Bloody magpies hasseling my guinea-pigs - <<cats bum face emoticon>>

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

OK- I can protect the hogs against foxes. Good strong run and a wooden box to scurry too.
Ditto cats

Ferrets/weasels- I think the bars on the run are too small.
You'd think I had all angles covered?

Yesterday my DH saw a magpie pecking at GP2 when he was in the run.
Presuming he was going for the chrome colour of the run, rather than my pig.

I'd never even considered this as a threat TBH.

(GP2 was fine, we checked him over) - phew.

I think magpies are incredibly bold

Heard a horrible caw, caw type noise in the back garden last week and was convinced a fox had semi-annihilated a bird. When I got outside, nextdoor's cat was sitting on a fence about a foot away from a magpie who was holding his ground and if anything scaring the cat.....

Sorry that doesn't help you with your guinea pigs.... oh dear....

They are bold birds.
My neighbours elderly cat was attacked by a magpie. The vet reckoned it was attracted to his medallion on his collar. OK the cat was 21 but he was a cat.

Must make GP2 take the chest wig and medallion off when he goes out.

70 I heard a nasty story about a big bird pecking out GP eyes. Be careful birds can be nasty to GPs.

We had a pair of magpies in the garden a coupe of years ago which happily took on our visiting fox.

EEK- silver was it a bird indoors with a free range GP or a free range GP and a wild bird?

My hogs were in their outdoor run ,DH said that GP2 was between GP1 and the bars. The magpie was hopping round on the grass.

GP2 did skip out of the way but we weren't close enough to see clearly.
I did check him over, no grazes or wounds.

At the risk of being a doom and gloom merchant 70, I think the magpie was after GP2.

Not so long ago my Old Boy was freeranging in the back garden and magpie landed less than 8 feet away from him. IMO it had evil intent. I shooed it away but brazen thing just flew over the fence into front garden instead .

Glad to hear GP2 wasn't harmed.

Yep I can remember a magpie landing on the roof of my GP's run and pecking at it in a nasty way. We put a large rock on top of the roof so there was no way the lid could be prised open....nasty magpies, I hate them!

All corvids are very intelligent birds and quite opportunistic. Magpies are pretty big and can be fairly fearless. It's not their fault. It's just sort of the way they are - no harm intended.

But yes, they CAN cause harm to small furries, so make absolutely sure any outdoor runs are absolutely secure. Close shave for poor GP2!

The pigs didn't go out today or yesterday (too rainy) but I've got an old shower curtain that I secure with clothespegs.
I can fasten this and their thick platic sheet sunshield (will probably need another shower curtain come to think of it) but I can protect all the sides.
The height of the run is rabbit-standing-up-on-hind-legs-height so that will be fine.
It's pegged to the lawn with long 'tent pegs'

GP2 is such a docile little thing (well 99% of the time, odd fight is exception) but he's lost one of his Guinea lives now.

Hi, we had a similar problem with jackdaws and the guineas last year - the noise from outside was tremendous! The only thing to do is cover them up with something, or have a place where they can run and hide, lots of igloos. Ours have free range in the shed where they can free range behind hay bales etc. One of our girls, was, literally petrified for about half an hour after such an attack, so I kept her in the house with us for a few days, she was 'stiff' with fear. Good luck with solving the problem, I always say the more shelter and cover the better.

Magpies would definitely go for a guinea pig - I've had a group of them on at mine. I'd got an old boy, Theo, in one run and a couple of three week olds in another run. They went for Theo first and the old boy just sat in the middle of the run and looked at them, as if to say "I'm protected by this wire force field you morons, you shall not touch me". Then they started hastling the baby boys so I had to step in; only because the stupid piggies were trying to bite the magpies back!