What animal is living here???

[Orit]

Today I removed a dog crate that I was keeping my almost 3-month old chicks in (and replaced it with a gate that divides the coop/run). When I took the crate out, I found this underneath (see photos). Does this suggest mice or rats? Or something else?

 

[CrazyChicken360]

It could be a chipmunk hole but I’m not sure

 

[Geena]

Is that inside or outside?
Looks too small to be rats. If it's outside it might be voles, they like to dig tunnels under things sitting on the ground.

 

[dawg53]

Rat hole.

 

[Geena]

Rat hole.

Ya think? Looks pretty small if you compare it to the hardware cloth behind it.

 

[ilikepigeons]

We had rats digging tunnels like that around our water pump, it looked exactly like the picture. But then against the hardware cloth, that's too small for rats. Mice, perhaps?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Rat nest.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

They like to put their greasy backfill under things like crates and boxes. In my personal experience anyway. Too much personal experience

 

[dawg53]

It's not too small for rats. I've got them around the outside of my pens. You'd be surprised what a rat can fit or squeeze through.

 

[dawg53]

We had flooding rains 2 years ago. The rat tunnels flooded and the rats went to higher ground, my chicken pens. It was a 3 week battle but I finally got them under control.