things it can eat.

[randr]

3. I did not mean to be insensitive

I live on a farm of my own and have had numerous loses. My cat actually was picked up and dropped by an owl as a kitten. He recovered and is still a bit skittish when outside.
I may suggest providing some form of shelter for the little ones. Anything they can get under such as a lean-to will help with flying predators. I have gone as far as to wire the top of my outdoor chicken run. Good luck to you and your little ones.

[jwirr]

4. Thanks.

[EFerrari]

5. Oh, no! I'm so sorry.

We have owls and turkey vultures here and coyotes.

I keep the small ones either inside or penned in until they are too big to carry. Only one of my cats goes out at all and I don't let her out alone. She probably shouldn't go out at all and I'm trying to wean her off of it. I have a nice big indoor space for them to do all the things cats do without risking getting run over or picked off.

The coyotes that come right up to the pens are the biggest problem. One of my boarders had two of his goats killed right through the chicken wire fence. Another boarder here brought in four kittens that she wanted to raise as barn cats and I confiscated them to raise inside until they were old enough to be adopted out but not before one went missing to an unknown predator.

"Nature red in tooth and claw" -- I'm terrible at handling this but have gotten everyone to keep the little guys in safe covered areas but for the occasional hungry coyote that finds a way through the fencing. At least they sing and that alerts me to scare them off so, we don't lose very many animals to them any more.

[jwirr]

6. Thank you. I talked with my family and they are now aware of the danger. The thing that still

bothers me about my puppy is thinking about how terrified he probably was. I wake up at night dreaming about it.

[bvar22]

7. In this area,

...most people keep them inside a covered area until they are too big to be considered prey.
Pens covered with Chicken Wire are the common solution,
though roofing the pen with plastic bird netting will probably work for a year.

A Person, or BIGGER dog babysitting close by will usually deter an attack,
but not always.


Sorry about your pup.

[LWolf]

8. Predators are always a threat.

Goats and lambs? Eagles, maybe, if it were young and small enough. Coyotes, definitely.

Chickens and cats...owls, hawks, coyotes. Eagles if they are around. There are eagles in my region, but I've never seen them around my home.

Dogs? Coyotes, definitely.

Some of my chicken coop has a wire roof; there is a low opening for them to get out and free range. I often get young hawks who will sit on a 4 ft fence above their water, waiting for them to come in to drink. I've seen hawks and owls take chickens, and I've lost 2 cats.

I wish the predators would focus on the damned rodents.

[EFerrari]

9. I've never seen owls hunting here but you can hear one or two especially at dusk.

There is a group of turkey vultures that like to sit on the fence overlooking the highest hill. You can see them patrolling all the time. They look beautiful up in the air and sort of funny when sitting hunching over the fencing like a bunch of gossips.

ETA, there is another bird that may be some kind of hawk, with a bright orange back and tail. I've only ever seen it in the air.

[LWolf]

10. I was headed out to the barn at my usual 4:30 AM

one morning a couple of years ago and saw that one of my young pullets was not on the roost, but already up. Just as I noticed her she got nailed by the local great-horned owl. I yelled and ran toward them, and it dropped her...but too late.

[EFerrari]

11. Looking through some Audubon materials recently

I found out that we are smack in the middle of burrow owl habitat. They seem to be little guys that are the color of the brown hills up here and live in abandoned squirrel nests. I don't know if that is who I hear in the early evening, though. My helper tells me he's seen a big one up on the power pole but I never have. And the orange backed hawk did turn out to be a red-tailed hawk. I wish I still had some binoculars because the birds are amazing right now. There's a quail family that I see on my way out nearly every morning, running around the northern stretch of the road where it crosses the creek. They look like a bunch of little wind-up toys.