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14-10-2018, 10:56 PM
11

Re: Feeding the birds

Originally Posted by Sharon60 ->
Thanks everyone it seems like the rat problem won’t go away. These rats are out in broad daylight and come right across my patio since I’ve stopped feeding the birds they’ve disappeared. Such a shame I love seeing the different types of birds that feed but I can’t cope with seeing the rats ��
How many are there, Sharon? If young ones too, you need to get a rat exterminator in. They can find the runs or where they live & deal with them, they should put the poison down in a safe place where pets & other animals can't get at it.
The rats here were out in daylight too, but I only saw two. I hope now they have gone, one definitely has, to the cat. I'll start feeding again when it gets colder & hope they are gone.

Good luck getting rid of them.
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14-10-2018, 11:47 PM
12

Re: Feeding the birds

We used to feed the birds all the time. I’d buy suet from the butchers, peanuts, sunflower seeds, millet, dried fruit, salflower, etc and make seeded suet feeders. The birds loved it and we had a large selection.
Blue jays, starlings, tit mice, chickadees, gold finches, purple finches, nut hatches, downy woodpeckers , junkos, cardinals, mourning doves, evening grosbeaks, rose breasted grosbeaks , ...

We had so many feeders and attracted many birds. The only problem besides created a perfect attack spot for them to be preyed on by hawks etc., was that it also attracted mice, raccoons, possums, etc which is NOT good.

We aren’t stupid people but it took us a while to figure out that when we were feeding the birds, we were feeding other critters which we didn’t want.

Now that we no longer feed the birds we don’t have that problem any more.
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15-10-2018, 10:18 AM
13

Re: Feeding the birds

Originally Posted by Tiffany ->
How many are there, Sharon? If young ones too, you need to get a rat exterminator in. They can find the runs or where they live & deal with them, they should put the poison down in a safe place where pets & other animals can't get at it.
The rats here were out in daylight too, but I only saw two. I hope now they have gone, one definitely has, to the cat. I'll start feeding again when it gets colder & hope they are gone.

Good luck getting rid of them.


Hi Tiff, I had a very bad experience with getting the professionals in, and it scared me too much to go down that road again.

You are correct in that they are careful and make the bait stations safe and secure, but after the chap had been a long while ago now, one night one of my dogs was violently sick. It was about 1 a.m. in the morning.
She continued vomitting until she was bringing up blood, and still couldn't stop retching.
I knew it was far different from just an upset tummy.

After an emergency trip to the vets in the early hours, and her still repeatedly retching, he whipped her in and put her on a drip immediately and told me he suspected poison and warned me she probably wouldn't make it through the night.

As you can imagine, I was horrified and distraught and drove home in a helluva a state thinking she was a gonna.

She did slowly recover though, and is sleeping next to me as I write.

I carefully checked the bait stations, nothing had been disturbed, she couldn't have got to them so was completely mystified.
All I could put it down to in the end was although she couldn't have eaten the bait, she must have eaten a dead animal that was full of the poison instead. That's the only thing I could think of, unless some bait had been dragged outside the box by a critter and she had eaten it. It is very palateble stuff after all.

After that episode, I had someone come in and set traps instead of bait, - and made sure she couldn't tread on them!

My youngest one now, young Gertie, is only 2 and gobbles up everything she can find, so I'd never chance it again.
She has already been at the vets last year for digging up and eating my Hyacinth bulbs!
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15-10-2018, 12:01 PM
14

Re: Feeding the birds

That is awful, Mups. We don't have animals here so it wouldn't happen.
My late OH used the bait before & it did only kill the rats. At least we think it killed them because they all disappeared. Traps are a much better idea. I guess they kill the rats after catching them.
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15-10-2018, 04:50 PM
15

Re: Feeding the birds

This summer I trapped a mouse (In a humane trap) by my bird feeders, I think he was living under the shed. as I approached him, he didn't panic but just sort of looked up at me like he knew something terrible was going to happen to him. I had to let him go.
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15-10-2018, 05:12 PM
16

Re: Feeding the birds

Originally Posted by Longdogs ->
This summer I trapped a mouse (In a humane trap) by my bird feeders, I think he was living under the shed. as I approached him, he didn't panic but just sort of looked up at me like he knew something terrible was going to happen to him. I had to let him go.
Mice are fine, they can stay, they don't carry diseases.
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15-10-2018, 06:41 PM
17

Re: Feeding the birds

Leptospirosis!
Mice quite literally dribble urine all over the place that is why you must never drink out of a bottle or can without wiping the top .
Mice also cause damage to allsorts of things such as a electric cables and the breed prolifically .
Mice seek habitation rats look for food .
They are both cute though in their own way
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15-10-2018, 07:04 PM
18

Re: Feeding the birds

Originally Posted by Muddy ->
Leptospirosis!
Mice quite literally dribble urine all over the place that is why you must never drink out of a bottle or can without wiping the top .
Mice also cause damage to allsorts of things such as a electric cables and the breed prolifically .
Mice seek habitation rats look for food .
They are both cute though in their own way
I didn't know that.
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15-10-2018, 07:29 PM
19

Re: Feeding the birds

Hi Sharon I had the same problem with rats and solved the problem by not having a bird table in the garden but feeding the birds regularly in the same place in the field near my house. I hang food in a tree and sprinkle some on a sawn-off tree stump.
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18-10-2018, 03:54 PM
20

Re: Feeding the birds

Originally Posted by Sharon60 ->
I bought a lovely bird table last year and enjoyed watching the birds feed to my horror one day I saw two rats around the base eating the bits the birds had dropped. I was horrified so I had to stop feeding the birds. Has anyone got any suggestions as to a rat free bird feeder.
I got rid of the bird table when the rats paid it attention. I can't abide things, it is a pity they can't all be exterminated.
 
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