Rats are eating my bunnies food!!! HELP!

Hi everyone,

Kinda freaking out here. My rabbits are outside 24/7 right now and I was removing their pellets at night due to rats but now the rats know the schedule and are coming in the day! A rat and my rabbit were eating out of the same dish and I almost died! ugh.

Do you think it's possible to move the rabbits inside to eat their pellets say for an hour in the day? Will they adjust to the schedule?

They have hay 24/7.

I feel all shaky now!

I have no idea what Id do apart from freak.:shock:
I think the idea would be first of all is to get rid of the rats.
The thought of one of my buns eating from the same bowl as a rat gives me the heeby jeebys.

Can you work out how the rats are getting in?

How many pellets are you feeding? Rabbits only need a maximum of an eggcup each per day. My trio have a small handful scatterfed each morning and it's all gone within about 2 minutes. Maybe your pellets are there for too long so they are attracting rats.

Can you see how they are getting into your garden? I'd suggest blocking any holes and trying to remove any other sources of food which may be there :wave:

I think its more important that you deal with where or how the rats are getting in, as if they can get in your rabbits may be able to get out?

Also rats carry many horrible diseases, but more importantly carry lots of fleas etc - biting insects that can transmit VHD or myxomotosis (do you have that in Canada?)

Can you get pest control in to put down some bait boxes?

i had the same problem when i got my frist rabbit bobby rip
anyway i would cheack the hutch and close anyholes if the mesh is big i would replace it or they will keep coming back and so they cant get in.if you cant do that for now i would bring them inside for food.but there still the problwm that the rats are evem in your huvh they ussally have fleas.which you dont want your rabbits to catch.you could also try moving your hutch to somewhere the rats will not go.x

Rhian33 said:

How many pellets are you feeding? Rabbits only need a maximum of an eggcup each per day. My trio have a small handful scatterfed each morning and it's all gone within about 2 minutes. Maybe your pellets are there for too long so they are attracting rats.

Can you see how they are getting into your garden? I'd suggest blocking any holes and trying to remove any other sources of food which may be there :wave:

Click to expand...

I agree with Rhian.

The answer is to stop the rats from getting in. If a rat can get in, so can a stoat. Even a rat could seriously harm a rabbit. Do you have any pics of your setup? We may be able to advise you how to make it rat-proof.

We had this problem when we first moved here.
We solved it by putting their enclosure on paving slabs, and a wire mesh frame, so the rats can no longer get in.
We also feed them about 15 pellets each in an evening, so there's never any leftovers!!

i surgest moving the rabbit and if u see a rat put a cat or terrier in they will get it

A few years ago I had some bunnies killed by rats. It was horrible. They can also carry leptospirosis which can be spread by rat urine on the food.
please find out how the rats are getting near your bunnies, and do everything possible to stop them.
Jan

Get a pest controller in. Its probably harsh but rats carry a lot of nasty diseases and you wouldn't want your bunnies catching them.

Helen xx

thanks everyone for all the advice.

wow what a busy day. I called Pest Control and they of course recommended not having pellets there. And also, they said I can buy some rat traps with poison to put down. I did take the pellets out and then later I put them back in while I supervised. Once the buns had thier fill I took them away again.

My rabbits live in a large chainlength fencing dog pen with a cedar roof. The rats are coming from my neighbours large compost/aka as an overgrown forest. I say that because I believe there is also a raccoon living in it. I called the city bylaw office and they said I am to submit an email to them and they will come out and see what is going on and if it is a health risk than the neighbours/landlord has to clean it up.

I spent the day cleaning up my entire backyard, cutting back trees, etc, to make sure I didn't have any rats nesting anywhere. (ewwww) Luckily did not encounter any rats and the yard looks fabulous and I'm so tired.

My plan is to feed my rabbits only a very small amount of pellets everyday when I get home from work. ANd I will sit and supervise them and then remove anything left over after. I am also going to email the city regarding the horrid compost. I swear I could smell the rats but my husband said he could only smell them very faintly. So disgusting.
I'm going to have to put down poison. The pest people said cats cannot get at the poison. But what if a cat chewed on a rat that had eaten poison. wouldn't the cat end up sick? I don't want that to happen.

sigh.

I hope the health people can help. If people put food on compost heaps then it does attract rats. Which isn't good for people either.

Although rats can climb, it might help a bit to put a fine mesh around the bottom few feet as that at least slows them down and they'll be a little more wary as it's harder to bolt quickly.

You new feeding scheme is fine, it's better for the bunnies to have limited pellets and lots of hay anyway Do make sure the spare feed is stored in sealed containers or in the house where they can't be attracted.

Thanks Tamsin. That is a good idea about the mesh. I have some around the bottom but some areas are open, so I will fix this asap.

Wow, you have been busy!
I was trying to think what else we'd changed, and reading your post made me remember - we had to get rid of our compost bin as that's what was attracting them in the first place.
Good luck!

I think if you put cooked food on compost, thats what attracts them. We have a compost heap for veg peelings but we NEVER put cooked food on there.

You're plan with the pellets sounds ideal, if you can you might want to slowly decrease how much you give as they shouldn't have more than a small handful a day anyway.