any tips how to keep mice & rats away from the bunnies bowl?

Hi, my bunnies have there home in a nicely converted shed in our garden, however I've noticed a couple of baby rats are able to sneak in and try and steal their pellets sometimes (and are getting tubby little tummies to evidence this).

I dont like the thought of this mainly because I'm worried they may pass on some kind of disease.

Does anyone have tips how I might keep the bunny food bowls safe from being poached by smaller creatures?

I've been trying hard to think of anything and all I've come up with is keeping the bowls closer to the usual spot where the buns sleep/snooze in the hope their presence will scare the R's off, however my bunnies are just no good at being scary!

(the buns cant live inside our house as my husband has a really bad fur allergy & had to be hospitalised last time they were in.)

could you put down humane rat traps around the outside of your shed? your shed obviously has holes in it to allow them to get in, so maybe search around the shed for holes and seal them up to prevent them getting in?

possibly, the trick is the rats seem to enter from the top of the shed there is a slight gap between the roof and the wall (I live in Australia so its quite handy for ventilation), so there's no really flat surface out of bunny reach to put the traps on.

theres a gardening bench at about human shoulder height I could put a trap on, but I'm always worried the bunnies will somehow get up there, they're pretty adept at climbing for some reason!

Hmmmm - I'd say you were feeding them too many pellets! When mine are not on a diet, they get about a tablespoon of pellets, per day, between TWO large bunnies. This is eaten immediately it's put down so there's never any food left laying around - aside from hay and maybe the odd bit of veg. So there's nothing that a rat would want to eat. If there's nothing there for them, they should go elsewhere (or that's the theory).

No bunny should have a bowl of food down all the time - they'll gorge themselves on it and end up producing too many caecotrophs. And this could potentially mean a fat bun, a mucky bum and flystrike :shock:

There is a wire product called vermin mesh which comes in a roll about 30cms wide and should be available at most hardware stores. You need to affix it to either side of the gap with staples or small nails. Rats cannot get through the 12mm square mesh. Check all around the shed for gaps, if there are any plug them as otherwise rats will certainly find them.

Otherwise, as others have suggested, remove uneaten pellets as soon as possible leaving the buns with hay to snack on. There is some reasonable meadow hay around at the present if you can get to a produce store.

Also take care rats and mice cannot get into your hay as their faeces and urine can be fatal to buns.

I agree with the advice of others so far & would also suggest that you don't leave your pellet supply in the shed either because that will attract rats even if the buns have eaten all their pellets in the dish.

Never had a problem. Mine only have a very small amount that is gone is minutes of the bowl going in the hutch.

oh wow! thanks for the advice, it looks like I've been doing things totally wrong.

my bunnies aren't fat from leaving them food all day (but perhaps all the visiting small animals from the local community are!). The slight issue is, when I put the food out they dont rush at it, they pretend to look bored and about 10 mins later when they think I'm not looking they start grazing on it.

Anyhow I've had a big Easter cleanout and from now on I am only leaving their bowls out for no more than an hour in morning and again at evening & what they havent eaten gets taken away (kind of like training eating to a toddler again I think!)

the problem is because they're used to grazing they keep looking at me with big longing eyes through the middle of the day presumably because their food bowls arent there, but I guess I need to keep at it and reinforce their appreciate of their bowl at the end of the day!

Its so much cleaner feeding like this too, and makes the shed cleaning much easier for me too which is great! and hopefully roger the baby rat will give up visitng when there's nothing there to pick at.

I'm also going to have a look out for the vermin wire at the hardware shop,

thanks for the tips!

I think you'll find that once the food bowl isn't there constantly, they'll learn to come for their pellets immediately and you'll be able to remove the bowl after a few minutes. To be honest, mine don't even have a bowl as they get so few pellets, I hand feed them. It reinforces the bond between us and I know I can always get them to come to me with just a shake of the pellet pot :lol:.

Think im going to have to start this as mine have a constant supply of pellets...im going to put it in there twice a day from now on!!!

My experience was of rats getting in the garden shed although there was no food supply for shelter & breeding. I suggest you also do as advised by Lobo & wire proof the shed.