Hey People. Just a few hours ago, I was sitting at the couch minding my own business. I was munching on some delicious pineapple watching the latest special of The Amazing Johnathan on Comedy Central. All of the sudden, just completely out of the blue, a weasel just hops his way into the room. How random was that? My first reaction was whoa. This guy was fearless too, I mean he had no fear of walking right up to me and just giving me a dead stare. I kept shooing him away and after a few minutes he kinda just went away. Wanna know the funny part? I didn't really think much of it. Every now and then like a chipmunk or something just kinda lets themselves in. No one really knows how they get in but oh well. wahtever. Sooo...there I am...laa dee daa...watching johnathan making fun of psychic tanya. Then all of my birds start shrieking for some reason. Once again thinking nothing of it. Kinda stupid on my part. And then my sister pops out of her room and is yelling out "SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH A PARAKEET!" I run upstairs to the 'keets and theres that weasel....gnawing on a parakeet! I was like OH. MY... GOD! I didn't know waht to do! He has his nose right through the cage and there was feathers and blood everywhere. Eventually I grabbed a broom and kinda swatted him across the other side of the room. I set up a bunch of mouse traps and one of those rodent trap things, whatever you call them. I cut up a small piece of meat from the fridge and placed it in the trap. Unfortunatly the little *** figured out how to get the meat out the cage and ran off with it. I took the cages out of the room and locked him in. Amazingly the parakeet lived! She lost a lot of blood, feathers, and has several flesh wounds. Shes even crawling up and down her cage as if nothing happend. Ive called an exterminator to get rid of it because the traps are not working. He really was a weasel!! Has this ever happend to anyone ever? I am ever so curious to know! Thanks for reading my long sad story.

I have not had a problem in the house, but I was outside with the doves in the aviary when the doves started to scatter everywhere flying into the sides of the aviary. I couldn't figure out what was wrong... then all of the parrots in the sunroom of the house started acting the same. I refer to the parrots as my alarm system as they alert me to anything out of the ordinary. So I kept looking trying to figure out was wrong then I saw it in the tree tops... A huge hawk! And it flew down to the avairy and tried ripping at the wire every way it could to get to the doves. And me still in the avairy too, it did not seem phased by me at all.! I guess he was determined to get a meal. But not here. It finally gave up and flew away.

Steve, your post is why lots of people need to understand why letting Doves (NOT HOMING PIGEONS) loose at weddings is a bad thing. Hawks are notorious for attacking and consuming them. Doves have no defense mechanism, and being white puts them on the "front lines". They are domesticated flying machines (doves), and can't survive in the wild.

back to the topic - yes, those scattered seeds will attract unwanted critters. That is why if having an aviary outdoors isbest to keep it off the ground about 6 inches and that will reduce some of the unwanted pests. Not all, but some. Never dealt with a weasel before, and actually have never seen one in person, but I would guess they are as bad, if not worse, than squirrels. I had a squirrel problem one time with all the seeds at my last home because I had a forrest out back and they would do anything they could to get to the seeds. They wound up in my fire place shaft and came home one night and the living room was destroyed! The couch was torn to shreds, and I found the little grey nuisance in my curtains....he wasn't happy to be there, and neither was I. After a few baseball swings and misses, I think I destroyed just as much stuff as it did. Finally, I opened the door and he literally jumped off the balcony (3 stories) and bound of into the woods.

There is some stuff that you can put in with the seeds, I forget what its called (Dave or Bob may know), but it doesn't hurt the doves, but squirrels hate the taste and will leave.

Ah well...the life of a bird magician! We could write a book!

??? http://www.squirrelproof.ca/

"Gardens." It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel. ~The Simpsons by Matt Groening

Any other stories that anyone would like to share?

I once had a cat sit on top of my dove cage in my house. How in the world the cat knew how to get in for the doves, only the feline knows. Plus, livin in a high rise flat, you almost never get cats on the higher floors. All she did was sit on top of the cage and meowed at me. Best part, my doves were calmy eating their seeds. Shhooo-ed the cat away and the day went on. How she got in, now that's magic!