The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: Christian on March 07, 2017, 07:28:43 pm

Title: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Christian on March 07, 2017, 07:28:43 pm
Something lives in/under/around our barn (with goats, chicken and hay) that happily clears out our rat traps - on those rare occasions that we get one of them daft buggers. It seems to prefer 'back end and innards', leaving the head as a trophy behind. Should I be worried about the chicken (e.g., is it a stoat)?

Christian
Desperate Smallholders
Borders
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: chrismahon on March 08, 2017, 06:43:49 am
Without a trail camera you will never know for sure. You could try sprinkling sand around the trap and look for prints, but it is possible that other rats are eating them. We had a rat somewhere in the house that used to eat the mice caught in traps, leaving just the head.
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Q on March 08, 2017, 07:17:23 am
Second vote for other rats. Mine have had mice from the traps. I thought a mouse had escaped from a trap when I came to move it until I saw the tiny pair of legs and the head left.  The trap was left for a rat in the first place - I just ended up feeding it.
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: kipper on March 17, 2017, 07:28:32 am
With poultry often comes mice or rats and it's hard to stop that
With my experience the rats eat the rats in the traps

I would have thought stoat would have done more damage than that by now
I always have a fenn trap set in a steel box so nothing else can get caught and I've only ever had a rat in it but they are good for stoats and squirrels also

Happy trapping
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Christian on April 16, 2017, 01:26:02 pm
Hi All,

thanks and 'yes' to all of you - it's rats on rats in our barn. I've got a CCTV set up to monitor my goat kids and it looks like we have two types of rats. Small brown ones with a soft spot for peanut butter (those I can trap) and black captain America type of things that live of raw meat.

Kipper, Fenn Trap in steel box sounds like the best way to go - where did you get yours from?

Best
Christian
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Marches Farmer on April 25, 2017, 05:39:16 pm
Blimey, where are you?  The ship rat (Rattus rattus) is rare in the UK and I'm glad it is.  Worse news than Rattus norvegicus, the brown rat.
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: doganjo on April 25, 2017, 08:29:48 pm
Borders near a big river
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Christian on April 30, 2017, 08:05:05 pm
Yup, Tweed is just around the corner, about 20m away. Does 'rare in the UK' mean it is protected? Just bought Venn traps, see what we can get....

Thanks folks,

Christian
Desperate Smallholders
Tweedsmuir
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: Buttermilk on May 01, 2017, 06:21:29 am
They were a target species on my rodenticide course.
Title: Re: Who's eating my rats?
Post by: landroverroy on May 01, 2017, 03:04:18 pm
Weren't black rats the ones that brought the plague in the 17th century?
Didn't realise they were still around.