Darn those rats...and I'm so proud of my dog!

[Black Feather]

Well, I still have rats under my coop. I started closing the doors to the coop at night and wouldn't you know it, the little buggers chewed a small hole along the baseboard of the coop and got in that way.

Last weekend I wired along the baseboards of the coop and doors with hardware cloth. That seemed to do the trick for a night or two. Then one morning I went into the coop (before sunrise) and there were three of them in there! My German Shepherd dog came in after me and killed on right off, the other two got away through the open door. I'm sooo proud of her, she ignores the ducks on the floor and takes out the rat, what a good girl

I found out that they were getting in through the eaves of the coop and dropping into the pens. Of course they could not get out as easily so were trapped until I opened the door.

Hmmmm....not quite sure what my next step is going to be. For starters wire in the eaves. Maybe clean the coop entirely and remove all food at night until the rats move out. They're very determined, that's for sure!

So far I've seen four all told, and killed two.

Urban Coyote

 

[TheMartianChick]

What a good shepherd, you have!! I'm quite partial to them, since we have a 14 year old one.

Is your coop raised? If not, could you cement around the coop or something? Do you have any cats that patrol your property? Maybe a cat would help, when coupled with removing the food at night. Maybe Miss Prissys' special mouse plaster of paris method would help. I don't know if it works with rats or not.

I certainly hope that the rats go away... they are nasty critters!

 

[chicknmania]

I wish our shepherd mix would kill the rats She comes in the barn with us but I think she thinks they're supposed to be there. And I think our cats are afraid of them. Our dachsund is no help, either.

 

[Black Feather]

WooHooo.....Happy Valentines Day to me!

Tala (my shepherd) killed another rat in the coop this morning! It was a bigger one than any of the others. I think this may have been the one who left the bigger set of tracks I've been seeing in the snow. It bit Tala on the lip though so the battle wasn't without it's casualties. It had gotten into an empty room in the coop. Tala was very intently sniffing at the door this morning, so I let her in and sure enough there was a pretty big rat in there (big by the standards of my place anyway). The problem was I had a whole bunch of my insulation in there so it took a while to get the little bugger dug out and "taken care of". I couldn't help a whole lot either as I had to stay by the door to prevent it's escape.

Anyway, 4 rats down. I hope there aren't too many more.

Urban Coyote

 

[jjthink]

In a coop I once tended, it wasn't until we replaced all the insulation (because the rats had taken up residence in there), put new in and then covered the floor and maybe 5 inches of wall up from the floor with hardware cloth that the rats took a hike, never to get in again. They couldn't drop in from above because we had the vents screened. And they no longer could chew their way in from the bottom. It works. (and they didn't stroll in in broad daylight when the door was open). We should have done the hardware cloth sooner instead of spending countless hours cleaning up after them each morning, trying repellents and hav-a-harts etc. Fortress was what worked.
JJ

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Cujo killed ratrs and so does our other dogs. We have them trying to get to the feed. They are a big problem up here because of the big houses who leave out food for the bears "which they should not be doing!" un

 

[newchickowner]

leave out food for the bears?!?!?!?! what idots!!!!

Dumb spouse 1 :"Hey hon, that cute and cuddly bear looks hungry, let's leave out some food on our back porch and attract him to our household where we put not only ourselves in danger, but any pet or child we have living here. Oh and our neighbors and their pets and children as well. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

Dumb spouse 2 : "Yeah sure, that sounds great!"

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

It gets me so mad. They go thorugh our garbadge now. We never had a problem till they built up there. My neighbor has a 10' high bird feeder. She has been living here her whole life. The bears used to ignore it when the go thorugh her back yard. Now since they are so bold the bent the feeder down to the ground. I tried to talk to them but thye wont listen. I think most of our cats where killed by the bears. at least 3 where killed by them or have been rescued. So we have a huge rat problem and cant do nothing. Our neighbor told us that every day her cat brings a dead rat onto the table. the cat is an indoor cat.


Sorry for thread jacking

edited to add: I catch them in a hav-a-hart than euthanize fast with a pellet to the head.