# Running into an egg and grain eating issue



## BlueMoonFarms (Oct 11, 2013)

My mara wont stop eating the eggs and the dang grain! I have made the entrance smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and then so small that the ducks can JUST make there way into the pen, and mara, like a flipping snake, pushes, pulls, scratches and forces herself into the pen to steal all the eggs and suck up the grain.
I have caught her twice and thrown her out, so now she wont go in it as far as I can see, but yet eggs are still vanishing...
My blasted brand new hens have been laying there eggs for a month now, and yet i find no eggs but yolk on the dog!
Grr...
And to top it off when we feed the sheep and they spill there bucket over a scuffel or something Mara will shoot over, lay on the grain and growl until they leave her alone to lick up the grain. She licks the ground until the grass vanishes 
Of course we yell and shoo her away when ever we think shes about to run up and steal it, and then when the sheep loose interest thats when we let her do what she pleases.
She is also anything but starving, she and her sister eats six cups of food a day, plus half a can of wet food and any left overs we have. (currently pumpkin stew) They also get raw bones every few weeks when they clean out the one they had previously.
Shes also a  Klepto! Anything not nailed into the ground, and even that she has stolen it, she will steal and eat....For example, in the past two months she has stolen:
A head of cabbage, a box of nails, four of my phones *yes i'm serious...* a mail box post and all, multiple garden tools, the goats leashes, the chickens water dish, a garden bag full of tomatoes, my sheep stick, the post to the fence, the hay net full of hay, my feed cups *which she purposefully leaps up into to bump it so I spill the grain* the hose, a bag of freshly dug up potatoes, my hoof knife *I put it down for a second to get a better grip on my bucks hoof and went back to it, it was gone...Though immediately I retrieved it* a hammer, and a saw...
Most of these things we were able to retrieve back the second she swiped them...However the head of cabbage, box of nails, and the saw has yet to be found...
Is there anything I can do to keep her from stealing eggs, obsessing over the grain, and  stealing things?

Now, to be very fair on Mara, these are really minute amusing things that she is doing, and although they are beginning to become annoying it could be so so much worse and I am so fully aware of that. this is just a rant, since today she stole my fence cutters right from behind me, and then she tried to lift the bucket of zip ties, ugh...
Kleptomaniac...


----------



## bcnewe2 (Oct 11, 2013)

All my lgd's were kelptos!   They'd even go to the neighbors and steal their things! We'd get shoes, jackets, gloves and anything that wasn't nailed down. Not so much posts or tools that  were laying around, nut people things.  Clothes were their speicality! 

We had 2 in CO that would collect everything, we'd call it their booty and every morning the border collies would go plunder the booty!  At that time we were living on 40+ acres of a hoarders junkyard. We were cleaning it up. You never knew what they were going to bring home!  

Jesse our Anatolian that we have now steals things too! Hoses are her favorite!  

It's the opposite here with grain and the dog. My sheep are always trying to steal Jesse's dog food. So much so that I have to sit there while she eats.  I have another dog hold the sheep off her so she doesn't have to fend of the sheep while she eats.

How bout feeding the sheep and the dog at the same time. That way maybe the dog will be busy eating her own dinner while the sheep eat theirs!

I give Jesse one egg a day with dinner. She hasn't really bothered the other eggs. But she's not really in an area that she can get to the eggs with out a huge hassle so we've been lucky so far! I got nothing for that one except to say if their head can fit through then the rest will too!


----------



## BlueMoonFarms (Oct 11, 2013)

bcnewe2 said:
			
		

> All my lgd's were kelptos!   They'd even go to the neighbors and steal their things! We'd get shoes, jackets, gloves and anything that wasn't nailed down. Not so much posts or tools that  were laying around, nut people things.  Clothes were their speicality!
> 
> We had 2 in CO that would collect everything, we'd call it their booty and every morning the border collies would go plunder the booty!  At that time we were living on 40+ acres of a hoarders junkyard. We were cleaning it up. You never knew what they were going to bring home!
> 
> ...


If that's normal, then I wont mind AS much. though she ate my phones T_T...
I can live with a Klepto 

The grain, I can most defenitly do that, normaly she gets fed last, but I feed her at the same time then she will be way to busy! Eureka! 

I did however get an idea for the eggs that I am going to try.
Mara is highly intelligent. So if I spike a dozen or so eggs with hot sause and nasty hot yucky burn your mouth stuff, then she might connect that eggs are bad.
So, i'm going to go play easter bunny and decorate the yard and the nesting boxes with spikes duck eggs.  hopefully that will do the trick.

Though is anyone else has an idea I will be very happy to hear it!!


----------



## bcnewe2 (Oct 12, 2013)

Our funniest story was the time my DH had thrown off all his clothes and gotten in the hot tub (we use it as a cool tub in the summer) after a hard day of mowing.  Here comes the dogs! They greeted him then picked up all his clothes and off they went!  To funny!

Mine have never really chewed things up, I think it's the fun of taking it and loving it that makes them do it!  Jesse is my only dog who gets toys. She's the only one that doesn't chew anything up! But poor Jesse, the other dogs make quick time in stealing her toys. She stands there an lets them take anything they want...except her food.  

Gotta love these big ol' keptos!!  

Let us know how the hot sauce works.  I'm betting Jess would be smart enough to know it was a set up.  If it were me, I'd put the hot sauced eggs right where she steals the good ones. She won't be wondering where they came from that way!


----------



## BlueMoonFarms (Oct 12, 2013)

bcnewe2 said:
			
		

> Our funniest story was the time my DH had thrown off all his clothes and gotten in the hot tub (we use it as a cool tub in the summer) after a hard day of mowing.  Here comes the dogs! They greeted him then picked up all his clothes and off they went!  To funny!
> 
> Mine have never really chewed things up, I think it's the fun of taking it and loving it that makes them do it!  Jesse is my only dog who gets toys. She's the only one that doesn't chew anything up! But poor Jesse, the other dogs make quick time in stealing her toys. She stands there an lets them take anything they want...except her food.
> 
> ...


Hehe oh goodness XD Someone needed help afterwords!

Well, I took three of the eggs, filled it with hot sauce, whisky, mayonnaise and vinegar, then put them around the chicken coop as well as made the hole even smaller. My poor ducks had a fit this morning.
But anyway, she investigated all three, stole and ate one, barfed it up, then cracked and left the other, and carried the last off and left it by the edge of the property.
My husband picked it up this morning, and she must have forgotten that they were nasty because when he set it down she stole it, ate it, then spat it out and began drooling and shaking her head. So, every night i'm going to put the eggs back in the same spot as the yummy eggs and see if she catches on. 
I would think after biting into three nasty eggs she wouldn't want to touch another egg to be safe. Hopefully she is smart and leaves them alone! last thing I need is a dog with a taste for whisky and hot sauce


----------



## MDres (Oct 12, 2013)

Ya'll definitely have some entertaining dogs! 

My Anatolian has done some silly things, but nothing on the level you are describing!


----------



## bcnewe2 (Oct 12, 2013)

My luck would be the dog who loves whiskey and sauce!
Let's see how long it takes her to give up her egg habit! Did you put the stuff inside the egg? I'd like to do that to a few people I know just for fun! 
I swear Jesse definitely has a sense of humor!


----------



## fluttervale (Oct 12, 2013)

Have you tried an invisible fence?  Depending on the size of the building, and how close she needs to get to guard it, you could put a very small invisible fence around the building or the entrances that she should not be using, and let her zap herself.


----------



## Robbin (Oct 12, 2013)

My Toli takes and chews everything.  4X4s, aluminum lawn furniture, Potted plants, hoses, all kinds of sticks.   If you lose something, go up on the hill and look for it.  My boarder collie named Bandit, for a reason, destroyed a $240 dollar pair of binos and I cant tell you how many extension cords till he got a live one, burned a tooth to the gum, he stopped messing with wires after that.


----------



## BlueMoonFarms (Oct 12, 2013)

fluttervale said:
			
		

> Have you tried an invisible fence?  Depending on the size of the building, and how close she needs to get to guard it, you could put a very small invisible fence around the building or the entrances that she should not be using, and let her zap herself.


That is our last resort which I hope we wont have to resort to since we just spent a ton of money on electric fencing the buck in. Ugh...


----------



## bcnewe2 (Oct 12, 2013)

Guess we've been lucky with the chewing part. I always wondered why they didn't chew.  Jesse is the only one of my dogs that gets toys.  She's the only one that doesn't destroy them.  The border collies kill their toys in 10 minutes flat.  Even tennis balls get no chance unless Jesse steals them first!

The electric fencing sound  like a great last resort.  It works for us. Unless the sheep knock through it.  Then she follows her sheep.  My pyrs down in AR didn't respect electric but Jesse sure does. I think the trick is training them at a young age to it. 

4x4's and lawn furniture.... Kinda funny till its something you like! I'll keep counting my blessings.


----------



## treeclimber233 (Oct 12, 2013)

I was thinking you could run a hot wire across the opening the ducks use.  They probably will not get shocked as the feathers will insulate them.  After your dog gets shocked a few times she will probably stop going close to the wire.


----------

