Rat Proof Chicken Feeder - Legit?

[KrisiG]

http://ratproofchickenfeeder.net/

Has anyone used this product? Sounds almost to good to be true. Looking to keep house sparrows and mice out of the hen's food. TIA!

 

[paneubert]

They are just your basic treadle style feeder and they do work to exclude rats and wild birds if you can get your chickens to use them. Many chickens are afraid of the movement of the feeder and take extensive training periods before they are comfortable with using one.

 

[Kiki]

I vote too good to be true too.

Mice proof the coop with half inch hardware cloth.

 

[Al Gerhart]

And neither reply is an actual customer I see. Here is a guy that put up an unsolicited review a few years ago. https://lazyguydiy.com/review-chicken-treadle-feeder/

Here is another review right here on BYC, warts and all, from Howard E. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-proof-feeder-review.1180514/

Check the shopping cart, there are several hundred reviews scattered across the different versions of the feeder. We leave all reviews up even the ones that caused their own problems because our ratings are too high, normally a sign of manipulated reviews. Especially the ones that leave a bad review and mention they would like some help with the product. Those are always approved. And no, they don't get help. There is a CRM module on the dang shopping cart to ask for help, the phone number is on the website, as is the email address, and we print both in the printed instructions and on the shipping email that goes out once the order is confirmed. Then again in the email that checks up with you two weeks after the feeder shipped. The kind of person that would leave a bad review without reaching out for help first isn't the brightest bulb in the string of lights. Their bad review makes our reviews actually better.

The feeder is NOT for everyone though. You need some handy man skills to install the two bolts and add the treadle arm. And you gotta bend the wire over after sticking it through the holes in the treadle and door crank arm. And you gotta be smart enough to look in the styrofoam or cardboard cradle that holds the counterweight before calling and complaining that the counterweight is missing. Those are the ones that never read the instructions that tell you all those things. Same with the ones that say they will tip over. Yeah, we tell people they will and to fasten them to a wall, a post, or a big chunk of plywood, in the marketing info and in the assembly instructions.

But, if you are the kind of person that is okay with reading instructions and following them you will be leaving us a five star review. We love the long detailed ones that are warts and all, nothing better than warts and all.

 

[Al Gerhart]

They are just your basic treadle style feeder and they do work to exclude rats and wild birds if you can get your chickens to use them. Many chickens are afraid of the movement of the feeder and take extensive training periods before they are comfortable with using one.

Nope, these are radically different than every other feeder on the market. It is the ONLY feeder with a soft close door option, the only feeder with a spring loaded door to stop a rat from just pushing the door open, the only feeder with a heavy counterweight to help keep the vermin out of the feed, and the only feeder with a narrow and distant treadle to prevent mass rodent attacks.

If you take the time to read the reviews most people will say that their birds learned to use the feeders in a day or less. If you read the reviews you will find a half dozen that tell you to follow the directions, usually in capital letters. Those are the ones that had problems and emailed asking for help. Every single time it was because the instructions weren't followed. Every time someone called in for help they got their birds trained after we stressed how important it is to follow the instructions to the very letter, nothing extra, nothing left out.

One guy I will never forget, a doctor both medical and PHD kind, researcher, inventor, built a multi million dollar medical device company. The guy started calling me at night, no daytime calls please unless you are having problems with the payment system or shopping cart. He would send emails with pictures, we would talk. He would try and fail. His birds just wouldn't use the feeders I was told.

After a week of this he called saying I was right, the birds mobbed the feeder after he followed the directions. I just had to ask and we had kind of become friends and chatted about many things other than the feeder. "Why wouldn't you follow the directions?" His response was "The instructions just weren't logical."

The lesson, never use logic on a chicken. Use hunger, use instinct. Install it properly, securely fastened to a post, a wall, or a large chunk of plywood so it is rock solid and not wobbling around when the birds step on it. Make sure the treadle bottoms out on something so the bird can stand on the ground with one foot and use the other to bottom on the treadle. Remove ALL other sources of feed before trying to train and keep them cooped up till they learn how to use the feeder. Adjust the spring before trying to train the birds and make sure the inner bolts are securely tightened and the outer lock nut is backed off 1/8th of a turn.

You do that, a few hours of training, meaning two minutes the first time and coming back an hour later and doing another two minutes, and your birds will use the feeder when they are hungry. One will usually learn quickly and teach the others. If you are short of time or facing a deadline like an upcoming trip, buy the soft close version, less noise, easier to train. But other than that it isn't needed and many have remarked they like the sound of the feeder because it tells them everything is okay in the pen.