Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

[McChooky]

I'm pretty set against using poison, as not only could it get my chickens or local cats that wander, I also live in the woods and would hate to imagine some fox or possum or hawk dying from eating a poisoned rat.

I feel like some people have talked about a product that is safe and I need to do more research on that front. But I also feel like poisoning is a short term solution, because there's always another rat ready to move in.

RatX is safe to use around other animals including pets and livestock. It does not contain toxic ingredients and poses no risk of secondary poisoning. RatX is designed to kill rats and mice(rodents)

Common diseases spread by rats:
Salmonella,Avian TB, Leptospirosis,Pasteurellosis and parasites (fleas,mites and lice)

 

[McChooky]

Just a note from observing my cats they will eat the heads off of things they kill. (They have never killed a chicken)
When we lost our whole first flock from a mink/weasel it sadly took our WHOLE flock and took some of their heads and killed the rest. Sadly that is our experience with that type of predator.

Unfortunately weasels and minks get so excited in the 'hunt' that they'll kill everything .They can squeeze thru chicken wire effortlessly and wipe out whole flocks in one night. Often not eating a one

 

[McChooky]

"Oh, she died and some lucky rat went to work "

You have a good reason to suspect a 'lucky rat' may have killed your chicken. Limiting access to the feed can make them attack each other or your chickens( the youngest & oldest are the most vulnerable)I wish you the best with your problem and sorry you're going thru this in the winter when its so cold.It really limits how much you can do

 

[Al Gerhart]

"Oh, she died and some lucky rat went to work "

You have a good reason to suspect a 'lucky rat' may have killed your chicken. Limiting access to the feed can make them attack each other or your chickens( the youngest & oldest are the most vulnerable)I wish you the best with your problem and sorry you're going thru this in the winter when its so cold.It really limits how much you can do

With respect, I'll argue with you on that one.

Chicks, yeah, even with plenty of feed available the rats will go after chicks. That is what started me on the road to creating our feeder which you can find the original origin thread here on BYC. But after installing the first plywood, inward swinging door feeder, protected by a 3/4" diameter round bar that slid up and down in a couple of electrical conduit clamps to keep the door closed, we didn't loose a single chick.

Adult chickens, no, rarely attacked by rats especially if they have proper roosts where the rats cannot get at their toes. If an adult hen dies or is close to death, then yes, starving rats might go after them if they are stationary.

The rats WILL attack each other, you were 100% correct on that. The first casualties are the young, cannibalized as soon the food supply is gone. Then the smaller ones until only the large rats that are more dangerous to try to take down are left.

So don't be worried about treadle feeders causing rats to attack chickens, were that the case there wouldn't be many treadle feeders on the market. Rats have four to five days to move or die assuming there is no other human supplied feed source nearby. In my case on day four they were staggering around in the yard desperately searching for food and my two dogs were having a blast killing them.