Homemade Rat Proof Feeder

[Tiny raptor]

How clever! What a nice thing they did for you!

 

[Appalachickens]

Well, with the door open, there is nothing stopping the rats from getting to the feed. Eventually it will happen. The sticky pad was a great idea. And that is a metal door, correct? So at least at night the feed will be safe.

Grandpa feeder... read what I wrote above on why they use the instructions they do for training and how normal decent people blame themselves for the failure at first until the return period is gone.

They do promote a two year guarantee though so....... do it.

You made a great observation, with hens some would learn and teach the others while 4 hens made it far more difficult. It is an old, outdated, and frankly stupid design but it worked for them for a decade as the only competition was a wooden version with the same faults and worse. Then I came along, cut the price by two thirds and made a better feeder. But they still have a following, they still put New Zealand on their feeder despite it being made in China from the very beginning. The fine from the CPS and Customs would be in the millions of dollars if someone pushed the matter.

But plenty of people have had success with the Grandpa feeder and as you already have a lot of money invested you might be able to get it to work. It would be more rat proof than the pvc pipe feeders.

So, you cannot fix the biggest flaw, the overhead guillotine style lid. But you can slow it down. Head over to our website and look at the soft close kits we sell or the soft close feeders. Basically a quality soft close door damper held in a steel bracket made from a strip of galvanized steel. You can find both at Home Depot or Lowes, Simpsons makes all sorts of galvanized straps. Now, figuring out where to mount the cylinder, or cylinders, one on each side. The Grandpa feeder has a side bolt that the treadle rotates on. You want to mark the travel of the metal tube that rotates on the side bolt, find a spot where it is just right. Not too much travel, not too little. You want to use self tapping sheet metal screws to fasten the bracket that holds the soft close cylinder to the side of the feeder with maybe 1/8" of travel on the soft close left, so you have to compress the soft close cylinder. Place one screw in the very end, rotate the bracket down with the cylinder compressed with that 1/8" of travel left unused.

The soft close cylinders will have some adjustment, they will need to be set very light or you will need to balance out the lid with some extra weight fastened on top or up under the lid so there is enough downward pressure to close those two soft close cylinders. You might be able to retrofit a small extension spring on either side too to pull the lid closed instead of using the extra weight.

At least you will slow the lid down so it is less of a threat, give the hens another second to pull their head out, and quieten the action.

Next, tough love. Make sure the feeder is solidly set on three or four patio blocks, screwed to the wall so it is rock solid with zero wiggle or rocking. Fill the feeder and start training.

Cold turkey, full movement from day one. Install the feeder the night before, fill it with feed. Next morning, wait at least two hours so the hens are hungry. Open it with your toe, toss in some treats, let the lid close, and see if one of the hens steps up. If not, open the treadle again and see if one steps up to eat. If so, gently brush her off after three seconds of eating and see if she comes back. Repeat, with the hen opening the feeder. Wait a few minutes to see if she has the hang of it then leave. Even if she doesn't get it, leave after three minutes max.

Come back in two hours and repeat.

At the end of the day it might work. It might not, that overhead lid is a very stupid design and a very scary thing for a hen. Let them go to roost that night hungry and try again the next day. Whatever you do do not hand feed or give in. The hens will remember that.

If it doesn't work, remove the Grandpa feeder for a week and try again. You have to break the memory of the feeder and break the memory that if they refuse to use it you will give in and feed them.

Honestly, with the Grandpa feeder, it is best to return it to them and buy a more modern feeder that costs half the cost and actually is rat proof and is easy to train with.

Oh, you might look at if it is noisy when the lid comes up and find a way to quiet that down with some padding. Felt bumpers come in all sizes and shapes at Home Depot, hardware section, table leg bumpers and the like.

If you need help with placement of the soft close, use a pencil or marker to mark the travel on the side of the feeder and post a picture.

Good luck.

Super helpful information. I bought a grandpas feeder (so good or bad, I’m stuck with it) and my oldest chicks (8 weeks) are not quite ready for it. But I will be using your instructions for training. Here’s my question - I have the large feeder - does your site have a soft close mechanism for that? Or would I need to go elsewhere? I don’t think they’ll like the clanging noose and I definitely don’t want any of the! Getting bonked on the head.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You have the large Grandpa feeder? If so, no, we don't make soft close kits for them, I did explain how to make one for the other fellow to help him get that expensive feeder back into use. I could make a kit probably but it would be supporting a feeder that really needs to leave the market so patching up its problems would be counterproductive.

I am a bit mystified by the brand loyalty people exhibit for the company. Perhaps because they were a pioneer in the business.

 

[Appalachickens]

I don’t have any brand loyalty to any brand of feeder. I was just looking for something that would allow me to leave for a week or two when I needed to and know that they would still be fed. I don’t live in a place where having someone stop by is very feasible. So I found a feeder that held a 40 pound bag of feed and that sounded like it would work.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Yeah, I get you. Just gotta make do after such an investment. They sell a lot of feeders on Amazon and are far more visible, giving away a huge portion of the sales price and making that possible by manufacturing in China is one of the reasons they sell a lot of feeders despite being a pretty bad feeder when it comes to being actually rat proof.

And every time I see a close up of that lid with the New Zealand label, it pisses me off more than just a little. They have been using China to manufacture those things since just after they invented it two decades ago. But from what I have seen and been told, not a single notice of origin of manufacture on their website, on the box, or on the product itself. If a lawyer wanted to make a million bucks there is one ripe opportunity as they are breaking U.S. trade laws and have been for over two decades. They would be forced to pay millions in fines and provide refunds for any customer that complained. A customer might use that fact to get them to honor their two year warranty.