Disposing of rat caught in live trap!!

[FloorCandy]

Sticky traps work well for cleaning up babies. As far as whether it was pregnant, I would say recently gave birth is more likely. If it was pregnant enough to have naked swollen nipples like that, it’s belly would be big as well since big rats usually have many babies. It would have been easier to tell when alive because the flesh is affected by position once dead. A live rat who just gave birth usually has extra droopy skin around the nipples, often 2 ridges of skin on the underside one on each row of nipples.

I dont know if there’s anything rats don’t like, but mice stay away if they know larger rodents live in an area. Pet rats are know to deter mice, and I saw first hand that mice crossed the room to avoid my hamster cages, when I lived in a large building in the city, so I started putting pieces of used hamster bedding at entry points (like doors and vents that couldn’t be blocked) to funnel them into snap traps.

Rats are the worst, it’s hard with poultry because an easy solution is adopting a feral barn cat, or a ratting breed of dog, but these solutions are harder to manage when you have prey animals you don’t want attacked.

 

[MistyandLuna]

Drowning is not humane in my opinion.

I agree.

 

[cmom]

Rats will travel some too. I had a coop that was infested with nests in the walls. I took the ceiling and walls out and when I started demolition, dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. I did see tunnels around the coops which I assume were rat tunnels. I put my bait stations in my barn which is behind some of the coops. I put the bait that came with the bait stations in them but the rats didn't seem interested so I tried another bait and they love it. The baits haven't been touched in awhile. The thing I like about the bait stations is, there is a little window above the bait so it can be checked daily. I didn't and haven't found any dead rats around. I assume they all went into their tunnels and died.You may have a safe place you can place the bait stations with no risk if you have some sort of out building, most likely they are out in it too. This is the one I have @14.99 refillable rat bait station. I recently ordered two on this link for 2/$16.49. They are not the refillable but are the disposable rat bait stations. I think it's a trick to get people to order two. I fell for it. I didn't pay attention and thought wow what a deal not paying attention that they were not the refillable ones. I got had. I put them out in the barn. I'm going to see if I can fix them to be refillable and safe. Good luck...
https://www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Kille...words=rat+bait+stations&qid=1597182813&sr=8-5

 

[hayley3]

Drowning is not humane in my opinion.

I didn't like it either. I couldn't shoot it in the cage I am using...the barrel won't even fit in there.

 

[hayley3]

Rats will travel some too. I had a coop that was infested with nests in the walls. I took the ceiling and walls out and when I started demolition, dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. I did see tunnels around the coops which I assume were rat tunnels. I put my bait stations in my barn which is behind some of the coops. I put the bait that came with the bait stations in them but the rats didn't seem interested so I tried another bait and they love it. The baits haven't been touched in awhile. The thing I like about the bait stations is, there is a little window above the bait so it can be checked daily. I didn't and haven't found any dead rats around. I assume they all went into their tunnels and died.You may have a safe place you can place the bait stations with no risk if you have some sort of out building, most likely they are out in it too. This is the one I have @14.99 refillable rat bait station. I recently ordered two on this link for 2/$16.49. They are not the refillable but are the disposable rat bait stations. I think it's a trick to get people to order two. I fell for it. I didn't pay attention and thought wow what a deal not paying attention that they were not the refillable ones. I got had. I put them out in the barn. I'm going to see if I can fix them to be refillable and safe. Good luck...
https://www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Kille...words=rat+bait+stations&qid=1597182813&sr=8-5

I normally buy poison cubes at the feed store. Last night I put out 12 cubes and they were all gone this morning. I bet the rat I caught was on her way out from the poison.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I think drowning a rat is much more humane than using a sticky pad and allowing them to chew their own limbs off trying to escape. It's a friggin rat.

 

[FluffyBottomBantams]

Perhaps there is a way you could just release it somewhere far from your coop like the woods or a park? It’s already in a live trap, why kill it now?

 

[hayley3]

Sticky traps work well for cleaning up babies. As far as whether it was pregnant, I would say recently gave birth is more likely. If it was pregnant enough to have naked swollen nipples like that, it’s belly would be big as well since big rats usually have many babies. It would have been easier to tell when alive because the flesh is affected by position once dead. A live rat who just gave birth usually has extra droopy skin around the nipples, often 2 ridges of skin on the underside one on each row of nipples.

I dont know if there’s anything rats don’t like, but mice stay away if they know larger rodents live in an area. Pet rats are know to deter mice, and I saw first hand that mice crossed the room to avoid my hamster cages, when I lived in a large building in the city, so I started putting pieces of used hamster bedding at entry points (like doors and vents that couldn’t be blocked) to funnel them into snap traps.

Rats are the worst, it’s hard with poultry because an easy solution is adopting a feral barn cat, or a ratting breed of dog, but these solutions are harder to manage when you have prey animals you don’t want attacked.

My yorkie would love to catch them. She climbs in my cabinets after mice...she is that determined!

 

[microchick]

Let me add to the excellent post by @cmom that rodents can become resistant to bait.

I'm currently finishing up a bucket of Tom Cat bait. It works but I recently found 4 fat mice that had set up housekeeping in my bait holder and were happily getting fat on the bait.

I ordered Ramik yesterday. I've used it before with good results.

About the holders. Make sure you can fasten them down so they cannot be carried off by a pet. I had a concrete block sitting on one to keep it from growing legs and a tail and walking away. My husband one morning found our Jack Russell/border collie mix girl dog in the pasture happily trying to chew her way into the trap. No idea how she got it out from under the concrete block but she did. What ensued was a call to a veterinary poison control center ran by the ASPCA who talked me through the whole ordeal. The treatment was oral peroxide which our dog was not thrilled about. It took me three ounces to get one ounce down her and the resulting volcano to make sure she hadn't ingested any poison. Gratefully she hadn't but she still had to take a weeks worth of vitamin K to prevent anything she didn't chuckup from hurting her.

We both learned a lesson. She doesn't show much interest in the bait holders and I now put them in my have a heart traps and my wire cage so she can't get them out and try to chew her way into them again.

Never under estimate the determination of a mouse loving dog or cat when it comes to handling bait. I won't even get into children and other such animals.

Also on a curiosity side of things. Do chickens eat poisoned mice? I've never seen my birds touch a dead by poison mouse. I've seen them chase down live mice resulting in me having to chase down the chicken involved and removing it from her beak but if my birds encounter a soon to be dead from poison mouse, they give out their alert danger danger call and make a wide circle around it. They can sense what is wrong, I swear! Last night I picked up a dead mouse in the bachelor run. Those boys are like Mikey, they will eat anything but they hadn't touched the mouse.

I wish our dogs were that smart!

As for humane and inhumane. Let's face it guys, death by poison isn't exactly an easy death either but it's us or them as the saying goes. As for rodent death by drowning...yeah, I've entered my coop to find a mouse swimming around their heated water dish in the winter. Do I rescue it? Nope. I turn away, get busy for a few minutes, then dump the victim and the water outside. No death is humane, nor is it humane for rats to chew the toes off of chicks or hens while they are asleep at night. They are vermin. Pure and simple. They spread disease and are the primary vector for Lyme carrying mice and Bubonic Plague.

Makes me wonder how many do a few laps in the water bowl for exercise and escape to breed another day....

 

[birdlover2]

I think drowning a rat is much more humane than using a sticky pad and allowing them to chew their own limbs off trying to escape. It's a friggin rat.

I think neither are very humane, and I like what @FloorCandy said about dogs and cats for population control and think they would kill in a more humane way. Getting a good dog to protect your flock is always a good idea. Of course they have to be properly trained or trainable and the right breed might help. You may also loose some chickens in the training process, but the dog if it's the right dog could save more chickens in the long run. I don't know if I would risk a possible loss of chickens myself...and I really don't know much about training a livestock dog and others on here would know more. Cats are much less of a threat to chickens. My mother's cats stalked her chickens at first but when they got a few good pecks on the head they knew to never bother them again. They may be more of a problem with chicks, but a good broody hen to protect them could help prevent cat attacks, and I've never lost a chicken or chick for that matter to a cat. Of course chicks were usually contained and kept seperate from the other chickens till older and big enough to where a cat wouldn't think about trying to get them. A good roo could also deter cats from attacking his flock. I've heard before that cats can kill rats, but seeing as they're bigger than mice and dangerous to even humans, could a cat plausibly get hurt by one?