The Official Critter Thread

[Ed L]

Thought my day was a little rough.....guess not.

Ed

 

[Kaveman]

Dadgummed leopard hung on all the way through that. Nature is Metal.

 

[cory]

It sure is!!

 

[davidwyby]

Gnarr


That’s terrible about the young man. It’s insane that the deputies didn’t shoot the cat on sight. I can’t fathom it.
I’m glad to hear maybe they are coming up with possible/partial solutions.
Have I told you guys about the time I almost became cat poop? I started reading up after that…cuyamaca isn’t far from me.

 

[lxskllr]

Have I told you guys about the time I almost became cat poop?

Not that I recall.

 

[davidwyby]

Not that I recall.

I’ll get on that

 

[lxskllr]

Tree rat!

 

[Ed L]

Deer....they have herded up like I've not seen in years. We've been cold, 1 day above freezing since x-mas, its really changed their paterns. Now we have snow, 4" or so, no easy food, theres no leftover grain from combines today, fall tillage removes that.
East side of our road is no mans land....thick brush, dense woods and swamp.Deer stay there in the day, head 1 mile west at dusk to feed. The "sheep" paths they take across our property are crazy. 8-10 places, 3, 4 deer or more each path. I watched 20+ cross yesterday, one group.

Ed

 

[Nutball]

They start doing that this time of year.

 

[Ed L]

Not to that extent here....we've had mild enough winters our deer haven't really herded.
Go 5 miles south, yes, hundreds of "wild" acres, fewer houses, yup, every year. One can see 100+ in some fields.....

Ed

 

[Ed L]

Nice path of tree rat tracks coming from our woods to a black walnut grove 250 yards away....lol

Ed

 

[Dave Shepard]

We have the same thing, but they are going to our grain building. When the snow gets deep, they bottom out,c and can barely move.

 

[Porkbrick]

 

[cory]

I'll um bite, howdja get that great pic?

 

[Porkbrick]

Little fella was dislodged from his nest when we were pruning. I put him in my coat till we finished, then put him back for mom to retrieve.

Edit: not wearing the coat 😆, on the ground in a safe spot!

 

[BlackSmith]

Worth the watch.

 

[Treeaddict]

We now have a 2 story rat cage in our living room! These 3 young brothers are so cool. The most outgoing is the silvermane named Bruno. The whole family loves them. Bruno stripped a 16 pocket dog treat puzzle in 5 minutes on his first try. They free roam the living room every evening and always come to hang with me every couple minutes. They usually go back into the cage to use the bathroom but occasionally there will be a few little turds. The 2 black ones are Churro and Roamy. I forced Churro to be held and pet so he got used to it and enjoys it now. Roamy is still quite a bit more timid. As they age, they will be more like lap rats where they lay on you and get pet while you watch YouTube. They are far too hyper to sit still at this point.

 

[lxskllr]

That's pretty cool. They're much more attractive than white rats, but their tails still weird me out a little :^D

 

[Nutball]

I thought I read somewhere that rats pee nonstop.

 

[Treeaddict]

I thought I read somewhere that rats pee nonstop.

The males will mark territory. It hasn’t been a problem. Once a week one will leave 2 drops on my phone.

 

[Treeaddict]

That's pretty cool. They're much more attractive than white rats, but their tails still weird me out a little :^D

I was kind of like that at first but it is actually kind of soft. They actually have great balance because of their tail and they also use it to regulate body temperature. They can stand on the edge of a cardboard box and balance and walk pretty easily. The rest of them is so darn adorable. I guess what I’m saying is you get used to it and it kind of becomes fascinating.

 

[cory]

speaking of amazing rats, here is one post from an amazing rat IG account

 

[Treeaddict]

They really are some amazing creatures that have a bad reputation. Besides landline detection they are also trained to detect tuberculosis and humans. They’re also training them for search and rescue operations because they can fit in the places that dogs cannot.

 

[cory]

Exactly!

And a new one (to me) is they are being used to detect smuggling of exotic animals and animal parts

 

[Dave Shepard]

I had hooded rats as a kid.

The sar rats have little cameras and a way to alert when they find someone. There are also landmine sniffing rats that have saved a lot of lives in war zones.