Brown rats took all

[animals1981]

Okay we have guard dogs so dont worry about predators much. BUT i had my coop bullet proof even had fencing down one foot in the ground. Just in case we leave and the dogs arent there (holiday)

Brown rats have dug all the way under into the shed. All my quail and my expensive pigeons are dead. The guineas are untouched or not even scared actually they attack the rats but dont kill them.


My cat caught onto this i started feeding my cat in the coop and shes killed 10. They are doing work on the sewers which is making it hell. Squirrels also trying to get in roof and wreck it. The cat has slowed down the infestation. Dogs are too slow to catch them. I just wish i had one more cat like this to help out. The other day cat got a live one brought it in the house and i heard screaming. I freakaed out i thought a ferret got out and my dog was killing it. It was just a huge rat getting strangled. Traps dont work i tried every kind. I have 3 ferrets. I dont know if they would do any good though?

 

[PirateGirl]

I just caution that if you use ferrets, do not let them get near the surviving birds as they will kill the birds as well.

I have found my cat to be the best thing for rodent control as well. It's crazy (and horrible) how some rodents can scream when caught.

Hopefully others who have had an infestation can give you more advice.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

You tried the Dunk the rat trap.. with a large trash can and adjustable walk the plank, might work better than the ones you have been trying. All the snap traps I have used have required ME to dispatch most who were caught. And my electronic one catches very few.

Ferrets are veracious hunters.

Maybe work to teach the guineas that the rats are actually food?

It sounds very frustrating. Sorry for your loss.

Maybe consider putting hardware cloth on the floor, attached to the other fence you said is dug down?

I also have read about baking soda working really well to kill them off... With too many possibilities of other poisons getting to my own animals in addition to understanding they are a part of the natural environment which I LOVE seeing in tact... I do my part to not offer an open buffet and trapping but I WON'T use standard poisons. This will be an approach I will be adding to my trapping...

https://www.ratrelief.com/does-baking-soda-kill-rats/

Now I don't claim it to be humane. It sounds quite painful and is supposed to work by bloating them and rodents can't pass gas. It will work on the squirrels to. But sometimes we gotta do what we've got to.

 

[animals1981]

ferrets are much weaker than the cat though, i dont think they can take on a guinea, they arent strong like minks. I think they have been bred like this.

 

[animals1981]

baking soda i had no idea is it harmful to birds? i put it on the floor to clean my house lol

 

[animals1981]

I am not very trap savvy but i tried the sticky stuff then the classic large rat trap then the metal ones where the rat goes in to eat and gets trapped, kinda like trapping feral cats. None worked. I only feed birds during day and then its gone. I did catch a few mice.

 

[animals1981]

Can we teach guineas to kill the rats? I WISH

 

[animals1981]

squirrels are under control i got my cat up in the roof area where they were messing around they lfet wont be back lol

 

[Northern.Ontario]

ferrets are much weaker than the cat though, i dont think they can take on a guinea, they arent strong like minks. I think they have been bred like this.

Ferrets will kills cats

 

[EggSighted4Life]

baking soda i had no idea is it harmful to birds? i put it on the floor to clean my house lol

It is not harmful to animals that can pass gas. I would still do it outside the coop area though. Just not worried about the rats dropping pieces the birds might get.

I plan to leave my can dry with a small amount of grain to keep them from screaming and warning their friends not to join the party... Maybe I will use my electronic trap to quickly dispatch instead of drowning them in another bucket... Faster is better, and I wouldn't have to worry about the E trap attracting NOT attracting others due to off and smell if it's only a dispatch device. (too the rats)

Some people might even make a maggot bucket to turn the rats into chicken feed. (not sure about other avian set ups). Too many of my neighbors still use rat poison so I won't do that.... but have.

Using standard rat traps... I can catch a couple per week off and on. Even had them try to eat one of their own that had been caught in the trap. I like the ones with the bigger plastic pedal simply because they are SLIGHTLY less scary and easier to set.

Good luck! Keep fighting the good fight... Most people who have fought rats say the only way to rid them is real poison.

Being in California... regulations are pretty tight. When I lived in the city... they sat up bait stations and stated that secondary animals, even though they may consume the whole rat would not be impacted. The poisons that kill really well... no longer available here.