They are fruit rats. They don't eat the chicken feed. I had fruit rats too but I also had orange trees. The rats didn't get into the chicken feed. I just didn't want them around. I did use poison but I also used the rat bait boxes that only the rats could get into and I put them in places where nothing but the rats can get to them, including my birds. The rats will travel some and are good climbers. I put the boxes in my barn. I have a shelf next to the studs so the rat can climb up the stud to get into the rat bait boxes. Nothing else climbs them except the rats and they are high enough nothing else can get to them. My barn is made of metal and they can't climb up the metal but can on the wood studs to get to the bait boxes. I have never found a dead rat but I'm sure they go down into tunnels they make and die. I haven't found any dead ones laying around or other dead critters. While second hand poisoning is possible it is not that usual. Some poisons require the rat to eat several meals and therefore slow acting and these usually will not kill a critter that eats them. Again nothing is impossible but unusual. Possums are naturally resistant to all poisons except neuro-toxins. They have a peptide in their blood that’s capable of countering the poison without causing any damage. Rat poison does not have any neuro-toxins in them and it is not going to do any harm to the possums. If there were any dead rats they may have eaten them before saw any. Before I had my bait boxes I hid some bait in places I was sure nothing could get at them. When I went out daily to check the baits they would be gone so I put a camera up to find out what was taking the baits. It was a possum. Now the possums can't get to them and I haven't seen any more in the barn. I never actually saw the possum get the bait but have caught it with the bait. It kept coming back for more. I haven't had any more issues with the rats. I do keep my bait boxes baited but nothing has touched the baits in quite awhile and I haven't seen any evidence of rats. Before I had actually seen some rats in my nest boxes but they didn't appear interested in the eggs either.I don't think that that is what the article is getting at, It says to stop "feeding" them, meaning you need to stop giving them a free meal, of open chicken feed. They have to work quite a bit harder, to get up in a tree to eat, and will be discouraged and may leave, if they are driven out with all of the other additions mentioned in the article. Anyway, I get your point, it is funny to think about.
