Non-Timid Rat hanging around coop in day time!

[chooks4life]

By all means laugh, don't feel bad! Laughter's good for you. I was irritated by the rat but had bigger issues to spend my time fretting about. She didn't figure that much.

About the rat: generally if able to they'd just love to move in with your chooks, have grain and eggs and shelter and water supplied. The chickens however would find this terribly stressful. It's fine while it's a non issue because the rat thus far can't get into the cage, but if it starts trying at night, disturbing them, then it may be another story... Are they used to rats or maybe have never even seen one face to face? Generally ants and rats are high on the list of cagemates that will fret birds thoroughly. I guess you'll just have to play it by ear, best wishes with that.

If the rat's come for the eggs it may persist until it makes a nuisance of itself, and there's always their Houdini-like skills and amazingly strong teeth to contend with even if you think the cage is rat proof. Mostly it's not as rat proof as it would need to be to stand up to a determined and unafraid rat; if it's so bold it'll take its time to find a weakness rather than doing like normal rats and hastily trying to get in and get sheltered. Also if it's come for protein it may nibble your poultry. It never happens until it happens.

 

[TheGoodLifeGirl]

By all means laugh, don't feel bad! Laughter's good for you. I was irritated by the rat but had bigger issues to spend my time fretting about. She didn't figure that much.

About the rat: generally if able to they'd just love to move in with your chooks, have grain and eggs and shelter and water supplied. The chickens however would find this terribly stressful. It's fine while it's a non issue because the rat thus far can't get into the cage, but if it starts trying at night, disturbing them, then it may be another story... Are they used to rats or maybe have never even seen one face to face? Generally ants and rats are high on the list of cagemates that will fret birds thoroughly. I guess you'll just have to play it by ear, best wishes with that.

If the rat's come for the eggs it may persist until it makes a nuisance of itself, and there's always their Houdini-like skills and amazingly strong teeth to contend with even if you think the cage is rat proof. Mostly it's not as rat proof as it would need to be to stand up to a determined and unafraid rat; if it's so bold it'll take its time to find a weakness rather than doing like normal rats and hastily trying to get in and get sheltered. Also if it's come for protein it may nibble your poultry. It never happens until it happens.

I think it's doing exactly that, taking its time to find the coop/runs weakness. I managed to get some photos and I think the girls are not too happy with the rat now.





Babs and Margo aren't happy about him being underneath the run so they've taken to staying up on their perch all day and not layed any eggs

The actual coop is raised but s/he's dug holes underneath it and all underneath the run..

Maybe need to get rid of the rat now somehow?
Any humane ideas (non-humane welcome too but I'd prefer not killing it if I don't have to)

 

[chooks4life]

If it's upset your chooks that's about it! I'd get a trap and bait it with whatever, chocolate's good, and remove the rat. Unless I know it's a native species I'd kill it but since you'd prefer not to you can get live capture cages from various places, and simply relocate it. I've relocated heaps of animals, not really an issue in the middle of nowhere but hard in suburban/rural close-neighbor sorts of places. Best wishes. A live capture cage is one of those things, you never know when you'll need it, it's a good handy investment for unforseen events like this.

 

[TheGoodLifeGirl]

If it's upset your chooks that's about it! I'd get a trap and bait it with whatever, chocolate's good, and remove the rat. Unless I know it's a native species I'd kill it but since you'd prefer not to you can get live capture cages from various places, and simply relocate it. I've relocated heaps of animals, not really an issue in the middle of nowhere but hard in suburban/rural close-neighbor sorts of places. Best wishes. A live capture cage is one of those things, you never know when you'll need it, it's a good handy investment for unforseen events like this.

I made my own rat trap, if it doesn't work we'll buy one, and if that doesn't work we're going to shoot it with a pellet gun :/

Here is my home made rat trap.



The idea is that the rat can get into the bottle but the plastic spikes stop it from getting out. Its kind of like one of these

Photo source:http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-a-Chinese-Finger-Trap

I found out how to make this trap while surfing the web for humane rat traps.
My source for making the trap: http://www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Rat-Trap-from-Recycled-Water-Bottle/

Hopefully it'll work, if not oh well, it was worth a shot.

 

[LoveDucks]

It might be a posom maybe you can set a friendly rat trap and take it somewear else and let it go free.

 

[TheGoodLifeGirl]

It might be a posom maybe you can set a friendly rat trap and take it somewear else and let it go free.

It's not a oposom, we don't get them in Scotland. Plus It actually comes out and taunts me to catch it, so I've seen it. I'm trying to catch it so I can set it free somewhere far away, but at the rate we're going it looks like we might have to kill it as our chickens are now petrified to come out of the coop, have stopped laying and eating (but are still drinking water thankfully)

 

[LoveDucks]

I'm sorry to hear trhat. I hope you can kill it it!

That sad i'm sorry...

Hope you catch the rat or kill it.

 

[chooks4life]

It mustn't be a very big rat if you're thinking it'll fit in there. When we say 'big rat' here, we mean it's a metre or more long and about the size of a cat, lol!

Very strange that you're using plastic, in my experience rats and mice would chew out of that in no time, but if you've found it worked for other people, maybe it works for some. Best wishes, hope you catch the rat. It's definitely not ok if it's frightening the chickens. They can carry disease too but if it's not pooping and peeing in their feed and drinking from their water I'd assume they're unlikely to catch anything... But then again fleas transmit many diseases just fine. Bit of a long shot though, since at all times there's every chance they're cohabiting with humans and their livestock and pets, and generally the rat would have to be nesting in or under the cage to make its fleas spread.

 

[lazy gardener]

In my experience, if you see one rat, there's dozens more that you are not seeing. And rats are destructive. They are able to chew through concrete. KILL IT! (Just my opinion) Don't re-locate it to make it some one else's problem.

 

[kacklinkelly]

In my experience, if you see one rat, there's dozens more that you are not seeing. And rats are destructive. They are able to chew through concrete. KILL IT! (Just my opinion) Don't re-locate it to make it some one else's problem.

Ooh, this thread just caused me to start shivering. When I lived back East, my parents sold us their home. When the weather turned cold, we got visited by large mice. Rats would have put me over the edge. Our cat found the first one and several after that. She left us "presents" by the front door (inside). Our college age son was the one who always first saw the "presents". When I told my parents they said, oh yeah that happened all the time but it's no big deal, just set some traps. I thought I would lose my mind

. Between the cat, me and my broom, and my husband sealing up any spaces he could find in our 100 year old house. We finally got the problem taken care of. I always think one rodent = way too many. If that one is made too comfy, then the invitations are sent out for the rest of the family/friends. ISH, I am still shivering.