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Rats!!

VickyM_73

Young Bun
No idea where to post this. I noticed a few weeks ago that my bunnies seemed to be spending a lot less time in their shed (they have a playhouse with a hutch inside). I thought it was just the warmer wheather but the other day I heard some scrabbling noises behind the hutch (there's a gap behind it because the top overhangs a bit so I can't push it all the way to the back of the shed). And also the lid had been left of a pot of seeds on top of the hutch and there were seed husks in it and all over the top of the hutch so it was obvious it had been raided by something. I was hoping it was just but ordered some rat traps yesterday just in case. Anyway this morning my daughters saw 2 giant rats running around the garden! I've put some traps on top of the hutch and have ordered a couple of boxes to put outside with traps in.

Just wondered if anyone has had this problem and if they can give any advice. We'll have to see if we can get the hutch out of the shed (unfortunately it was built around the hutch though to this could be interesting. Also I don't want to risk a face down with a scared rat while I'm taking the shed apart!

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Vicky
 
We had a rats behind/in/under the shed. We tried and caught a couple with traps but in the end called in some pest controllers who got rid of the rats in a few weeks
Good luck
 
If you store food outside I suggest you store it somewhere the rats can not get to it.
Ensure buns don't have dry food left out all the time, and have their veg eaten within 5 mins (split it into two meals if you have to).

Removing the hutch is a good idea, maybe dismantle it in the shed to get it out the door?

It may be worth considering putting buns into a boarders for a week or two while you deal with the rats. Maybe they could come inside to an unheated room temporarily?

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Dismantling the hutch is a good idea - they won't have a nice place to hide then.

And I agree with Daphne - store food somewhere that rats can't get to it and don't give more pellets/veg at a time than the bunnies can eat in a few minutes.

It's much better to make sure you're not attracting rats than it is to kill them (assuming you mean snap traps rather than live traps). Personally, I think killing is pointless and needlessly cruel in most situations (and poison is always cruel, on multiple levels). It's like shooting every fox that comes into your garden - there's just going to be more of them if they're attracted to your garden for whatever reason. Killing them makes room for more is all. Better to just ensure that animals you don't want in your garden can be kept out/discouraged. They're native (more or less) animals that are only trying to survive and they don't know they're not welcome there.

This is speaking generally by the way, because I know that a lot of people think the solution to rats is to immediately kill them without warning. I just always find it sad. I could never kill a rat. When we have roof rat (Rattus rattus) problems in our yard we just make sure we're careful about leaving pet food out and also making sure the yard is tidy and trimmed so that it's as uncomfortable to them as possible and so they don't breed much if at all, because they need really safe places to breed. Sometimes we'll find they're using something as a base, such as a doghouse/playhouse/plant shelf/etc, while they run back and forth stealing pet food, so we'll remove those things.

We actually just did some fixing up in our front yard this week in order to discourage the roof rats and it's worked - hadn't seen them in our front yard since, even when the cat food is on the front porch at night. Although we do remove the cat food still since we don't want to chance it.

Hope this helps :)
 
Have to say I agree with William, I wouldn’t kill a rat in the same way that I wouldn’t kill a wild rabbit that wandered into my garden. Making the shed - and the rest of your garden - unattractive to them is the way to go, in my view.

I had mice in my shed the first winter we lived here - it was totally my fault as I kept a pile of junk in there and stored my wild bird food in - wait for it - a cardboard box :oops:

After clearing it out and storing all rabbit and bird food indoors they haven’t been back. My buns eat their greens and egg cup full of pellets within minutes and I never leave food out. My compost bins are daleks and I never put food in them.

Mind you I do have 5 cats!
 
You can buy humane traps which catch the rats so you can take them to a field and release them into the wild. I've used these for mice before and they work really well, it's just a little plastic box with a trap door. Please don't hurt them!
 
You can buy humane traps which catch the rats so you can take them to a field and release them into the wild. I've used these for mice before and they work really well, it's just a little plastic box with a trap door. Please don't hurt them!

You should travel far far away to release them then. Otherwise they will come back probably and annoy you again.
 
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