What kind of animal bites heads off of chickens and leaves the rest?

Question

My mother has chickens in her pen.Something is getting in and biting the heads off and leaving the rest.Could this be a weasel?What ever it is it has teeth strong enough to bite thru wire.I always thought weasels ate the whole chicken but someone told her they just eat the head sometimes.

Answer 1

Racoons and Weasles will do this, mainly because they are after just the brain. The brain has the best nutrients and fats for getting winterized. The predator might be unbalanced nutritition wise and is trying to bulk up on needed vitamins. Weasles and Racoons are also easily excited, when they get in a hen pen they can't help themselves and kinda go haywire, killing everything they can catch, they cant eat it all and they cant carry it all away, so they go for the choice pieces. The heads.
Cats, Foxes, Dogs, and Birds of Prey will generally only take one and go away to eat it, maybe coming back but they generally dont slaughter and eat only the head.

Answer 2

Animals That Eat Chickens

Answer 3

It could be an owl or a hawk. Is the pen totally enclosed or is the top open? Are the chickens 'plucked'? Owls hunt by perching on snags and poles and watching for prey, or by gliding slowly above the ground. From high perches they dive down to the ground with wings folded, before snatching prey. ...... They have been known to walk into chicken coops to take domestic fowl. Rodents and small rabbits can be swallowed whole while larger prey are carried off and ripped apart at feeding perches or at the nest. Birds are often plucked first, and legs and wing tips discarded.

If the prey is small enough, the red-tail hawk will swallow it whole, but if the prey is too big it is usually beheaded and eaten in pieces.

Or you could have a naughty cat? Cats that are well-fed may kill and only behead their prey without eating them. Are you sure the wire has been chewed or is it corroded?

Answer 4

Weasels. This happened to us. We lost three prize black silkies in one night. Weasels normally just eat the head and leave the rest behind. Put traps out around the pen and lock the ckickens in a secure cage for the night. You should have your culprit in the trap in the morning. If not, try try try again.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Most likely a weasel or coon. Weasels and coons kill and eat prey all in one area. Unlike foxes and coyotes who will kill and carry their prey away. The animal may be getting in the pen, killing the chicken, begin to eat it, and then something scares him and he leaves. Or they go a bit mad and make sure everything is dead before they bgin to eat. Set up a few live traps with some tuna in them. Good Luck

Answer 6

Raccoons will pull the chickens head thought the wire and then eat the head but because they can't get at the rest of the body they leave it. And they have strong enough jaws to eat chicken wire.

Answer 7

weasel bites off the head of chickens some times when dey r not dat hungry

Answer 8

Live traps with tuna is a very good idea. OR you could just let your dog do it's business by the chicken pens. ...Nearly guarantee you that fox/weasel/raccoon/etc won't be coming back when it smells dog all over the place.

Answer 9

The only predator that I know of that eats only the head is OWLS....we had the same problem until we set up video surveillance and sure enough...owls...he would fly in from the top and walk right in the hen house and feast away. Once they find they have a easy, abundant food source like that they start getting spoiled and only take the delicacy...the brains :(

Answer 10

Birds of prey.
Hawks, owls and eagles.
more than likely this is an owl.
THey don't need to get through the wire, just fly in through the top.
We caught an owl doing this to our chickens once..it was a mystery for 4 days, until we caught him in the act.
you need a top or cover over your bird house.