A dog-owning couple have told of their concerns — and confusion — at finding a lump of mince laced with powder wedged in their front screen door.

They fear the meat is meant as a warning from someone living at or near their unit block where their canine companion, Abby, is the only resident dog.

But they said there had been no previous complaints about Abby, who they described as a sweetheart who rarely barks, and they are adamant she is not annoying any of their neighbours.

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Abby’s owners said they found the raw mince wedged in the screen door handle at their unit at Stones Corner, in Brisbane’s inner-southern suburbs, when they came home from a walk on August 10.

“We were home at the time the mince was placed, sitting in the living room right next to the front door,” they said in a post on Reddit.

“The screen door must have been almost shut but not fully closed, because when it happened we heard it click shut. Quietly and subtle. We brushed it off as the wind but about an hour later, after returning from Abby’s walk, we spotted the mince.

“It was positioned above the handle and well out of reach for our dog, Abby. This makes us think it was placed deliberately as a warning or deterrent.

“When we pulled it apart, we found a small amount of powdery residue hidden inside.”

They said an “unsettling” detail in the incident is that their front door cannot be seen from the street — meaning if Abby was targeted, it was by someone who knows where they live.

But they doubt a neighbour would target Abby, whose breed was not mentioned in the post, saying there have never been any complaints or notes left for them about the dog.

“You have to walk through a covered walkway, go up two separate staircases, and navigate two sections of apartments — even if someone saw us enter the block from the street, they’d still have to guess which apartment had a dog,” they said.

“Abby is an absolute sweetheart. She only barks when someone knocks, and even then it’s just a couple of startled woofs before she gets excited at the prospect of potential visitors.

“We always pick up after her, and she won’t even poop near home, so this isn’t about someone holding a grudge over that. We’ve been wracking our brains for hours trying to figure out why anyone would target her.”

But while at least one person commented of an eerily similar experience nearby, others had another possible — and far less sinister — explanation.

Several people commented that butcher birds, which nest in the area, are known to secrete food in odd hiding places, including impaling their prey on branches, and that some local residents feed the birds mince laced with a powder that makes it easier for them to digest.

“It could be the butcher birds I feed hiding their snacks, just a thought,” one person replied.

“They’ll hide food in your peg basket or TV aerial, random places ... a screen door is good for a butcher bird’s stash.

“Some people buy a white bird powder to make mince safer for wild birds. So that’s my guess ... bird powder-enriched mince hidden by a butcher bird for later on.”

And while the dog owners remarked that they were feeling far less worried by this possibility, they said they had reported the matter to police just in case — and were looking to install security cameras.