Yeah I hear you, I've been through that too but not this way, so I get why you don't want to chance it. Can you get a Feral barn cat? My home was abandoned for 2 years before I bought it and had a big rat problem. I put a dent in the problem with poison but then to ensure it didnt happen again I adopted Feral barn cats. It's been 9years with zero rat issues, really works.
Sorry about your dog. Sounds like she got into something that wasn't stored properly.
We do have a cat. He's actually quite the avid hunter. So avid, that he spends most of his time hunting squirrels, chipmunks, bats, birds, the occasional mole, but not the rats!
Sorry, it's not fun that's for sure! Can you set up a cam to see what's happening so no more guessing.... ? That might really help you to strategize.Sounds like I've got a serious problem
This is true, I've never seen my Ferals "eat" a rat. They play with, kill and eat mice and moles. But rats don't come around because they are scared of the 2 cats (I have a total of 3 Feral cats, 2 on the backside of my coop and one close to my truck and hot tub (rat's ate my truck wires twice and a hot tub.) I don't think that one cat will solve the problem, they are just the control you put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again, post rat-war. You're going to have to take out the problem yourself. Guns work. Dogs "help." The only options are get rid of them and/or make your coop totally bomb/rat proof. I poured a concrete with hardwire "skirt" around my coop. Even then I found a hole about 6months post-war and because it went under my coop where no other animals could get it I shoved a bait brick down it and filled it in. No sign of them since getting the cat patrol. I could "smell" that I solved the problem when I did. If you can find where they are coming from it helps. I had seen them darting in and out of a pile of railroad ties so I guess that was a very lucky thing for me that I could put bait under the ties and no dog or cat could get it. In total I put bait under my coop and under the ties. Just to make sure though, I put up a temporary fence so my dogs could not get to the railroad ties.We do have a cat. He's actually quite the avid hunter. So avid, that he spends most of his time hunting squirrels, chipmunks, bats, birds, the occasional mole, but not the rats!
He seemed interested the other day, but I have yet to see him actually kill one.
Those are notorious killers. Just don't see one eating eggs and and leaving the birds alone.
We've had a Mink kill 27 birds in just 2 days. They suck the blood out of them on their neck and leave the dead body. It would be weird for the Mink to want the eggs and not the birds
