Rats…any thoughts?

[cg]

Hi all,

So, rats are eating a fair bit of the food I’m putting out for my hogs. I wouldn’t mind if they just took a little, and I don’t have any intention of hurting or killing the rats (they live here too), but hedgehog food is pretty expensive, and I want the hogs to get enough. Since the times the hogs feed are not altogether predictable, sometimes half or even most of the food I put out is disappearing before the hogs get there. I’m refilling the dishes once or a couple times a night, so I don’t leave huge amounts of food out all night. When I’ve left a camera pointing at my feeding stations, there are always rats eating loads of food in between the hog visits. Trying to predict the hogs’ schedules has proven impossible.

Anyone have any ideas to keep rats away that won’t hurt or scare the hogs? Like I said, I truly don’t mind if they eat a little, but would rather they didn’t eat the majority of the food I put out, and I think some nights that is happening.

I do have a cat, but he is pretty old now, and the rats seem to know he isn’t much of a threat anymore, and ignore him, even when he’s nearby.

Would appreciate any suggestions if anybody has come up with anything that helps.

[Nic]

Hi cg

I collected up some rat topics and the links of those are in this topic
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-probelm/

Hopefully you will find something you can try from amongst those.

Good luck.

[cg]

Hi Nic,

Thanks for the link. I had a look at the thread. Nothing much new there, so I guess I’ll just have to continue hoping the hogs are getting the majority of the food.

“Humane traps” are anything but. (I made the mistake of using one once in my kitchen to try to catch a poor little vole the cat brought in that was hiding in there, and the poor thing actually exhausted itself to death overnight trying to get out of the trap. It was horrific, and I cried for days. Never ever again.)

Anyway, I imagine if you caught one rat several more would take its place in a few days. I honestly don’t mind them, I just know the hogs need feeding much more than they do, and I can’t afford to feed dozens of rats,

I’ve seen a couple of rats and a hog eating out of the same bowl (they mostly ignore each other). I don’t feed birds, so bird seed isn’t a factor. I won’t use any sort of traps or poison on any animal.

All the best.

[Author]

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