Note that I only have two container tomatoes (and have containers of seeds planted for squash, cucumber, and peas).

Now I get why people plant huge rows of crops. It must be less devastating when you lose a single tomato (or plant) to nature.

Pick em as soon as they show color. The big one low to the ground could have been eatin by a few different critters.

One year, during a dry spell, I lost a bunch of tomatoes with bite marks just like yours. I caught a groundhog taking 1 bite out of every ripe tomato he could reach. He wasn't trying to eat them, he was getting a drink! ARGGGG.

The fix was work, but very simple. They are diggers, so I had to dig a ditch around the garden, set the fence down into it, and I back filled with rocks. He had to belly-up to another bar.

You can also set out a have-a-heart trap. I've had good luck with apples smeared with peanut butter as bait.

I've picked the remaining yellow/orange/redish tomatoes. What should I do about the rest since it seems he is stealing ones when still green (clearly he is ripening them elsewhere, lol ;)?

Will a dish of water and some nuts in another corner of the yard be a bad idea until I get up something like wire mesh and/or summerweight row cover to wrap around the pots?

that could be bird damage as well.

So I put a dish of water and some nuts out there with the half eaten tomato (hoping to distract the squirrel for today as I figure out a better approach) and in about 25 minutes birds have eaten all of the nuts and it looks like maybe some more of the tomato :-/ . I'm also seeing a couple of bird droppings on both tomato cages now that I think about it.

It could be either squirrel or bird or both. The completely disappearing SunGolds with clean break stems are the only thing leading me to think that it would be a squirrel (or mouse? rat?). Seems like birds would have trouble being that neat about the SunGolds (left literally no trace rather than pecking).

Birds do that too. Just for the juice of it as water.
Leave some water in bowls (or anything like that) near your plants. mke sure there is plenty of water in it
I have already started it, trying to train the birds to know where the water is so when my tomatoes ripen they won't touch them.
Also, as suggested , pick the maters at color break and let them fully ripen on the kitchen counter (NO direct sun !). After color break, ripening is what happens in the fruit itself, without any assistance from the plant.

Sey

Also fruit eating birds that do not need to raid for water can do it too. I sometimes see a mockingbird sitting on the wall or fence with a chunk of red tomato in its beak. Solution: grow them a share too and let things be...

grubby, I second that idea. I suppose though, that those growing for a living have a different perspective.

I always grow enough to share, except for the deer, who don't believe in sharing. They will raze my whole bean crop right to the ground. That is why I have an electric fence. :) I really like the mockingbirds that I have around until they eat my first ripe tomato that I missed seeing. I usually have to stand on my head to see them but they always find it.

You mention the you are in the suburbs... so I have to say this ... to all of the other animals mentioned you have to add rats.

With the increase in backyard composting (aka rat feeding stations) the domestic rat populations of many suburban areas has skyrocketed.

Until you are sure of the culprit you may be best off with a simple barrier, 1/4 or 1/2 inch galvanized mesh can be had at most home improvement stores and will stop most anything shorter than a deer...

Yeah Rats. I have had first hand experience dealing with them in the past.
Bates, traps ( humane or other forms ) can be very effective.

Sey

Thank you for all of your help! I went out this morning and found the squirrel running away from inside our yard and discovered none other than the half eaten tomato teetering on the fence where he scampers to and fro. Currently he's my prime suspect. (Thought about rats and raccoons as well before I saw him). I think either way I will look into setting up wire mesh and hope it solves it.

Mesh works. It's just a big pain when you water and pick the tomatoes. It's OK if you just have a couple plants though.