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Rats (as in wild ones)

Nicola C

Mama Doe
Hello,
I'm a bit worried today, because we think there has been a rat in our garage, because we found some (what we think is) rat poo and it smells a bit of wee :eek: Yuk! Anyway, some of the rabbits belongings (as in hay, straw, a few toys) were in there (although were not actually covered in anything nasty), so I'm worried that the rat may be carrying something horrible and am concerned that something may get passed on indirectly to my bunnies. Should I chuck the hay and straw out? I'm thinking yes and am going to spray some anti-bac where the poo was, but is there anything else I should do/consider? The rabbits were going to be living out there, but now I'm relieved they are inside. Also my bunnies are prob going to be living outside (in hutch) in summer and now I'm worried rats will be sniffing around their hutch at night and stuff. Help!
Any advice apreciated!!
Nicola x
 
Rats can be a problem to anyone wether you have pets or not. Its best to put poison down regularly somewere your other pets cannot get to it. Acourding to the inviramental heath people they are atracted to the food and straw. Food i can understand but straw :roll: . Any way i was advised not to use straw. Heath wise your rabbits are ok but do put poison down and keep all food in covered containers, and you could cover hay and straw up. Check the mesh ion your outdoor cages is small enough to keep rats out. And also priodicly check the bottoms and sides for any damage that the rat might do to gain access to the cage for food. Of course never leave any spilled food on the floor. Rats and mice will come to visit no matter what so as i do always be prepared and leave poison down . val
 
Although its not nice to any animal, we do put poison down, as if it came to it my bunnies are more important than a rat (which im petrified of). Even if they arent living outside, they still need to play outside. I think as long as you have strong mesh over the hutch and check the wood every day you should be fine, as long as they are vaxd. Also, if you were considring a shed, id think again, as rats can easily get into sheds (happened 2 times to us) without u even noticing, and can also live under the shed :shock: . I would throw out the hay and stuff personally. Eurgh - i just hate rats :x :shock: . xx
 
We had a problem with rats last year, trying to dig into the run. They're great diggers, and can also scale things pretty well :shock: . We've made the run much more secure, have very close mesh on it, and all secure underneath as well as everywhere else. We also had a compost heap in that area, which we have now got rid of. This has almost stopped the rat activity around the bunnies (we see evidence of them sometimes, but only outside the run) as we've removed anything they might be tempted by.
We did use poison last year, but were concerned that the poison may enter the food chain - by anything that feeds on rats.
 
I keep all feedstuff and bedding materials in big plastic green garden bins, too tough for the ratties to break in!

Prevention is better than cure and all that!
:)
 
Rats will only live where there is a source of food and water, so if you remove those, they won't hang about for too long, even if there is something nice to sleep in. Make sure that everything is secured in containers rather than in bags or loose.

How big was the dropping, was it grain of rice size or much bigger than that? Mice droppings are very small, slightly smaller than grains of rice, rat droppings are quite substantially bigger. If there was only one, and a puddle of wee, it definitely sounds like a rat. Rats are also creatures of habit and follow the same runs, so if you can work out where it got in and what route it would be using (if it's a regular run you should be able to see a clear bit along the floor, they also leave greasy marks at low level where they brush against walls), you can block it off and it could be as easy as that if you also make sure there's nothing available for them to eat or drink.

I'm not really sure if rats carry any diseases which might be transmitted to bunnies, to be honest in a way I'd be more worried if it was mice, as they are incontinent and wee everywhere, whereas rats only go when they need to.

Hope the bunnies are behaving themselves now!
 
Thanks guys, I am going to have a good clean out and disinfect every where in the garage. Good idea Alison, I'll get handy man boyf ( :wink: )to fashion up something to cover over the gap at the bottom of the garage door. There is a 4" or so gap, which I am sure is where the naughty rat got in. It must be a rat, as the poo was bigger than rice size. I'm really scared of using poison, so I think I'll try the blocking off and removing all food and hay, etc idea first and see how that goes. Jolly good! Naughty Mr Rat, he is spared for now, but he'd better not think about going anywhere near my bunnies!!!!! :twisted:
Thanks again.
Nicola x

ps-Alison, bunnies are being very sweet and loving and angelic again, phew! Think they are sucking up as they are looking forward to their holiday with Auntie Kath and I had told them 'any more bad behaviour and neither of you will be going'. :)
 
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