I have one smart old possum that is driving me nuts. I cought and relocated the wife and kids fairly easy, but this old guy is smart. I've tried strong smelling baits like sardines and canned cat food in the live traps and caught a seagul and a cat. I've tried raw and scrambled eggs and caught the cat again. Then we tried raw meat. (The cat is starting to get pissed off now) and still no possum. Fish caught the cat and this time she nearly ripped my arm off) I even resorted to leg hold traps set around the night pen, but he never goes near them and I'm always afraid of catching something else. (It took weeks to rehabilitate that poor grackle, but he's doing fine with one leg) I don't want to bait the leg holds, because I know I'll get that dumb cat again.
I've learned that the cat is semi wild and has a kitten under an abandoned shed, so if I can catch her and the kitten,I may be able to tame them enough to find them homes. Then they will at least be out of the way, but I hate leg holds and connabears.
I need ideas of how to get the possum though. Any ideas on the perfect bait?
What is the best Possum bait. (other than a live chicken)
My DH would probably stay up and just shoot it, but it sounds like your neighbors are too close for that to be permitted.
I'd stick with the live animal trap; it must be a pretty stupid cat to keep getting caught like that! Maybe you can catch her and then get the kitten and try to find them homes.
We had a very persistent muskrat; it took days of trying various enticing veggies in a dish in the live trap but we finally got him. He was deported.
We use peanut butter. Works every time for us.
George
Second the peanut butter. Good luck.
I use peanut butter or dry cat food. Friskies in teh purple bag. MY possums seem to think its the best food in the county. Unfortunately I am feeding them as well as the cats.
Thank you for that story.. i needed to laugh tonight. My attempt at live trapping them was just as bad. I caught the cats but not the possum. I finally shut the cats in the garage one night & caught one possum. The other two the neighbor boy shot out of the tree for me. :)
Possums, cats...they all need to be relocated.
decon
My mice won't eat decon.. how do you get a possum to eat it? Does anyone know what a ground hog will eat... i need to trap & relocate the one in my front yard since my mom refuses to step outside with it around. I was told they were sorta vegetarians but he refused to eat the stuff i put out.
It's hard to tempt a groung hog. They eat all kinds of vegitation and don't seem to get really excited about anything, though I did rehab one once that went crazy for beets and turnips. The best you can say for them is that they are realitivly harmless, though the males smell like a gas station bear (People who remember these will know the smell I'm talking about, it's kind of a combination of skunk, dog poop and orange crush soda).
There was one that lived under a house I was renting and we got along just fine. (except for the smell)
Groundhogs and woodchucks can do a lot of damage to a garden. People around here are never happy to see them pop up in their area. Their range has expanded and we had one living near the kids' playhouse. My husband shot it.
They did extensive damage to one of mom's flower beds a few years back when it dug a 6 ft plus den underneath it. I don't mind him.. i think he's cute. I like feeding him random things. He scares the older ladies that come around tho. They refuse to get out of thier cars. My neighbor says he's a freak of nature bc he's huge. 2 ft long.. maybe a bit longer & probably a good 25 lbs i'm guessing. thanks anyways. i'll just tell them he has to stay. :)
I'd try fruit or raw eggs. Those were our pet possum's faves.
Jyl, how are you doing with your possum? Any luck?
Nope. Now the squirrels are making quite the game of it. They sit in the trap and wait for me to let them out in the morning, then they run up the tree and shout insults at me. I rather hope that the possum makes a move for one of the turkeys. They are all about 30 to 40 pounds and could probably make short work of him.
A high speed pellet gun would work on that possum and your neighbors wouldn't hear it.
Hope you get the cats neutered before you re-home them.
As dim as they are, the possum probably has too much sense for that. Our geese are great at protecting whoever is sharing their quarters because they're large and imposing, so I would imagine turkeys might be the same way.
It's a shame you can't shoot the squirrels. We've had a population explosion of them here and that's how DH handles them. We left them alone for years until they started stripping our peach trees of fruit and then we figured enough was enough.
GHG do you eat the ones you kill? They are quite tasty in a stew.
A possum would easily kill a turkey if it wanted to. They have more teeth in their heads than any mamal (sp?) in this country. But they are opportunistic feeders and they can find lots of tucker without having to fight for it. If it killed a turkey it would wait for the turkey to go to roost.
Cajun, we've thought about it, but there never seems to be a whole lot of meat on them and they just don't look that appealing to me. We used to raise rabbits and felt similarly about them, so we stopped. Our son was allergic to poultry at the time so we were looking for alternatives. Except for the legs there's not much to eat on a rabbit.....and they were kind of chewy, even cage-raised.
You must have kept them too long. Eight weeks and they are good to go. Very tender on the grill or in a stew pot. They make good spaghetti also. Squirrels are good fried if they are young but I'd only stew the older ones. They can be tough but they are tasty.
Cajun, the rabbit was just a different texture from the chicken, and we didn't like it as much. I don't think we kept the young ones past eight weeks because they made a real mess as they got bigger and we couldn't wait to dispatch them! Probably back then it was just the idea that turned us off.
Do you eat the whole squirrel or just the hindquarters?
I don't want to kill the possum, the squirrels or the cats. I hate to kill anything especially if it is not hurting anything. The possum just needs to find a new place to live and the cats need to be out of the winter cold. I like the squirrels. And it will be up to who ever takes the cats to neuter them. I spend enough of the animals I rehabilitate.
:( i want a new kitten. i like the fluffy cuteness. mine are all grown up again. Maybe someone will bless me with one for my birthday. They seem to like to dump them about that time.
Possums.. i liked them except when they started eating my chickens. had a crippled one i fed every night that lived under our porch.
i agree.. whoever takes the cats from me should get them fixed. i'm not made of money. No one ever sees it like that tho.
We trapped "our" feral cats and got them a rabies shot, spayed or neutered, then turned them loose here again. I figure if they leave others will take their place, but as long as they are around they will deter newbies. So far it is working.
We eat the whole squirrel. Lots of bones but also lots of flavor.
Greykyttyn, I have a lovely little Grey Kitten....She's fluffy, too. About 5 weeks, brought here by her mother, after she had dumped the last bunch a few weeks earlier. Of, if you'd prefer, there's a Grey and White, a Calico, and a fuzzy little Black as well. All seem to be medium haired, and will probably be like their Big Sister, who is also available, as are her siblings, one SH Orange and White, and one SH Black. I'll take care of the s/n......
When is your Birthday?
Christmas Eve!
hmm.. how close do you live to Blacksburg, SC? I have friends there.. the cat could just find its way into my car. :)
seriously i get probably 3 to 5 kittens btwn thanksgiving & valentines day dumped here, usually right at 5 to 7 weeks old. I usually rehome all but one anymore. I
Do you travel on I-85? I don't know how you'd get to Blacksburg from MO, but I'm not far off 85....
I've driven thru Blacksburg traveling to and from Charlotte, it's not terribly far, maybe 1-1.5 hours, depending on who's driving. Not to worry, though, I'll probably keep the grey one anyway. Blue cats are my favs, and I don't have one right now. After many years of cat rescue in FL, I moved the whole Kit and Kaboodle (sorry, couldn't help it) to SC with all intentions of just keeping the ones still with me in a sanctuary situation. I can't afford the rescue scenario anymore, and I got pretty burned out. My population is lessening, and while I don't need any more cats, (or dogs or cows, I do need chickens) they have started to find us, again...
I'm going to remind folks that you don't know who's reading this... you might want to give directions to your place and other personal info in private Dmails....
shesh i totally understand. This started as a rescue thing for cats bc i can only have one dog at a time. but i just can't afford much more. I'm bad about not giving mine up when they come here, i am pretty picky about what kind of home they go too. I want to know they are safe & loved. out of 100 cats I've given 4 away :( one i still get to see, i house sit for him when the families gone, the other two got hit by cars within a couple months. The last one.. she's ok. When it snows she hikes the quarter mile back to my house to come inside bc her owner won't let her in. My dream is a farm, enough space for all the chickens i want, all the cats that need homes & any other animals that drifts my way.. o & an endless supply of money to support it all.
idk what road we travel on.. i came across the mountains out of Knoxville, TN. I"ll have to look that up.
I know what you guys mean. I spent over 400 bucks in milk for the fawns alone this summer, then you add in food and medications and supplies for everything else and it really gets scary. When people get upset that I won't take yet annother baby coon or bird or squirrel, they have no clue what it costs to raise them. A robin alone can cost 15 to 20, a raccoon 35 and a squirrel 12. I tell them that the least they can do is bring the animal to me so I can save the gas money and they have a fit about that.
Ive been doing this over 20 years and I'm so close to burning out that my hair is smoking.
I did search and rescue for a while and it was the same... it's amazing what people take for granted in volunteers. The sense of entitlement in this country is really getting out of hand....
I just try to make sure I'm don't fall into such callous disregard of other's efforts, time, and money...
i'm only 28.. i could do this for another 20 or 30 yrs but idk that i'll be able to afford to do it.
Jayryunen wrote;"I'm going to remind folks that you don't know who's reading this... you might want to give directions to your place and other personal info in private Dmails..."
Good point. But, since the town I live in is listed under my name, I probably didn't do much harm:).
Even so, since she comes thru TN, I'm in the opposite direction. Rats.
I started at about 23, when I bought my first house (because I had too many critters), and I'm now 55.
Be careful. Be very careful....
We went home ur direction tho! we make a loop when we go. I like crossing the mountains.
Just be careful, cat & grey... I'd hate to think of harm coming your way thru this board. =o(
It's a dangerous world... as any chicken will tell you. LOL
Thank you for the warning.
"It's a dangerous world... as any chicken will tell you. LOL"
Very true :). But then, if I were to live totally isolated, i'd miss so much....
cat... I'm not talking isolation... I'm just talking intelligent caution. I've certainly made some wonderful contacts here on DG. There's been enough reports of 'the bad guys' gleaning personal info from public boards and victimizing people that I'm very careful not to broadcast such info to all and sundry.
This chicken looks both ways before crossing the street... because she doesn't want to end up 'mechanically separated chicken' (that statement on the cans of chicken has always creeped me out).
Though I don't always use the crosswalk...
LOL