i think i have a rat !

[chickchicks]

thought we had mice in december i put out a few traps but caught nothing .

then i thought i saw a shadow and found a big hole ! running right under my house

ihtink maybe a rat so ive put out a poison bait in places the chickens cant get to
my question is
do you thinkthis could be whats upsetting my chickens as they have been very wary recently and for the past 2 days my poor hens have been crying at 5 amin the morning and the little man Mr Wooster has started crowing before itslight -

when i go in they look shook up and even the BO's who hate to roost or jump have managed to get onthe high roosts and i got my first wind egg and a "rough " egg today which is a different colour than normal and the feel or the shellis rough like sand paper .

thanks in advance for the info

 

[goldnchocolate]

Several year I had rats. They were the fattest, healthiest looking rats I've ever seen

due to the fact that they were eating me out of house and home with the chicken food. My chickens weren't afraid of them. I actually saw one sitting on it's haunches under one of my hanging feeders, munching away.

I tried every kind of way to get rid of them but finally had to resort to Decon. First I put some decon pellets in a dish and placed it right near their hole, every night. The pellets disappeared but the rats thrived. I think they may have been storing them rather than eating them so I made them some decon/peanut butter/cornmeal balls. They were so tasty that within a week the rats were all dead. The only thing you have to watch for is that when they start dying they die out in the open where your other animals are exposed to them. I just kept a lookout for them and pretty soon we were all set....no more rats.

My recipe for Peanut Butter Balls:

In a medium sized bowl mix together:
approx 1/2 c. rat poison pellets
couple of heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter
enough cornmeal to make it into a batter

Mix throughly. Scoop small spoonfuls and roll them into little balls the same as when making cookies. Place these balls just outside the rat holes. You can even roll a ball or two into the hole to help get their attention. Go back outside around 10-15 minutes later to make sure the balls are gone. Do this every night until you no longer see rat activity...approx 4-5 days.

 

[kartking22]

Pellets are good to eradicate mice. Rats, on the other hand will tend to store pellets where this becomes ineffective. I found that a bait stick is more effective if you stick it into thier hole or entry point. The rat will need to chew the bait stick to get into your coop or thier main source of free feed rather than just transporting the pellets to thier feed stash. If you have tunnels in the ground, put a bait stick down the hole and bury the hole. The rats will eat the bait rather than trying to tunnel around it.

 

[bj taylor]

i'm new to chickens (getting my first babies in early feb.) i'm worried about rats. i don't currently have a problem, but anticipate they will come. do they kill grown chickens or just babies? i don't think i can use poison because if they die in an exposed area & i miss them, my two dogs or two cats might find them & chew on them.

 

[Ted n Ms]

(Decon is rat poison the poison is warfarin, the same product that humans on coumadin are ingesting. For rats it works by reducing the coagulation time of the blood to such a point that they will bleed to death internally.) So you see the dead rats and mice just hemmorage to death. The carcass should not be poison to any thing else. I'm on warfarin my self. In other words i'm taking rat poison. LOL

 

[Cowgirl75446]

Just One Bite works great for rats.

 

[poultry09]

TAKE A FIVE GALLON BUCKET and fill it half way with water and put 1-2 inches of dog food or corn meal it works great cause they try to get the food and fall in and can not get out

 

[chickchicks]

thank you all for the advice , ive put poison sachey(SP)
down and they take them but stil not seen one they are livingunderorinthe ouse ive found the hole

i will try the recipei goden chockalate thank you its better than the one of the internet which was peanut butter and backing soada that wasgoing to be last resort as i felta little mean doing that one!

they have a rat feeder with poison blocks andthey ignore it there not daft !
i will keep at it untill its sortedand let ya know how i get on!

thank you all for the ideas ill keep trying

 

[[email protected]]

when we first had rats we had this really big mean roster that would charge just about anything but he was scared of rats. we tried every thing from poison to snap rat traps and now live traps. Been over 5 years and we still are catching them. Haven't had any of my adult birds go missing yet. the best chance you have is to get rid of them before you cant.

ihtink maybe a rat so ive put out a poison bait in places the chickens cant get to
my question is
do you thinkthis could be whats upsetting my chickens as they have been very wary recently and for the past 2 days my poor hens have been crying at 5 amin the morning and the little man Mr Wooster has started crowing before itslight -

 

[chickchicks]

well ive took a look and the poison has not moved in two days good sign or have they moved do you think?