I want to feed the birds but ive seen a rat? can i still feed the birds?

Question

abig one living under the shed and i think it has babies??

we feed the birds in our garden, we get loads come down and want to carry on feeding them, especially becasue theres a few babies around

but today we saw a rat! what do we do....?

we chuck bread on the floor, so we will stop doing that and we still have the seeders up.

but we also get 4 wood pigeons that come down and eat the bread so how can we feed them without te rats getting it.

is there a way to get rid of the rats without killing them??

Answer 1

You have to get bird feeders that the rats can't reach.  You are meant to hang their feed or use a pole, look at all these bird feeding accessories http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/mall/departm... they're all designed to keep rats away.

Answer 2

You need to kill those rats!  We had a rat coming into our garden and got the pest control in and they said we would have to stop feeding the birds as this attracts the rats.

It's a shame as birds are so nice to look at and watch in your garden.

Answer 3

It's essential to kill the rats.

You must get rat killer from a farm shop/agricultural supplies place/B&Q etc

Get the packets of pellets and put some of the packets under the shed so that nothing else can get at them.

We always put a small peg in the end like a tent peg spike to hold it in place so they dont take it away and then it can be checked to see if they are still eating it.

We replenish the packets as soon as they are empty.

We also bought a rat box like you see in parks etc and put some packets in there,and put it anywhere we think the rats run is.

Water has to be available for them to drink to help the poison to work.

You need to use a bird table with an upturned plastic flower pot(cut down the side)and taped around the stand to stop the rats getting on it.

They will climb trees& pipes etc to get to food.

Therefore if you use the hanging feeders make sure they are not hanging near an overhanging branch of a tree

We have seen a rat eating our birds fat-balls hanging from a tree,and had to remove them.

Answer 4

Don't feed the rats!

Answer 5

h**l no. Get some exterminators in!!!!!

Answer 6

get a bird feeder!!!!! Rats can't climb trees.

Answer 7

I can't believe the number of naive people who think that killing rats is going to be a solution to this problem

We had exactly the same problem.  I stopped putting feed on the ground and only put seed in hangers and on the roof of our garage... however the rats quickly learned how to climb trees and release the seed, and they had no problem scaling to the roof of our garage.

We bought a humane trap, but we caught a baby rat and even though we checked the trap regularly, it died of stress :-(

So we did nothing... and we got used to seeing the rats and their babies coming out to feed.  They are quite cute and though many people would have you believe otherwise, we did not catch any fatal diseases, our dog did not die and they never attacked us or our chickens.  In fact, they ate very peacefully alongside the wild birds, and rat poison is more hazardous to health than the rats themselves.

Then, the rats attracted the foxes and the owls.  We have a beautiful white owl that circles around outside at dusk, scooping up the mice and rats.   I now haven't seen a rat or traces of a rat for about a month.

Just let nature take its course.  Its pointless trying to intervene and eliminate rats by poison or trapping.  Another rat will just move into the territory.  In fact it is better to have one healthy male rat in your garden as it will keep all the other males away.

DEFRA are now looking at using contraceptives as a way to control rat populations.  It is already being used in China....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pa...

Best of luck.  Do nothing, and see what happens.  Don't freak out if you see baby rats as they will move away as soon as they are old enough.  And by not eliminating their food source you should soon see owls and foxes moving around your garden.

Answer 8

use a bird feeder and hang it from a tree or fence. something thats not on the ground. is there an area around yours that will attract rats i.e a field or a unclean house.

Answer 9

Kill the rats. If they don't have babies now they soon will, than you will have more rats. SO kill the rats try attracting some owls or hawks May you could get a pet rat snake and put it where it can get to the rats .

Answer 10

You need to stop feeding for a few days and get rid of the Rats as in time they will Kill the Birds,

So get some Rat pioson or contact your local council pest control officer and they will get rid of them for you.



This service is Free with most councils.

Answer 11

You may encourage more rats if you continue to throw bread out.  Birds should be left to forage for themselves at this time of the year.

If you have a problem with rats you should call out the local pest control officer (Environmental Health Dept) because rats spread diseases that are very nasty.

Answer 12

The rats have already established a nest nearby and they will multiply quickly. Even if you took the bird feed away now there is probably another source of food in the vicinity. And contrary to someone elses answer rats can climb trees. Rats need three things to survive: Food, shelter, and water. My guess is since it's summer (at least where I am) all three survival necessities are met. You'll probably need to call an exterminator. They will know how to get rid of the rats without poisoning neighborhood cats/dogs.

Answer 13

if you want to capture the rat and Not kill there are live traps. then if you catch it and it turns out it has babies you can get a gloves and pick them up. what you'd want to do with it after you caught the rat i'm not sure. or you could drive a few miles and release it into a more wooded area or something.

Answer 14

The rats need to be killed!  They carry disease and are a danger to have close to your home.  How can you be sentimental about rats?

Answer 15

either get some netting and hang it from the trees or knock up a bird table and put the food on there.  Also get someone around to deal with the rats, the local council will send an exterminator around for you

Answer 16

a cage with cheese in it, rat traps?

Answer 17

If you live catch the rat you have to kill it or give it a home, it's illegal to release vermin.

You've got rats because you are feeding the birds, if you didn't have rats you would have mice.

If you suddenly deny the rats food they will move to look for it elsewhere. Do you want rats in your house? And it will be a lot more serious if they move next door unless you have extremely understanding neighbours.

You have to kill the rats before altering the feeding pattern. Continue what your doing after the rats are gone and another passing family will take the free board and lodgings and when you see one there is always more than just a pair with babies.

I sympathise my tree sparrows are eating 0.5Kg of wild bird seed a day and the Starlings are catching bread before it hits the ground, but I had to move one feeder because the Collared Doves were emptying it in  a single sitting, (too expensive to keep it up).

I've definitely got mice in the garden, there was one in the lawn mower, (alive), the last time I cut the grass. That's acceptable, but rats I would have to kill, there's children to think about.