Something killed our three guinea pigs last night. It broke through the mesh on the top of the cage and took the guinea pigs out. It left two of them side by side on the lawn about 30 feet from the hutch. The third one has disappeared. A cat killing a guinea pig doesn’t surprise me in the least, but I am surprised it went back for the other two, and that it carried the bodies out onto the lawn and then left them. Is that something a cat would do?
My neighbour suggested it might be a fox. Apparently there are some in nature reserve a few streets over. Does it sound more like a fox or a cat?
It’s hard to say, really. Cats will most certainly kill rodents and leave them at their "master’s door, although I’m not sure if they’d go back. My guess is yes.
Foxes are famous for over killing. They kill and kill and stash the extra food in hiding. Perhaps the fox got scared off before he could stash it.
But I wouldn’t rule out a cat either. Domestic cats don’t get a lot of practice hunting and they get so excited at the prospect, sometimes they will kill and kill.
I kind of doubt it. I’ve known 3 guinea pigs that lived with dozens of transient foster cats, some barely tamed ferals, and despite having the top of their cage open and accessable to the cats at all times, they were never even scratched by one of them.
Of pets killed by other animals, we’ve suffered losses from:
a dog (killed a duckling, three ducks, and half a dozen chickens) who snapped one afternoon after living with said birds for two years
fishercat, which a neighbor heard screaming the night of an attack (a cat, several ducks)
Where I live (urban London) this would most certainly be the work of an urban fox, of which we have many. If you know you have foxes in the vicinity, then that’s almost certainly your killer, right there.
My friend-with-bunnies has an outdoor rabbit run with a metal cage that goes underneath as well as over the run, precisely to prevent foxes digging to get into the cage.
Agreed. Honestly, in a fight between a scared-shitless guinea pig and a not-all-that-motivated cat, I’d put my money on the guinea pig. They just aren’t small or weak enough to be easy kills.
(Side note: I still had a guinea pig when my cat was a kitten. The running joke in our house was that the guinea pig would absolutely, without question, kick the kitten’s ass in a fight.)
Could be any predator. Where do you live? Fisher cats are returning to New England. They are a nuisance, and reputed to be messy killers. But any predator could have been scared off and left their kill. A fox seems less likely to overkill and leave bodies around. As a matter of fact, that sounds far more like a well fed domestic animal, cat or dog, than a wild predator.
I was going to suggest raccoon also. I had a friend with ducks. She would let them roam during the day, but at night she had an enclosure for them. A raccoon got in one night and killed the ducks.
A cat could and would kill all three of them and leave the bodies lying around, but it would take a pretty strong/determined cat to get through the wire on top of the cage, even if it was just chicken wire. It takes some pretty serious wire pretty seriously attached to keep out of foxes and raccoons, though, and either one of those could be your killer.
I live in Australia. We have feral cats and foxes, but no raccoons or fisher cats.
The thing I find puzzling is that the GPs were lifted out of their cage, and then left next to each other on the lawn. They were hardly damaged at all. I couldn’t see a mark on them, although I didn’t inspect them too closely. I thought they might have died of fright.
I know cats sometimes bring home their kills. I was wondering if they collect them in piles. Interesting about foxes stashing kills for later. Maybe it was planning on coming back for the other two, then forgot.
Really? They seemed the epitome of weak and helpless to me. I haven’t seen one do anything more useful than sit and shiver, or scramble under the nearest something.
Oh, O.K. then. Two things jump out at me then. One: Australia. Two: The cage was broken into from the top, which indicates predation from above. Conclusion: It’s a drop bear.
Sounds just like a fox to me and I doubt it was a cat. Foxes are known to overkill any time they get the chance, they usually kill small prey by shaking like dogs, which does not leave marks (unlike cats which kill by deep bites to the neck and head) and they could more than handle wire mesh and three guinea pigs; that would be a challenge for most cats.
I live in an extensive suburb less than a mile from a giant city (in America) and foxes are everywhere here. I see them more than cats at night.