Egg eating pest?

[Momma*chicken]

There are many "types" of Rat's. This "could be" a non typical "type." I assumed that the pics were just so enlarged/close up I was still looking at rat but yeah it's not going to be possible until you put a Cam out there and get a definitive. Or get set up in a comfy chair willing to sit for a long time, shot gun by your side.... I smelled skunk around my coop for a few weeks and it concerned me but I never saw one or it's skat

I don't have a camera unfortunately. Maybe I might have to try just sitting and watching. Don't know if I have the patience for that lol

 

[mowin]

I don't have a camera unfortunately. Maybe I might have to try just sitting and watching. Don't know if I have the patience for that lol

A inexpensive game cam can be had for like money. Think there's some on Amazon for $50 if not less. Not brands I use, but some on here have them.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

A inexpensive game cam can be had for like money. Think there's some on Amazon for $50 if not less. Not brands I use, but some on here have them.

You can get a $20 amazon daytime cam if your wifi is close enough to where you stage it. My chicken cam is not a game cam even though I do have that too.

 

[Momma*chicken]

UPDATE:
IT IS RATS!! A couple days ago, my husband took some of the cinderblocks out of the foundation of the chicken coop and we found HUNDREDS of eaten eggs, a butt load of rat crap! He closed off the chickens to sleep only in the run because the rats made a hole in the floor of the coop, so he needed to rebuild the floor. They've been sleeping in the run for the last 3 days and he left the foundation of the coop open. Low and behold, that was enough for our cat to really get interested and we found a dead rat in our yard this morning with bite marks on the neck. I'm quite sure we've got an infestation. I'm not sure if our cat will be able kill the whole colony fast enough with how quickly they reproduce. I bought some rat poison, but haven't put it out yet. I'm still nervous. My cat and dog don't seem interested in eating the rats. Do you think it's safe to put the poison under the foundation and close it up so that they don't have access to poison?? Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[mowin]

UPDATE:
IT IS RATS!! A couple days ago, my husband took some of the cinderblocks out of the foundation of the chicken coop and we found HUNDREDS of eaten eggs, a butt load of rat crap! He closed off the chickens to sleep only in the run because the rats made a hole in the floor of the coop, so he needed to rebuild the floor. They've been sleeping in the run for the last 3 days and he left the foundation of the coop open. Low and behold, that was enough for our cat to really get interested and we found a dead rat in our yard this morning with bite marks on the neck. I'm quite sure we've got an infestation. I'm not sure if our cat will be able kill the whole colony fast enough with how quickly they reproduce. I bought some rat poison, but haven't put it out yet. I'm still nervous. My cat and dog don't seem interested in eating the rats. Do you think it's safe to put the poison under the foundation and close it up so that they don't have access to poison?? Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks! View attachment 3310363View attachment 3310364View attachment 3310365View attachment 3310366

Holy crap... I'd definitely put out the poison.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

YES poison. Seriously you won't get rid of them any other way unless you enlist an entire army of cats. Traps and other creative idea's only put a dent in the problem, they don't knock it out. The only reason they would eat poison and then leave the nest and die somewhere else which is what people worry about with pets - the idea that the pet will eat the rat and thus the poison - is the rat may search for water. So if you can keep your pets out of the coop and put a big bucket of water in there, you'll get floaters but you won't worry so much about the scenario that even though I've never seen or heard of it actually happening, is a valid concern.

 

[Yardmom]

Look into bucket traps. Just trying to think of a way to avoid poison with pets involved.

 

[WI chickens]

I would never use poison with all of the animals on our property, both domestic and wild.

I had one cat, a stray kitten actually, that killed an entire colony of rats in less than a week. I tried this buckets traps, snap traps, shooting them with my .22 pellet gun, I couldn't make a dent in them. A stray kitten moved into my coop with my chickens. She was very small and would nestle in right among the chickens, even going into nest boxes with them. She killed every last rat. Many of them were nearly as big as she was. When we moved to our new property, we took her with us. I couldn't touch her for months, but she would sit in my lady's lap. We have since had two litters with her on our new property, and kept all of them. I was shocked at the number of rodents they kill.