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Would a rat attack a rabbit?

beckiboo186

Warren Veteran
I want to have Rhia free in the garden all the time now, as we have rats I'm now going to lock her in a hutch at night time, but if a rat did see a rabbit playing freely, would they hurt/attack her? Too paranoid to let her out today, shes in a right tizz with me :( Xx
 
I want to have Rhia free in the garden all the time now, as we have rats I'm now going to lock her in a hutch at night time, but if a rat did see a rabbit playing freely, would they hurt/attack her? Too paranoid to let her out today, shes in a right tizz with me :( Xx

Possibly, rats are predators after all :-/
 
I doubt a free range Rat would attack a free range Bun but if the Rat were cornered or trapped by a Bun they may do.

Janex
 
i keep bantams, which are about the size of a nethie usually, but some are mroe dutch size. i lost one of mine to a rat a few years ago. i dunno if it could take a rabbit, but i wouldn't like to risk it really.

my bf told me before that rabbits will just sit there and let the predator eat them, until they can find a way to escape (if they can). he said he'd heard about a person who had got back home and her ferret had escaped, to see it eating the rabbit alive, whilst the rbabit just sat there :shock: :cry: .

i dunno if rats would do that, but i'd be careful. it maybe an idea to lay traps or something. thats what we did. annoyingly theres never just one :evil:

Ruth xx
 
A wild rat can attack and injure - possibly kill a rabbit. They probably pose more threat to baby or young rabbits than adults, though.
 
I'd say yes - I live surrounded by farmland so get lots of bunnies and rats and I've heard/seen a few rabbits being attacked by rats :? Usually it's the baby ones - don't know if it's because of their size or if the baby ones are just a bit slower to get away
 
Definately setting traps and putting down poison, the rabbits will just have to be kept in for a while. Unfortunately, it looks as though we have baby rats :shock: :shock: :shock: :cry: I absolutely deteste them, Awful things :x Maybe a rethink to our plan then :? Poor Rhia :( x
 
Poor Rhia.. i bet she IS in quite a mood over it! :lol:

Its best to keep her in and safe while you're dealing with the rat problem though... make sure you dont' leave any traces of whatever poison y0ou are laying down when you let Rhia back out at some point in time.
 
Poor Rhia.. i bet she IS in quite a mood over it! :lol:

Its best to keep her in and safe while you're dealing with the rat problem though... make sure you dont' leave any traces of whatever poison y0ou are laying down when you let Rhia back out at some point in time.

Ooh Yes definately. Rhia goes CRAZY when shes closed up, so aint gunna be a happy bun!!! :roll: Jen however, would happily sit in the same spot for .... a year maybe?! :lol: :lol:
 
Yes rats are opportunists and would definately try to attack rabbits (although admittedly they would probably be put off by very large rabbits). Sadly I've heard many tales of rabbit cages being broken into by hungry rats. :(
 
yep I wouldn't be too worried about big bunnies one of mine tried to attack my escaped pet rat :shock: I would be worried about little bunnies though. I had my hands ripped apart by a panicking rat last month and was amazed at how much damage he did, they have really sharp claws :shock:
 
ok, the deal with rats is that they are little monkeys!!! They will kill anything if they are hungry enough. The ferret rescue i volunteer for has lost a number of ferrets through rats, killing them and dragging them through any hole they can find.

Word of warning with poison....don't let the buns, or Vennie anywhere near it!!
 
Definately setting traps and putting down poison, the rabbits will just have to be kept in for a while. Unfortunately, it looks as though we have baby rats :shock: :shock: :shock: :cry: I absolutely deteste them, Awful things :x Maybe a rethink to our plan then :? Poor Rhia :( x

Do you have to use traps and poison? Rats are opportunists and scavengers and will only hang around places with food and shelter. Traps and poison just get rid of the immediate problem but unless you make longterm changes you'll just get more rats taking their place. Yes they may hurt your buns but they're animals too - I'm sure you'd hate to see a wild bun die slowly bleeding to death from getting caught in a trap (they don't always cause instant death and can just trap limbs etc) or internal organ failure (poison doesn't work quickly), rats may not be as cute to you but they feel as much pain. They're only doing what's natural to them :(
Poison also puts other animals at risk - our neighbours put poison down and for quite a while afterwards I had to go around our garden before letting Prue out to clear up any dead bodies. This stopped her ingesting poison but I hate to think how many wild animals may have eaten one of the poisoned bodies and got sick or died themselves.
 
I want to have Rhia free in the garden all the time now, as we have rats I'm now going to lock her in a hutch at night time, but if a rat did see a rabbit playing freely, would they hurt/attack her? Too paranoid to let her out today, shes in a right tizz with me :( Xx


Yes a rat would attack a bunny. Although it is fiction read the deptford mice trilogies. Rats will attack and kill anything it can and have a damn good try at things it can't.

Also rats carry deadly diseases for bunnies so get rid of them as soon as you can.
 
Yep Karly, I do have to use traps and poison. Its nothing to do with them being cute, They are vermin and want them nowhere near my animals or us, or little Samantha who comes over the fence to help with the buns. Of course there are going to be/already have been drastic changes. Everything has been moved out of the shed, bun included. No longer going to buy hay in bales, large quantities of anything, and everything like that will now be stored inside ;) Of course I hate any animal suffering, but when they are putting my family and my pets at risk, they gotta go!!! Xx
 
Would you not recommend keeping pet rats with rabbits then? We have been asked to take in 2 male rats, my boyf wants them, I'm not so keen as I am a bit worried about nibs and sox.
 
one of my friends rabbits was killed by a rat and she was a big and strong girl the rat bit her a that gave he a descese and she died a week later but they also found the dead body of a rat in the hutch.:cry:
 
Would you not recommend keeping pet rats with rabbits then? We have been asked to take in 2 male rats, my boyf wants them, I'm not so keen as I am a bit worried about nibs and sox.

As long as you don't let them near each other there's no problem - my two buns share a customised shed with 27 rats!

Becki, the chances are rats have been in and around your house without you noticing - it's only now that they've found something appealing (e.g. hay to make a nice warm nest in) that you've noticed them.
If you have to 'get rid' of them and won't consider humane traps then at least get some powerful kill traps that are likely to kill instantly and don't use poison. I have moved enough rats bleeding from practically every orifice while dying (from the neighbours laying poison) to know that it's a drawn out, painful death. You also run the risk of poisoning neighbourhood cats etc. who eat the dead (poisoned) body as it does pass down the food chain as said
Rabbits are vermin to many people - farmers and gardeners especially. Would you like to see wild buns die slowly from poison or weak traps that crush them to death slowly or cause them to die from shock due to a broken leg?
 
Would you not recommend keeping pet rats with rabbits then? We have been asked to take in 2 male rats, my boyf wants them, I'm not so keen as I am a bit worried about nibs and sox.

I have 4 bunnies and 4 rats and they dont cause each other problems, but I dont let them near each other :D On the day we got the rats though I didnt realise how quick they are when I was feeding them and one jumped out the cage and ran right past Beau into the corner of the room and back again, they didnt even look at each other but I wouldnt risk letting them out together in the same room and im really careful with the cage door now :D
 
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