I am SOOO proud of my ducks...plus important questions

[Parrotchick]

My 3 Pekins share a very large predator proof pen, with two dog houses for cover on the few occasions they decide to use it (mostly egg laying). The pen is shared with the chickens and the chicken coop is in the middle. I have figured out recently that all the little annoying tunnels I've been seeing lately are due to rats. I decided to make the "buckets of death" but they won't work with the freezing weather. I haven't set out the snapper traps either due to the snow this week (and the biggie coming today in the mid-Atlantic). I've been dithering over poison. All I have done is put all food in a sealed container at night, though that doesn't help with the stuff that spilled.

So yesterday I did my mornng check of the duck houses for eggs and darn if there wasn't a dead rat. It was bloody so I knew that it didn't die of natural causes. I saw my female Pong catch a frog this summer, which I rescued. But I never considered them catching rats, though I had hoped my muscovy drake might become emboldened some day to do so. So my ducks accomplished what I hadn't gotten around to

I bought them a tub of worms last night.

But big questions:

Do I need to worry about my ducks catching some sort of disease from catching and/or killing rats?

Now that I know they might catch the rats, should I forget about using poison?

Thanks!

 

[chickensioux]

I'm not sure if there is a disease that would transfer from rat to any poultry but you do need to be concerned about lice, and internal parasites such as tapeworms, roundworms, coccidia, etc. that can be transmitted from rats.
Also you must be very careful with poisoning rats, IF the duck should kill and eat the rat the duck would get poisoned as well or any of the poison the rat moves around could get eaten by the ducks. Rats are very smart and won't eat things they are unsure of. They could put the poison where the ducks could get it.
I would trap the rats either live or not with rat traps that the ducks don't get near.
Good luck

 

[toadbriar]

I've had pet rats (and while they are horrible pests in their wild state, fancy rats are lovely pets) - and yeah, when there is food they reject, from suspicion or dislike, they will SHOVE it out of their living area with their little hands. They look just like guys moving furniture. So I would NOT use poison if I were you. Plus the danger of whatever poison is still in a rat's bloodstream - quite possibly it was an already-sick rat that was susceptible to attack.

I am impressed that your duckies' ancient dinosaur heritage is showing through!!

 

[MakNat]

No poison for sure! I saw my muscovy hen eat a weak chick once... The hen had left her nest a wee bit to early and left a late hatched chick in there..... Of course I walk up on all this once it as too late...