RATS!!

[Shavings]

is there such a thing as rat poison that is safe for cats?

got a couple of rather large that have been lurking around the yard (a nest was removed 2 weeks ago so i think they are looking for a new home!)

i dont have room in my back box but because the floor is uneven there is a gap under my tack box and 3 nights in a row now they have been seen darting under there, when night check is done


we have 3 yard cats but they are lazy and the worlds worse hunters! they dont go after any thing until its already dead!

so i want to get rid of the rats but i worry the cats will pick them up and then get poisoned them selves!!

really dont want to put a trap down as 1 i dont think it will fit under my tack box and 2 i really REALLY! dont want to be emptying one!

 

[mcnaughty]

Sack the cats and get better mousers! I dont know of anything but perhaps a quick google would come up trumps. We have a cat at our yard that is a major killer - nothing survives here that squeaks!

 

[lizziebell]

Have a look at Eradibait. Although I do find I have to mix a bit of peanut butter with it to make it palatable for Mr Rat.

 

[dizzyneddy]

At my old yard there was a lazy cat that was a bad rat catcher, my YO resorted to getting someone in & they brought their jack russell. It worked because the number of rats decreased. l hope you manage to sort the rats out they are horrid creatures.

 

[TelH]

Can you move the box so they have nowhere to hide and send a dog after them? That's what I would try. My springer is an ace ratter

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Probably should not mention this here....but my grandad used to mix porridge oats and plaster of Paris together to make a dry mix and sprinkle sugar on it... irresistible to rats and mice...you can imagine the results when eaten!!! But it won't poison a cat or dog

 

[MagicMelon]

Sorry but having had pet rats, Id never poison them - horrid. Id never poison anything, such a horrid painful death. I have the odd rat in my tack room / stables. I keep a humane rat trap bated at all times, I caught one only a few days ago. Then I simply let him go somewhere far away, job done and no deaths. Always shocks me how many people suggest setting their dogs on it or poisoning them with something really nasty - why anyone would want to do that to any animal I dont get.

 

[wench]

Bait box?

 

[Mrs B]

Sorry but having had pet rats, Id never poison them - horrid. Id never poison anything, such a horrid painful death. I have the odd rat in my tack room / stables. I keep a humane rat trap bated at all times, I caught one only a few days ago. Then I simply let him go somewhere far away, job done and no deaths. Always shocks me how many people suggest setting their dogs on it or poisoning them with something really nasty - why anyone would want to do that to any animal I dont get.

OK MM. How would you deal with an over populated planet? Where not everything can survive to live a long and happy life? Where things need to die in order for others to survive? Or everyone starves? It's how life works!

So. You let the 'problem' rats go. Where? There are rat terratories everywhere. By letting your trapped rat go, you impinge on another rat's territory. The struggle for that territory will probably mean the death of one rat or another anyway: through starvation or fighting. You have caused the death of a rat any way you look at it. Is a slow death by injury or poison a better one than a bite to the back of the neck by a terrier?

You can't just opt out of your place as an animal/ human in the survival/decision making processes of the planet you live on by simply saying 'death is icky and cruel and I want no part of it.'

 

[horselady]

Hi, I would just get better mousers. A nice big tom cat should scare them away.

 

[Sukistokes2]

Sorry but having had pet rats, Id never poison them - horrid. Id never poison anything, such a horrid painful death. I have the odd rat in my tack room / stables. I keep a humane rat trap bated at all times, I caught one only a few days ago. Then I simply let him go somewhere far away, job done and no deaths. Always shocks me how many people suggest setting their dogs on it or poisoning them with something really nasty - why anyone would want to do that to any animal I dont get.

I like you magic , I was just going to post a similar thing.

Get rid of access to food and the rats will go away.

 

[Sukistokes2]

OK MM. How would you deal with an over populated planet? Where not everything can survive to live a long and happy life? Where things need to die in order for others to survive? Or everyone starves? It's how life works!

So. You let the 'problem' rats go. Where? There are rat terratories everywhere. By letting your trapped rat go, you impinge on another rat's territory. The struggle for that territory will probably mean the death of one rat or another anyway: through starvation or fighting. You have caused the death of a rat any way you look at it. Is a slow death by injury or poison a better one than a bite to the back of the neck by a terrier?

You can't just opt out of your place as an animal/ human in the survival/decision making processes of the planet you live on by simply saying 'death is icky and cruel and I want no part of it.'

No she said find a better way then poison, that's quite a rant at what was just a suggestion and very harsh. Some people like rats, other people view them as vermin. I tend to view most children as vermin but as of yet I'm not allowed to poison them.....shame.

 

[horselady]

I like you magic , I was just going to post a similar thing.

Get rid of access to food and the rats will go away.

^^^
this is true! I have similar feelings about poisoning anything having kept some very cute mice in the past I am a recent convert.

 

[popsdosh]

Agree with Mrs B all your doing is moving the inevitable death of the rat off your conscience!! Since when have rat poisons been painful they are more humane than live capture traps any day of the week. Anticoagulants do not cause distress!

 

[mandyroberts]

No she said find a better way then poison, that's quite a rant at what was just a suggestion and very harsh. Some people like rats, other people view them as vermin. I tend to view most children as vermin but as of yet I'm not allowed to poison them.....shame.

Well said - and many times I would rid the world of a child by whatever means....

 

[mandyroberts]

On a more serious note..
I have a rather large rat at the moment.
The ex-feral cats are far too comfy and scared or horses.
I have a rat electric chair baited with a chocolate button which is being ignored.
The normal rat/mouse traps baited with chocolate buttons have caught the babies but the big rat is getting the bait without being caught.
My nearby farmer has offered to lend me bigger traps, i don't mind instant death but really reluctant to resort to slow death by poison and the various consequences to other wildlife

 

[Tyssandi]

We poison with the big blocks, we think of them as vermin even though friends have them they are not the same. Every day the feed covers were ripped and they got in. Now over a week and no sign and they did eat 4 of these in one night. Our cat never touches them and I don't think twice to putting blocks down. They get into everything, they can render your feed unusable.
http://www.ratbait.co.uk/rat-blocks...L1UJPMUQKZzzb2x9_Ecc8RcBvcXCfwSYVBxoCmyPw_wcB

http://www.ratbait.co.uk/rat-poison...laDGFhnO7RP9md0IdGtYe9Jv_0OZ-1_3rbhoCGXnw_wcB

 

[MartinB]

Hi Shavings I've read through this thread and take on board peoples regard for all creatures including rats, BUT the risk to health they present can't be ignored. If it was my yard i'd get the resident cats two new friends in the way of a couple of ferals. Keep them on strict rations in order to hone their hunting skills, then just the usual 'good housekeeping' feed in sealed containers, bins kept tidy etc.

HTH
Martin

 

[Buddy'sMum]

Stop feeding your cats so well
Seriously, the cat food/biscuits will be attracting the rats. Took me a while to figure that out the first time we had rats in our barn - there I was meticulously sweeping up horse feed spillages and keeping everything in rodent proof bins and leaving a nice big bowl of biscuits out for the barn cat...doh!

 

[booandellie]

I live on a small holding, we have a few horses here and a couple of years ago we kept chickens and because of that we had a MASSIVE rat problem to the extent that no amount of bait boxes would catch the 40 or so that you would see on a daily basis when you fed the chooks. We got rid of the chickens, made sure no feed stuffs were left out for the horses etc but by then the rats had got into the house. We got vermin control in and they put loads of poison down in special boxes. It killed the rats but it also killed my dog who must have eaten 1 of the poisoned rats. He suffered the most painful death which at the time i thought was a reaction to his chemo treatment. I didn't find out till a year later because i couldn't speak to the vet i was so devestated and my husband decided not to tell me how he'd died. I am telling this as a warning not to use poison at all if you have any other animals about that might eat either the poison or the dead rats. It is a truely horrific and slow death for a dog.

 

[ljohnsonsj]

A decent Jack russell should sort job out!

 

[Antw23uk]

Call in a ratter ... oh and stop feeding the cats!

 

[peanut]

A decent Jack russell should sort job out!

We have a rat problem at the moment. Pest control have put bait boxes which don't seem to be having much effect.

Are there "professional" ratters one can contact or is it just a case of knowing someone with a JR? I presume they would be able to sniff out the nests?

 

[Cecile]

After nearly throwing up I am posting this as someone seems to have found an unusual use for rodents <yuck>

http://www.itv.com/news/2017-02-28/...ses-made-from-dead-animals-sell-as-far-as-us/

Avoid opening the link if you suffer from a nervous disposition or keep rodents as pets

 

[ljohnsonsj]

We have a rat problem at the moment. Pest control have put bait boxes which don't seem to be having much effect.

Are there "professional" ratters one can contact or is it just a case of knowing someone with a JR? I presume they would be able to sniff out the nests?

I'm not sure, our dogs can sniff them out and get them that way. I don't know if you can get one professionally so to speak, but if you get in touch with your local farmer he'll probably have a decent ratting dog or if not will know someone that will and will pop down with it!

ETA doesn't necessarily have to be a JR, one of my friends has Australian cattle dogs and they're insane ratters!

 

[Damnation]

Am I the only one who ignores they exist and just has handgel at the yard for after making haynets up etc?

When you are on a big yard, it is almost impossible to keep them at bay.

Touch wood, the little yard I am on doesn't have any, our 20 year old 3 legged cat is an AMAZING hunter!

 

[SEL]

I had a problem at my old house. It backed onto a park with a pond and the various bits of bread etc put out for the ducks attracted some enormous rats. If they'd stayed at the pond I wouldn't have minded, but when one sauntered out of my shed with no fear I had visions of them moving in and sleeping on the sofa! Never knew they could climb trees until I caught one on the bird feeder....

I had to get the council out with bait boxes but they were limited use (& yes, we took away the bird food) and the only way we got rid of them was when my neighbour got a kitten from a farm litter. At 3 months old it was catching mice, quickly progressed to baby rats and at a year old it was getting the biggies.

If your farm cats are too lazy then get some fresh blood in!

 

[Asha]

I couldn't ignore them, just the thought of them makes me cringe. The fact they wee on everything eurghh, one made itself at home at our old yard, and the smell was just awful. Plus the damage they do. No thanks.

Bob & Bert where bought for the job, they have zero tolerance for small furries. They get paid well ( whiskas pouches), and even get the odd bonus ( roast chicken) .

Have you sat your cat down and explained you are unhappy with the strike rate ? I would reduce rations until they started pulling their weight. In the meantime, get a professional out.

Or as SEL suggests, get a new moggy.

I hear Bengal cats are good hunters, anyone got experience of these ?

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

We have a small she cat at our yard, she's the most friendly cat ever. She's fed by us but she is also an incredible mouser. She is seen every day carrying a freshly caught mouse in her mouth & the other day she came in with a mole. She doesn't just leave them as a trophy either, she eats almost all of tghe amimals she catches.

OP, stop feeding your yard cats, when they are hungry their natural huntinbg abilities should awaken & they should earn their place on your yard.

 

[Rollin]

I used to have a Bedlington terrier and was told years ago, that they can no longer be used for ratting, their speciality as this is 'hunting with dogs'. I don't know if this is correct.

I would simply contact Pest Control at your local council and ask what their recommendations are for poison, traps etc.