How to tell if rats/mice are still in coop?

[Bryce Thomas]

I already sweeped the coop multiple times, raise everything off the ground by a couple inches to make any mice feel less secure, refill water every day, and most of all I put a weight lid on the treadle feeder to make it harder for the rats to enter the feeder.

Will the rats just decide to pack up and move out? What else can I do to make them feel unwelcome?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You'll see poop if there's even just one left. No poop, you're probably in the clear

 

[Bryce Thomas]

You'll see poop if there's even just one left. No poop, you're probably in the clear

thanks for the info, besides what i said up top is there anything else I can do to make the rats go away? or will they just move out once there is no more food for them

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Its either gonna be one of the other rats or mice if its rats you wont see mice as they tend to stay clear of them if its mice then the rats will wipe out them and bring in other animals

 

[Bryce Thomas]

Its either gonna be one of the other rats or mice if its rats you wont see mice as they tend to stay clear of them if its mice then the rats will wipe out them and bring in other animals

they are just mice, but boy are they ugly as rats lol

 

[Poultrybonkers]

they are just mice, but boy are they ugly as rats lol

I had a mice problem, rats ate them and a weasel ate the rat and not sure what ate the weasel as i never seen it again and now i have mice again

 

[Al Gerhart]

Rodents leave a trail of urine and poop everywhere they travel. If you are not seeing that then they might have left if you have secured the feeder lid.

BTW, what kind of treadle feeder do you have, picture please. If you they are getting into the feeder and the feeder is in good repair, something is wrong. Weighting the lid at night just makes them feed during the day.

Go find Howard E's posts on dealing with rats and mice and read the part on sanitation. Raising stuff up a few inches isn't going to help, raise any junk or storage up high enough that a cat or a dog can get under it to get to the rodents.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You can use mousetraps, but if you use snaptraps, put then where birds can't get to them. Had a chick get stuck in one once and had to put it down.

 

[cmom]

Can you put a camera in the coop. I previously posted this. I had a coop that was infested and I tried many different things. I eventually used rat bait stations with poison. I put the bait stations in pet carriers and put them in my barn which is right behind the coops on shelves so nothing but the rats could get to the bait. Rats are good climbers. I had also noticed tunnels which I assume were made by the rats. I move the birds to another coop and renovated the infested coop and dozens of rats of all sizes poured out when I started renovating. I found several rats nests in the walls and ceiling. The bait stations have a little window above the bait so it can be checked regularly. Eventually less rats and the baits were hardly being touched and I didn't find any dead rats laying around so I also assume they went into their tunnels and died. I'm not advocating using poison only that is what I resorted to and it worked after trying many other things first. Good luck...