What to do with a baby coyote?

The plan went down without a hitch. The cute little bugger is back with her mom.

vern, post: 371952, member: 3436 wrote: The plan went down without a hitch. The cute little bugger is back with her mom.

Somebody give me a Kleenex and hug pretty please...

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I grew up deer hunting with dogs in the 70's and 80's and we were hunting in December and it was cold. I knew where a gigantic hornets nest was and I wanted it so I swung by the tree and shot it down.

All was well until we were about halfway home and the hornets started feeling the warmth from the heater. They started crawling out one at a time and I started covertly crunching their skulls one at a time. I was concentrating pretty hard on the task at hand when my uncle started hollering for my dad to stop because "he's too quiet back there....he's up to something!)
(The same uncle had noticed a strong odor in the van the year before and discovered that I had caught a Pygmy Rattler and was bringing him home in a 5 gallon bucket with some screen over the top, lol).

They found my hornets nest and made me put it in the woods on the side of the road. I convinced 'em to stop at a gas station and let me get some trash bags so we could go back and get it, lol

I have brought in many a hornet nest from the forest from the size of a cantaloupe to a 5gal jug.

There are steps in procuring them.

1. cold enough for them to be dormant
2. fog the innards of the nest with appropriate bug spray and cover with large trash bag and fog some more before sealing bag with duct tape.
3. be patient a day or so to be assured they are all dead
4. coat the nest and any limbs it is attached to with an ample supply of clear plastic coat spray to preserve the prize.
5. hang in the corner of your office with the ficus and terrify everyone that spots it with stories of your creation............

BTW, the only good snake is a dead snake, skinned, cut into nuggets, pounded, battered and fried.

😉

A Harris, post: 372001, member: 81 wrote: ...BTW, the only good snake is a dead snake, skinned, cut into nuggets, pounded, battered and fried.

😉

Drove all day with the kids years ago to get a good camping spot at the lake during a holiday weekend. Backing into the campsite I accidentally ran over the head of a 4' rattlesnake. By the time the boys had the tent pitched I had skinned the snake and had him diced up for the skillet.

One of the finest camp meals I've ever had...sizzled snake with Jalapeno Ranch Style beans. To die for.

Try to serve that stuff to me.............and somebody's gonna die..............maybe you....................maybe me.

Holy Cow, post: 372014, member: 50 wrote: Try to serve that stuff to me.............and somebody's gonna die..............maybe you....................maybe me.

Snake's good....tastes like chicken.

Czernina (pronounced cha-NEE-na ) is where I start fighting. It's a traditional Polish holiday zuppa made from duck blood. Makes me gurk just to look at it. You could chase me to Phoenix with a spoonful.

WGD, post: 371982, member: 8001 wrote: and discovered that I had caught a Pygmy Rattler and was bringing him home in a 5 gallon bucket with some screen over the top

Ummmm.. just out of curiosity why would you want to bring a pigmy rattlesnake home? Ya can't teach them any tricks and they have a nasty disposition when flustered. 😉

A few years back there was a carpenter and his old dog working on a house along a street we were shooting topo on. I've seen plenty of wild coyotes but haven't necessarily seen every breed of domesticated dog there is. This critter looked like a coyote to me, so I asked. It was indeed a coyote. The guy had found it as a pup and it was something like 14 when I saw it. It had a collar but wasn't on a leash. Just lying in the grass of the front yard, enjoying the sun like any old dog might while the carpenter was doing some exterior work to the house.

So I suppose that a coyote raised carefully from being a young pup and kept carefully since might make a decent pet in some circumstances, but IMO, it's best to not try to domesticate a wild critter, but return it to the wild whenever possible.

FL/GA PLS., post: 371744, member: 379 wrote: Wait till it bites her, she'll change her mind. On second thought if she is like my SWMBO the thing will be sleeping in the bed with you sooner than you think.

There was a time quite a few years back when the coyotes were being particularly assertive. I had been hunting them and watched on top of the hill as this critter made its way towards me for about 400 yards. As it neared I realized it was a pup coyote. It noticed me standing there, .243 in hand, and gave me about a 30 yard radius as it wandered by. I thought it was kind of interesting and couldn't shoot that young of a coyote.

Well, about 4 days later, we had that pup coyote walk down the driveway and wander into the barn. I mentioned it to my wife and she went in after it with dog biscuits. She scooped it up (and it bit her) and it became our pet til the day it died 9 years later in the bedroom. And, yes, it did sleep in the bed. It made for quite an interesting pet. It was extremely loyal and friendly to us like a dog but its mannerisms were completely different.

Wild vs domestic dogs
Domesticated dogs are genetically identical to wild dogs. As humans, we just chose to select those particular animals that were more docile towards us for breeding. There are a few individual wolves in Alaska that hang in dog parks, or playgrounds just waiting to play. I adopted from a shelter (what I later found out to be) an 7/8 wolf 1/8 husky mix, and she was an incredible animal. Sweet, smart and non-aggressive to other dogs (but would dispatch field mice by the dozens).

Coyote dogs
I lived with a coyote dog mix, that a house mate had gotten in Alaska. It was a nice dog, with a cool temperament, but the digging was OUT OF CONTROL! In a single evening, she had dug a 3 foot by 10 foot den underneath an asphalt driveway.

The short answer is you don't know what you are getting with a wild dog. You are taking a risk by bypassing thousands of years of behavioral selection. You may have an animal that vets refuse to work on (or could put their license at risk), and lawyers would Salivate at a case where a wild dog bit someone.

There also happen to be laws that are enforced relative to not allowing wild animals to live in the wild. For example, find a baby deer, take it home and raise it. Sooner or later there will be a knock on your door and you will lose possession of your pet. Not saying everyone gets caught, but the law is counter to doing what some see as the humane thing when an unattended baby is found.

Raised one and had her til she died of old age, one of the best dogs we ever had. She was always skittish and acted like she was caught in the cookie jar, but she was as sweet and loving as any other dog.