Rats- how to stop them eating food

[Janedavidson]

How do I deter rats from eating the kitten kibble put in the feeding station?

[Bethany Craker]

Unfortunately you can’t as it’s part of having visitors such as hedgehogs but their is ways to make it harder for them but still allows hedgehogs in such as making the hole smaller, surprisingly hedgehogs are very agile and can tuck their body’s up very small to get into tight areas as rats and foxes and cats can’t….you may think god my hedgehog can’t fit in their but honestly you will be surprised

Hedgehogs feed late so later you put food out less time rats have to eat it, another thing to try is mint a little bit by the feeding station or growing near by should deter your rats they hate it I have tried it and it does work and hedgehogs apparently love the smell

Also try cat food (nothing fish based though as hedgehogs won’t eat it) as they apparently hate cat food

Hopefully these tips will help let me know how you get on

[stef]

There is little you can do to stop rats. They are rarely deterred by anything – mint may work sometimes but I have a rat run that comes up in a patch of mint – so don’t bank on it
They will eat anything and the strong smell of wet cat food is going to attract them and other animals
Most cat food doesn’t have enough fish in it to cause any issues for hedgehogs and this advice has been discontinued for years. Most cat and dog food has fish derivatives in it

[Nic]

Also pretty sure a rat would be able to get through a hole a hog could get through. What on earth size rats do you have where you are Bethany Craker?! Hedgehogs are good at changing their shape to squeeze through surprisingly small gaps, but rats are pretty good at squeezing through small spaces, too.

Janedavidson, this is a link, which contains a list of other links where rats have been discussed in the past. You might find something helpful amongst that. But if you get a persistent rat, who also likes kitten biscuits, it’s very difficult to deter them. I had one who used to carry the kitten biscuits off somewhere. Not sure whether it actually ate them or not!

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-probelm/

[Baldwin hedgehog]

I have rats and mice helping themselves to my hedgehog food as well.
Absolutely no way of stopping it.
I have live trapped rats in a cage trap before and released them in the countryside but you must never leave a cage trap set after you go to bed because they are just as capable of catching hedgehogs. You could try a rat cage trap inside a box with only a 3″ hole in it, thereby preventing hedgehogs getting in. Obviously spring traps are and absolute no no.
Good luck

[Author]

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