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I have a porcupine!
Warbirds
Member Posts: 16,927 ✭✭✭✭
Pennsylvania is wild ya’ll. I was sitting out back and this guy walked right past me!
Comments
So cool. I’ve never seen one up close in person. My girls would love to feed and tame that guy!
lol, cool
Pretty common here, we see them frequently when walking in the gallery forest along the Rio Grande. I never get tired of them. They like sweet red apples. 😉
…p.s.,
Bet you got more than one,,
None around here maybe a good thing
I've never seen one in person but have seen lots of videos on line of poor old dogs and horses with snouts full of quills
Look painfull and i am sure they would not hesitate to load up a person
Only critter that comes with "tooth" picks.
Nice! Like some other critters, they can be somewhat destructive. Don't leave wood handled tools out as they like to chew on the handles. When ya live out in the brush ya see all sorts on wildlife.
What they like is salt. And apples.
Very cool… Hopefully your dog does not get to know him !!!
Not too many near me,, dog got into one and it wasnt good.
Taste likeh chicken🤣
Probably more like squirrel, but the are a PAIN to pluck!
About 1974 on a two day walkabout with my son, we cooked one over the camp fire. He was pretty tough and tasted like pine needles which is their favorite food. I haven't seen one here in NorCal in at least 30-35 years and I am a retired logger. Rumor has it that the U.S.F.S. wiped them out to save the trees. Sad. Ed
I had a Herter's Guide Book decades ago. In it was the sage advice to kill every porcupine you see because they are so destructive to trees, and also that they make poor survival food being full of parasites. Now, old George was known to exaggerate a bit so I'd take that with a peck of sodium chloride.
They are, however, nasty to dogs. Dogs seem to have a natural need to attack them - and suffer for it.
What a cutie!!!
I love the videos of them when people are feeding them…all the little squeeking!
Very cool!
I have seen him 3 times now. Twice in the backyard and once in the front yard. I hate to kill the guy because I’m really the one in his home, but I have two dogs and one will certainly insist on learning the hard way.
Can I trap this guy and release him elsewhere, put a bullet in him, or just know he is there and try to co-exist?
I have seen some dogs on Dr. Pol that looked like Chia pets. Second only to skunks!
If he’s not bothering you, and you didn’t even know you had one, why put a bullet in him? You might not ever see him again. I’d just let him be. If, however, you think the dogs are at real risk, maybe go the trap route.
After all, life is hard enough without folks shooting you for no reason.
My friend had to have his dog put down after a porcupine encounter. He lost both eyes and the damage to his tongue and snout were beyond salvage.
Porcupine will also urinate on any food source to keep other animals from eating it. Filthy little buggers.
There are products sold at hardware,garden centers that will deter him. Hot peppers, and pepper juice will deter him. Don't know how it will act on the dogs though.
Or try live trap. Fish n game may even supply and set the trap for you. Check options before the bullet route.
bang
I started giving free passes to most all the wild life that woners trur years ago as I got older, we even have skunks living here for years now
they mind their own business the cats all get along with them and share food they have no aggression toward us ,give them a little room and direction to get away there happy to move along we have Never been sprayed and I have been next to them many times in tight spaces as long as they don't fel threated or getting scared/hurt they will not waste their spray I have even pulled their tails a times when feeling brave or stupit I guess
Over the last ten years our dogs got sprayed twice not pleasant, but can be washed off, unlike the quills
I would try traping first, if you allowed then bang would be next before the dogs get hurt or worse
here in ohio the law is if you trap, a eild animilal you can not release it except back on your own property so basic your required to kill it .
I use to move a lot of nusance pest to a near by woods untill I found out about the law . I get it but still a bit sad
JMHO Every thing has a hard time i life anyway and most have short life's but the thought of one of our dogs being hurt and vet bills that would follow well that 5 cent 22 round would be used asap
After having two of my dogs messed up by porkys, I don't tolerate them. As has been said, "live and let live" but porkys are one of the animals I wont live with.
I have had skunks walk across my feet. Never been that close to a porcupine.
Have the same use for a porky as I do a woodchuck.
Bye bye baby. Some are harder to eradicate than others. YMMV.
I always imagine them to be more pine pitch scented/flavored meat. It's like the only meat that gives you a fresh pine breath after eating.
Gregor I can give you a few recipes for groundhog. I have had published. They are a animal that only eats greens. Very healthy meat. If cleaned and cooked properly very good eating. But they must be cleaned right away. Not left in the field in the sun to spoil. Like most game must be taken care of right.
Any update, still got him or is he gone? @Warbirds
My dad told me when he was growing up they ate groundhogs I think baked mostly not sure but I rememer it that way , when visiting family in Tennessee as a very young kid never tried it
My dad grew up in a time when they had to eat what ever they could get or grow or go hungry
But he said younger groundhogs were not bad,
Rabbits and squirrels were a lot of dinners for them
The way grocery prices are going we might be going back to those meats soon.
Any update??
@Warbirds
had groundhog many times as a kid
local farmrs would pay $.50 bounty for each one we brought in from their pastures so cows/horses wouldnt be stepping in the holes
back then 2 g-hogs bought a box of .22, and the most of the farmers didnt want the carcass, just proof we got them so bounty AND supper !
mostly just baked or choed up for stew
He definitely lives here. But so far I have no seen him before 10:30PM.
As such, he is no threat to the dogs and I’m inclined to give him a pass.
If I cross paths while walking the dogs, I’ll probably shoot him. Until then, I’m gonna let him stick around.
Good that he's not causing real issues and not a threat.
Sounds fair enough.
They get a bad rap. I've read that they make wonderful indoor pets.