Help, wild rats

Does anyone know of the risk of wild rats to pet rabbits, besides the obvious possible physical injuries if they get into the hutch and challenge for food. My main concern is about transmissible diseases, I know that people can catch Weils disease but what about bunnies.

I am at my wits end, I have no idea where these rats are coming from. There is no sign of food or faeces anyhwere and can only assume there must be a nest in a neighbours. I got rid of the compost bin because of unwanted visitors, I've ripped up the decking area to prevent more rat runs. Now I need to demolish the shed as my Jack Russel is telling me they've been under there. I have a small garden that I keep well cleared, and really don't want poison putting down and dragging where any of the pets could get at it.

Anyone else have a problem like this, and how did you deal with it.

Thanks, Tracey.

Never had rats around my bunnies, but we had them at the stables where I kept my pony. The rats were coming into the stables via a broken drain, so we just blocked the entrance to the drain with a heavy slab, and the rats went away.

I would guess if they're living in your garden, the logical thing would be to get rid of any food source...i.e. don't store pet food outside, make sure rubbish is in a secure bin, etc.

You'll have to make sure your neighbours take the same precautions though, which might not be easy

To be honest there are rats everywhere all the time. They are unlikely to give your buns any diseases, and so long as you keep the food in containers there won't be a problem.

Rats are not usually vicious enough to challenge over food, especially if your bunnies are in a run. The rats shouldn't be able to get in there, they aren't as small as mice.

There really is no need to pull down your shed as well, rats aren't the terrible beasts they are made out to be - far from it.
After all, without them we'd be up to our knees in dead birds and other nasties that cause disease and attract flies, and everything has to live somewhere.

I have a rat problem a couple of times a year due to the amount of decking in my garden. The vet assures me they can not pass on anything to rabbits.

I get rid of any bird feeders and put bait under the decking where the bunnies cant get to it, I usually put it in plastic bags and attatch a piece of string so that I can pull it out again to see if they have taken the bait. Once they stop taking the bait I stop putting it out as I assume they are dead.

I'm not sure if this will be of any use, if you are worried about them coming in the house I got one of those plug in deterrent things from wilkinsons, we had a mouse problem a couple of years ago since getting this we have had no problems.

Thanks everyone.

I think I'm getting jumpy with everything that's going on, it's reassuring to hear the ratties should have little impact on the buns welfare.

I had assumed initially it was mice as we've always had the odd mouse around outside. But this is a sudden nightly deluge of activity and definitely rats cos I saw one in the vegie rack in the kitchen! All my pet food is kept indoors in plastic bins and the refuse bin kept at the front and lidded. Unfortunately the neighbouring gardens are not, erm, well tended.

I don't have anything against ratties, I've had several as companions over the years, I just don't want to share my space quite so intimately with them. I'll definately give one of the plug in deterrents a go.

Thanks again.

We recently had evidence of rats in our front garden (this is where my bunny shed is with all of my supplies). I was going to get a humane trap but before I could do so, I had a visit from the environmental health people as neighbours had reported sightings and one had even shot a rat with an air rifle. It's not surprising to me that they are around, after all I live opposite farmland and have a stream that runs across our frontage.

The EH men were happy that I wasn't causing the problem with my bunny stuff but did mention that if the problem persisted, they would have to come back and set traps (which would cost). I mentioned about humane traps, but I was told that there is no point as it is an offense to move rats from one location to another as they are considered vermin. I was also told that even if they were moved to another location where rats already existed they would become prey to the rats already there.

Luckily for me, there has been no evidence since the poor wee beastie got shot by the neighbour. Personally I don't mind them, except if they pose a threat to my buns.

Would it be worth having a chat with environmental health? If your neighbours are doing things that encourage rats, eg leaving rubbish around, they may be able to help with that.

Several people I know who have had this problem have been told the biggest cause of attracting rats is feeding birds.
People tend to put food on the ground or bits fall out of feeders..so check your neighbours aren't leaving meals out for your little visitors.

Rats will only hang around when there's something on offer - safe, warm housing (e.g. overgrown hedges/shrubs, old wild rabbit burrows, space under a shed/decking), a water source (pond, somewhere prone to lots of puddles, ditches, bird baths) and food (spilt rabbit food, containers that can be chewed into easily, wild bird feeders, rubbish bags left out)
Get rid of as many of these resources as you can and the rats will move on to an area more convenient for them. Rats are intelligent so even hanging feeders can be a food source - we had to stop feeding the birds as we'd get a brave little family of ratties who learnt what time we put food out and would scale right up the pole of a bird table and swing themselves up for a feast, in the middle of the day with us watching in fascination.
Please think twice about putting poison down though - no matter how "fast" it claims to kill, remember they work by causing organ failure, it's not a humane or even very fast death. If you have to use a kill method, at least consider the strong snap traps they do these days - there's ones different to the traditional ones, which work better as the rat has to get right inside, which I think makes it much more likely the trap will break the neck and kill instantly. But getting rid of resources and using humane traps to get rid of any stragglers is the best way to do it - and also most effective. If you have one or two survivers from putting poison/traps down, it only takes a couple of litters before you have another lot of rats (they can have 20, sometimes even more, in a litter, and gestation is only 21 days, they're capable of being independant by 3-4 weeks and sexually mature at 5!), so removing what's attracting them in the first place is your priority.
Weil's disease can be passed on by any animal - rats just tend to get the blame as they're the more well-known "vermin". When looking the other day, I found a report giving the confirmed cases of Weil's disease in humans in the UK and it was only around 40 cases a year, if that, so it's not really that common.

I have 2 bird tables, 6 bird feeders, 2 bird baths, a wildlife pond/tank and a big pond, as well as a huge layer of bark chippings which is teeming with insects.

In my garden I have woodmice and at least a couple rats, frogs, newts, squirrels and hedgehogs - as well as the birds and the bunnies. They all live together in perfect peace (apart from the one mouse that Doris killed :roll
The mice live under and in my shed, the rat/s are down that end too, but they don't bother me and I don't bother them.

There really isn't the need to chase out and kill all these animals, especially since we moved into their space, not the other way around.

So long as all the bunny food is boxed up, the house is clean and the rubbish is put in bins nobody should have any problems. You can't blame a rat for being a rat, it's what it does best. :lol:

It's lovely that you can leave in peace with them. However, not everyone has an idealic garden(/mini wildlife park!) and this can lead to problems if the rats start wandering into the house or something like that. Despite having acres of farmland around my old house, the rats would wander in to the house and chew allsorts - especially the lids of fruit squashes that we stored on a low cupboard, and they chewed through the plastic water pipes for things like the dishwasher and washing machine. If they'd decided to chew wires then it could have become a fire hazard too.
Lovely creatures, and I'm not agreeing with poisoning or killing (just saying if you really feel the need, do it the most humane way possible) - but they can cause serious problems.

Wild Rats are disease spreading vermin.A few years ago I had rats in the compost heap and thought live and let live until I found lumps on two of my baby rabbits bums and found the rats had bitten them.I watched the babies run past the compost heap and the rat came out like a cuckcoo clock and bit them.They get poisoned now as I realise if you see one rat you know there are a load more where that one came from.

Maizey said:

Wild Rats are disease spreading vermin.A few years ago I had rats in the compost heap and thought live and let live until I found lumps on two of my baby rabbits bums and found the rats had bitten them.I watched the babies run past the compost heap and the rat came out like a cuckcoo clock and bit them.They get poisoned now as I realise if you see one rat you know there are a load more where that one came from.

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Rabbits are disease-spreading vermin too - do you support the spread of myxi in wild rabbits as a means of control? :?

Ben's mum said:

Rabbits are disease-spreading vermin too - do you support the spread of myxi in wild rabbits as a means of control? :?

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No I dont myxi is a man made disease and I love rabbits but when rats come into my garden and hurt something I love I take measures to stop it happening.Wouldnt you?Ive just read your post on the previous page and im not evil.Believe you me i constantly tried the humane way of getting rid of them and all i caught every night in my trap was a hedgehog.As for the snap traps my OH has one but i didnt want him to use it as we have so much other wildlife in our garden.Im sorry if I offended you but I had to do something drastic to save my bunnies.

Maizey said:

No I dont myxi is a man made disease and I love rabbits but when rats come into my garden and hurt something I love I take measures to stop it happening.Wouldnt you?Ive just read your post on the previous page and im not evil.Believe you me i constantly tried the humane way of getting rid of them and all i caught every night in my trap was a hedgehog.As for the snap traps my OH has one but i didnt want him to use it as we have so much other wildlife in our garden.Im sorry if I offended you but I had to do something drastic to save my bunnies.

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And poison is man-made, I don't see the difference? Rabbits are considered vermin by a lot of people.
There are other ways to prevent your rabbits coming to harm without killing other innocent animals (they're only doing what comes naturally to them, that includes catching rabbits if they're quick enough, they don't know the difference between a wild one and your pets) - for example, a predator-proof enclosure.

My rabbits are free range except for night time when they have to be put in to stop the foxes killing them.Im not having an argument with you.I did what I had to do.Have you ever had a rat harming one of your animals?

Like I said, I had problems with rats coming in the house at my old home - I woke up to one in my bed with me one night :shock: So yes, it could've gone and harmed my rabbits (houserabbits), so I took precautions to prevent it happening again. When the rabbits moved outside I took precautions then - their shed was fully lined with mesh with a metal floor to prevent rats chewing in. I feel as a pet owner it's our responsibility to keep them safe - I'd never let a rabbit freerange in an open garden without supervision, foxes don't only come at night, neighbourhood cats could jump in and harm them, birds of prey, a kid's stray football flying over the fence, or in your case, wild rats attacking them.
The rats aren't being malicious, they're doing what they can to survive - a rabbit would provide a nice meal for them and their family and they don't know that they're not "allowed" to catch pet rabbits

ok ok.Im sorry My rabbits are free range because I love them that much that I cant bare for them to be confined and yes i do have probs with cats and footballs.Ive had rabbits all my life and Ive always kept them this way.Im sorry we have had a falling out about rats but believe you me my animals are my life and i will do anything in my power to keep them safe and well. Im here most of the day and I wont even go on holiday because they mean that much to me.So please will you stop having a go at me and live your life the way you want to and I will live mine the best way i see fit.

Hey everyone, this thread has grown, I really didn't want to start a ratty war!

I live in a town in a row of terraces, it's a small garden 20 by 30 ft, and I never use any chemicals. I have a small pond for the frogs (who I haven't seen now for a couple of weeks, hope they are just lying low and haven't been lunch!) and it's planted to provide some food for the birds and insects. My buns are in a large hutch with a meshed run on flags - no sign of the ratties trying to chew through so that's good, however they've had a good go through my pipe insulation.

The rat runs were all along the back of the garden so I guess they were using them to cut through from one neighbours garden to another. I leave my door open for the dogs all evening in summer, so it's probable the house visitor was opportunistic. I'm hesitant to contact the council because they'll want to put down poison, so for now I'm going to take all the precautions I can and hope the activity dies down.

Like I said I think I was just jumpy with everything else that's going on, I got ill again, can't afford the girls ever increasingly expensive dentals and lost my son's support worker - when I saw the ratties it was just the last straw as vaccinations are beyond my purse strings for the forseeable.

Thanks to everyone for the reassurances regarding transmissible diseases, Tracey.