RAT Poop by food

[konjo]

This morning I noticed rat poop in my hens run. Do anyone have any Ideas on some good bate to put on the outside of my run to get them.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I just used something called CyKill, which supposedly causes bleeding... and so they don't seem to smell as bad as with other baits, and I'd have to agree.

FYI... before I killed my mice I would've liked to know that the mice likely carry parasites & lice or mites... when the mice die, your chickens are next in line as food... so anticipate that problem to prevent it. Treat for mites etc at the same time.

 

[TXmom]

I personally wouldn't use a bait or poison if I were you, but it is your decision. The main problem....the rat eats the poison, it dies from internal hemorhaging (sp?), then the dead rat is eaten by a dog or cat or even your chickens...and that animal dies from the poison also. I have a very good friend who this happened to...her dog died within a week after putting out rat poison.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
That's terrible, so sorry for your friends dog.
My animals only bite moving objects and disregard any of the mice that might lay around the next day, which we clean up promptly. The packets are in places that the dogs, cats & chickens can't get to.

 

[TXmom]

You're right...many animals won't eat an already dead animal. However, as the mouse/rat is dying, it loses it's mind, comes out of hiding and wanders around, stumbles, walks in circles and has seizures...right out in the open becoming an easy target for any pet that wants to eat it. I saw a poisoned mouse die on our kitchen floor when I was a kid. Ick.

I'm not trying to be rude or argumentative, but just want people to make an INFORMED decision about using poisons.

 

[konjo]

Thank for the input guys. As far as parasites & lice or mites today is just the first day of the poop so I cleaned the coop and the nest and removing
some of the food in the feeder and changing water do you think that parasites & lice or mites will still be a problem.?

 

[Akane]

It happened to my dog. When she was a pup she was catching animals that had eaten those poisons and were alive but sick. Not knowing that and the levels being low enough not to cause obvious symptoms we had her spayed. Those poisons cause bleeding by stopping blood clotting and she almost bled to death after surgery. She spent 4 days in the vet office on IV fluids and vit k injections.

For rats just get one of those traps that use electricity. They zap the rat dead. Dunno if they work on mice but there are plenty of live and kill traps for mice. We just catch ours alive and throw them to the chickens or cats to take care of.

 

[konjo]

Any good ideas what to put in the trap as far as bait ?

 

[Akane]

I've used lots of stuff for bait and found no real difference. Most of the time I just use whatever the critters have been getting into. Locating the trap well and making it more difficult to get into other things is more important than the bait used. If the trap is placed somewhere they frequent and other food sources are more difficult to get they will investigate whatever you put in there.

 

[ella]

I'm pretty sure that external parasites that live on rodents, can't survive on birds. So that shouldn't be a worry.

I don't use poison because I've seen my chickens catch and eat mice.

But I don't have any good suggestions, sorry.