HELP!! Rats eating chicks?

[cozycritters]

At our last house we lost half of our chicks overnight to someone's escaped pet 'hooded' rat. (We saw him in the yard and thought nothing of it at first). The next morning the chicks were missing and my son found them stuffed down into the hole the rat had made his own.

 

[chubbydog811]

purpletree23 - the only reason I didnt drop dead there, was because I was so tired and there was an emergency with one of the horses.
lol that is not something you want to see every day! SO GROSS, and nearly impossible to get rid of unless you feed them something that will kill them..

 

[zatsdeb]

could be a skunk also? have you smelled skunk ? they will eat the heads and leave the bodies also.

 

[silkiecuddles]

Get a male cat that is neutered. Believe it or not the cat will not hurt the chicks and when the chicks get bigger the cat will submitt to the chicks but the cat will chase away the rats.

I suggest getting a kitten that is about 7-8 months old male so it doesn't come home prego and neutered or when he gets older he will get into a lot of cat fights with the girls.

I have a disappearing chick mystery, if someone can help me solve it.
I have a silkie hen with 6 chicks, only one of them actually hers. This morning 1 got left in the coop and I forgot to let it out. I went out to look at my pidgies a few min ago, and the chick is gone! Not with the mom, or in the coop, or under the ramp.
There is either rat(s) or mice living underground of that coop, and I'm wondering if rats/mice eat chicks? It was a silkie mix chick, 1 month old.
I've had a chick disappear before, but it was 3 days old, and pure silkie, so it was super tiny.
But I don't know how the creature could of gotten poor chickie, because there are pigeons and a mama hen with 2 other chicks in the coop 24/7.
?????

I like the idea of the cat, cause we have several, but they're 4-6 years old. They are neutered, however.
BUT wouldn't they kill my pigeons?

How do you tell if it's a rat or mice? I saw a brown nose under the ramp (their tunnel is down there) and it looked pretty small.
Also, I have seen no evidence of the chick. Just gone!