Will geese eat rats ever?

cottontail farm

Crowing
6 Years
Dec 26, 2014
1,032
1,551
281
Rural NW Pa
So we have rats living under the goose coop. They're digging tunnels under the wooden runners and coming up into the coop. I'm planning on setting out bait stations but really obviously don't want to kill the geese. I'm not worried about them eating the bait. I'm worried about a rat dying overnight and a goose eating it before I get out there in the morning.
What does everyone think?
 
Firstly, you need to reinforce the bottom of your coop with something like hardware mesh to prevent them from entering the coop.
Geese will eat baby rats but are unlikely to go for an adult rat.
The traps I use for rats are Tom Cat enclosed bait stations - the rat eats the poison and goes back to its hole to die(eventually).
Since rats usually come out at night you will need to check the area in the early morning.
 
I heard not to long ago that there are new rodent baits on the market that use a form of blood thinner that only affects the primary consumer(whatever eats the bait) so if a pet eats the dead rodent the pet is unaffected as long as they don’t eat the bait itself. I’m just not sure what brands use it
 
It’s 99% unlikely that the geese will eat an adult rat, I say 99% because I’ve seen a horse eat chicken and seen jackrabbits and squirrels eat rodents, so...nature likes to shake things up now and then.
 
Also if you want to go the non toxic rout and not risk accidental poisoning of other animals you could always try a dog. Barn cats are great up until you’ve got one that decides it doesn’t like catching rats “this is my cat.” My Aussie on the other hand has a record of four rats in just an hour. I haven’t seen signs of rats in awhile now.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom