mbc1963 Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 So, my little girl Cricket was billed as a "border collie/terrier" mix when I adopted her. Ahem. Try, "terrier/terrier" mix. Anyway... She loves to run in the woods and chase chipmunks and squirrels. But I didn't know she was an effective hunter until today, when I saw her swallowing a mouse. ::Shudder:: I suppose this is what wild dogs do, yes? It's disgusting to me (and disappointing, given my selection of expensive, grain-free dog food!). Anyone else have a dog who's gone wild and started hunting for himself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maralynn Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 Dogs and cats! Kipp found himself a deer in the woods once. I suspect it was shot and then ran a ways before dying. He kept disappearing and wasn't very hungry (odd for Kipp) so I followed his trail and found his private cafe. It was winter so it stayed frozen at least it was on our land so I just headed back in the woods to collect him on a frequent basis for a month or so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 Yeah, given the chance/opportunity, my dogs would gulp down little rodents - and chew on old deer bones. What really disgusts me is when we run across deer guts in the woods. We let our neighbors hunt deer in the fall on our property. They will gut the deer 'in the field' before tying it on their ATV to take it home and butcher it. They do throw it off the beaten path, but the dogs have good noses. Every once in a while, I lose track of them and will find them over a pile of deer guts that I know was shot yesterday or three days ago or - maybe even a week or more in the past. I call them to me, and if they don't come, I start walking towards them. They know they are in trouble, but that doesn't prevent them from one or two final gulps before they leave the pile to come to me. I love it {NOT} when they run to me with a section of intestine hanging from their mouth. Ewwww! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 They're obviously trying to tell y'all that they want real food! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CptJack Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 First of all - my Rat Terrier regularly kills and consumes small rodents. As a result he's also regularly wormed. But ironically, I once gave him a rejected by a snake dead feeder mouse. ...He *ate the skin* and left the perfectly skinned corpse in my bed. Thanks, dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 ^^ I'm guessing he and the snake knew something about that mouse that you didn't . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CptJack Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Me too. What that was, I have no idea but when both reject it, something's up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 We have cotton tails and marsh hares here. The JRT is always hunting and frequently catches something. She has caught huge snakes 3 different times now. She is a very effective killer. I have no idea how many bunnies, mice, frogs, and lizards she has caught. I don't think she has successfully caught a bird yet, but her try is very impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Billadeau Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Sam (LGD) brings home deer carcasses all the time. He also kills and consumes groundhogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Somehow I have a mouse that keeps getting in my feed bin (it must be squeezing through the tiniest of holes). Twice I've tossed it out to Pip, but he has yet to catch it. He sure is excited to go into the tractor shed where the feed bin is now. The hunt/chase is on! J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSnappy Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Our kill list includes: rabbits (multiple oh so many rabbits), squirrels, rats, voles, birds (especially apparently delicious baby birds), fish, crabs and moles (although we do not eat moles, as they are allegedly disgusting, so we spit them out) and two chicken-killing weasels. Oh and once Wootie consumed a dead snake. Surprisingly, most of the kills are the Aussies, not the terriers, though the terriers did kill the weasels. They receive Drontal on a regular basis. I usually let them eat whatever they find, though the rats in particular gross me out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickAndArtoo Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 How many of you allow your dogs to eat their finds? Also how often should I de worm adult dogs who do munch on unsavory items every so often? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Deworming for the kind of tapeworms they get from eating lizards, I think bunnies are in the same category, takes a stronger dose than the type of tapeworms they get from ingesting fleas. If they get things like that regularly, I would worm twice a year. It take a while for tapeworms to get bad enough to matter. Personally, I let mine eat fresh kills, but not old stuff. It won't be frozen here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 I do not *allow* them to eat what they find. I try to call them off, but because it (guts, bones, etc) seems to be extremely delicious (see my post above - #3), they try to gulp down as much as possible before I descend on them to chase them away. I don't indiscriminately worm. I will usually bring in a fecal to determine type of parasite before I worm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 I don't generally allow my dogs to eat what they've killed (and my current dogs haven't killed much), but that doesn't mean they haven't done it from time to time. If they eat something questionable that I haven't frozen ahead of time, I'll do a course of diatomaceous earth for a month and then have a fecal check done. I also don't like to indiscriminately give them poisons without a might good reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc1963 Posted February 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2016 Thanks for the stories - the skinned mouse wins the prize for grossness factor! My dog has been having watery stools since it got cold, and has troublesome issues with her anal glands that she didn't have the first few months I had her. I'm putting 2 and 2 together (poop + mouse eating + gland problems) and tentatively diagnosing worms. She'll be up for a check today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted February 3, 2016 Report Share Posted February 3, 2016 If my dog were regularly eating mice or other wild catches, I'd be using food grade diatomaceous earth every now and again to keep worms in check. http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjones Posted February 4, 2016 Report Share Posted February 4, 2016 Mine love to mouse, especially once hay is cut. Wisp can't hear very well anymore so she uses that excuse to ignore me and suck up baby mice like a vaccuum cleaner. Meg and Quinn will spit them out if I ask them to. Samantha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald McCaig Posted February 4, 2016 Report Share Posted February 4, 2016 How many of you allow your dogs to eat their finds? Also how often should I de worm adult dogs who do munch on unsavory items every so often? Dear Doggers, I keep them off month old freezing and thawing carrion: botulism, otherwise don't care. Their creme de la creme was plucking afterbirth from the straw when we cleaned our lambing jugs. Grain fed sheep poop and greenish afterbirth.YUM!! Their smiles were truly repulsive. It may depend what they're used to. We've never had a LGD get botulism and they eat EVERYTHING. I know of pets who got into meat garbage, sickened and died. I very occasionally worm for tapes. Heartworming seems to get rid of the other worms. Donald McCaig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted February 4, 2016 Report Share Posted February 4, 2016 Mine love to mouse, especially once hay is cut. Wisp can't hear very well anymore so she uses that excuse to ignore me and suck up baby mice like a vaccuum cleaner. Meg and Quinn will spit them out if I ask them to. Samantha The first couple of days after the fields are cut it is like a graveyard buffet out there. Cut up moles, mice and rabbits. Levi scarfs them up if I am not looking. Same during hunting season, he eats the organs that are cut out during field dressing and finds the neighbor's carcasses they toss after butchering. Deer poop and chicken poop are favorite treats too. Though our chickens don't free range anymore a couple still get out and the dog's eat their poop. My husband listened to Coop Cast (a podcast) and said apparently one of their dogs died from something he got from eating chicken poop. I've never investigated that claim too see what exactly it was. Our dogs have never gotten sick from their 'finds'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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