Urine use

[musher]

I have really cut back on my urine use. The main reason is snowshoe hares. They come to the sets when you use urine unless your location is really wide open with no overhead cover.

Don't deer work your salty urine sets?

[trappincoyotes39]

I use little as jacks and having 96,000 head of cattle in this county makes it tough, only in areas void of cattle and areas with limited jacks, other wise a small measure of lure/bait and being on location cut's down on non targets and cattle sprung traps.

[trappnman]

deer- not really a problem- and we got em'- but I get very few sets nessed with by deer- and those that aree- can be solved by moving the set a short distabce away.

maybe because of all the cows around here- urine isn't that big an attraction?

as far as rabbits- if you are making a hole set with cottontails, and this seemed to hold true with jacks ( caught them w or w/o urine, and yes a pain!) - urine use doesn't really matter.

[bobwendt]

out of ssaay a 100 trap line over 200 miles I catch a rabbit or two daily, probably another det or 2 flipped and empty, and expect 7-8 coyotes or 30 fox out of those 100 traps, pending fox or coyote ground. heavy pee use at every set. re -making 3-5 sets to rabbits a day, the choice is easy for me.

[trappnman]

agreed

[trappincoyotes39]

Hole sets will attract rabbits, in those areas flat sets are the norm or I make my hole sets blended into sage or yucca plants, it seems the rabbits have a harder time seeing them. Deer like alot of lure and so do antelope. You can't get around it all for sure, but in high areas of jacks, urine use causes problems for me. Way less with smaller lure amounts and flat sets. Some areas you just can't get around the jacks, your going to catch some.

I don't see urine as the needed item at too many sets to catch coyotes. A good bait or lure and being on location has really cut my urine useage. I have a few stout gland lures I'm sure have urine in them. Later in the winter and real early spring I make some urine set's, but limited amounts durring summer and fall. Many YOY coyotes in the fall that will work many agents and I can cut down on non targets with out it.

[stickbowhntr]

tthis thread will self destruct ...soon...Steve agreed with Bob...now thats saying something...look out the sky is falling...I must say , due to Bob's STRONG insistance to GOOD urine I tried some of the good stuff last 2 years and found on my LINE made a difference, never would have beleived it but since I did it it does work....made a beleiver of me.At double sets the rabbits in traps are a legal attractor then here ..lol...

[k9]

"One thing I have learned is Cotton mink are not genetically bred into a mink that is a wives tale. It is from being anemic due to an all fish diet. "

I worked a mink ranch for years, and it was common knowledge among mink ranchers that a high fish diet would lead to cotton mink. Now that does not mean it is the ONLY cause of cotton mink, but its very undesirable to feed fish in a ranch mink herd.

[trappnman]

k9 andm arky- I treid to find any research o nthis, but could not.

The only thing I read about the fish diet, was that a mixed diet, led to more "cushion" in the fur than an all fish diet, but cotton was never mentioned.

I don't know either way- cotton mink are very rare here- and becoming rarer all the time. My dad would get 1 or 2 every other year or so- and now, they are almost never caught by me- I think I've had 1 in the last 15 years.

And fish are a primary diet item here- so much so, that its a major problem in a couple of brown trout radio programs- the mink keep eating their tagged trout.

for sure, diet effects thing- rats on the creeks for example, have an entirely different leather that rats on the big marshes.

k9- are you saying, that individual mink that are born not cotton- will become cotton after eating a mostly fish diet? and if so- couldn't you just change the feed, and that mink would then be normal the following year?

[k9]

That is a good question Steve. In theory it should have something to it. I did not have to deal with cotton ranch mink because we fed a good diet. I am not sure a guy can even just blame fish. I think a high egg diet does the same if I remember right. I think it is like all else, too much of one thing, fish or otherwise is a bad thing. So to say that only fish is the culprit, might be short sighted in the long run.

I think there are various reasons a mink might be cotton.

In a ranch like we had, with thousands of mink, a less than desirable mink would just get pelted rather than carry it over to the next year.

It was interesting to me when I first started reading about Bob's experience feeding too much deer meat to his penned foxes. Makes good sense to me that this would burn them out.

Variety is the spice of life. -

[Danny Clifton]

I'd hate to give up urine use. Especially for cats. Makes em stay at the set a bit longer moving those feet around. I get a coyote that seems a bit shy around bait or lure I make a type of lured blind set. Bedding and blending a trap in a trail. On one side of the trap goes some good pee the other side gets a dropping. Pretty rare to get a coyote that won't stop and sniff around.

[bobm]

Interesting conversation about cotton mink. We have a high percentage here just West of the Twin Cities. Though I don't trap a lot of mink (20+ in my best year) I would guess that 25-30% of my mink are cotton.
I talked to Tim Caven about this once and he said that I live in a part of the State where there are a very high percentage of them.
In my best year I had a set that produced 5 mink during the season and everyone of them was cotton.
I've trapped this area for over 30 years and the percentage of them seems to stay the same.

[makete]

Cotton mink? Please explain what that is.

[trappnman]

Marky- does he have an email?

so does cotton go back and forth? that is, does a new diet reverse it?

[furman]

Iron deficiency in a minks diet = cotton mink

[furman]

I have info on it some where but we have a 17 week old baby and I’m being Mr. Mom the wife went back to work today and we work separate shifts so in-between a crying baby and work I’ll try to dig up the info.

[trappnman]

I'd be very interested.

We have so few in this area- I always thought it had to be a genetic recessive trait.

So- I wonder why then, that 1 or 2 mink out of a population is cotton?

I wonder if cotton is both a recessive trait- and one brought out by iron deficentcy? or somethin'?

[furman]

I had a study somewhere and I can’t find it but I found some info in a book I had They said that if the fish that you are feeding have trimethlyaminoxide (TMAO) it‘s breakdown products can prevent normal utilization of the iron found in the feed
If that makes any sense to anyone?

I do know that we have a low number of cotton mink in our area but if you look some of the mink are somewhat spot cotton where you can find some white under fur just in a few small spots on the body.

I’ve been told to take cottons and soak them in coffee before you skin them and it will hide the white under fur to the buyer. But I know no upstanding trapper would dupe a fur buyer like that.