[arobwk]

Sweet potatoes apparently turn to cyanide in their gut and kill them fairly quickly and less painfully than 'commercial poison' and are also non-lethal to other species so no risk to others from poisoned rats.  I guess if you bait the trap with sweet potato...  Chocolate is also poisonous to them.  Google 'what not to feed my pet rat' for ideas...

Well, that's definitely put me off sweet potatoes - not that I liked them much anyway.

[doganjo]

Seems a bit cruel to starve them to death though, since that is eventually what would happen?

Would they?  I didn't know that.  I thought rats ate anything so would easily find food there

[SallyintNorth]

Rats are fairly omnivorous yes, but they are also a species which is ultra cautious about new things.  So chucking one out into a completely unknown environment, with no friends, would be, at the very least, very stressful for them, and yes, they might possibly starve as they would be reticent to try new foods - and it would all be new to them! 

[vfr400boy]

I shoot them in my live trap or some times they escape and the dogs get them , but my mate pops the trap in a card bored box with a 3inch hole in it pops the exhaust from his 4x4 in the hole wait a few minutes and the rat just falls asleep

[arobwk]

Rats are fairly omnivorous yes, but they are also a species which is ultra cautious about new things.  So chucking one out into a completely unknown environment, with no friends, would be, at the very least, very stressful for them, and yes, they might possibly starve as they would be reticent to try new foods - and it would all be new to them! 

If the option considered would be to release them miles from nowhere (where rats are not normally in residence), my primary concern would be that those rats would find a new food source/way to survive and upset the ecology of an otherwise rat-free environment !  Don't do it - adapt your traps to enable euthanizing them and/or get yourself a few Jack Russells.  Other good ratter breeds available, hopefully at a modest purchase price - especially "rescues".
(That said, I won't tell you the mind-numbing price I've been told a friend of a friend paid for a 'pet' pedigree miniature Dachshund recently because it makes me angry just thinking about it especially when it encourages amateurs to breed pure or cross-breeds just for the very many Łk they might make from each litter !!)

[arobwk]

Sweet potatoes apparently turn to cyanide in their gut and kill them fairly quickly and less painfully than 'commercial poison' and are also non-lethal to other species so no risk to others from poisoned rats.  I guess if you bait the trap with sweet potato...  Chocolate is also poisonous to them.  Google 'what not to feed my pet rat' for ideas...

Well, that's definitely put me off sweet potatoes - not that I liked them much anyway.

Me neither but I've been buying some quite large ones recently... I notice you didn't say it was enough to put you off chocolate!!!

I do quite like chocolate, but I could definitely live without it if required ! 
A short funny story (forgive me if I've related it ont forum before):  A new gardening client - "May I give your little dog a biscuit ?"  Since she had a dog herself I, of course, said "Yes".  Breaking off from my gardening moments later I turned around & found my little Pap' scoffing on 2 chocolate digestives !!  Luckily, she proved not to be allergic to chocolate (which I had avoided giving her up to then).  I still don't give either of my dogs chocolate though.

[Richmond]

we bait our mousetraps with chocolate .....

[Fleecewife]

we bait our mousetraps with chocolate .....

We tried chocolate and our rats weren't interested (like me - I hate the stuff); we tried Mars bars - nope; we tried cheese - no, don't eat that (unlike me, I love it); we tried peanut butter - nope (I love that too); so we couldn't think of anything else and just put grain on - they love that and we catch several.  Perhaps they're just not suspicious of grain.

[Anke]

The rats around here are connoisseurs of goat droppings.... but so far I have stopped short of baiting the traps with it, given how much is in the pens anyway...

[SallyintNorth]

The rats around here are connoisseurs of goat droppings.... but so far I have stopped short of baiting the traps with it, given how much is in the pens anyway...

 

[SallyintNorth]

The rats around here are connoisseurs of goat droppings.... but so far I have stopped short of baiting the traps with it, given how much is in the pens anyway...

Now that's REALLY interesting because yesterday I found a whole pile of goat droppings behind the feed bins, along with a dead rat (I assumed the cats had caught it).  I couldn't for the life of me work out how the goat had got in there to "dump" (quite literally) them.  I wonder if they're collecting a stash for some reason?!  And if so why, given that there's plenty of it around!

 

[SallyintNorth]

The rats around here are connoisseurs of goat droppings.... but so far I have stopped short of baiting the traps with it, given how much is in the pens anyway...

Wait... I see a diversification business there...  Making and selling goat droppings as rat bait...

[arobwk]

In Orinlooper fashion;  are goat droppings squeezing into ice-cube moulds and frozen for 'freshness' better than dried goat droppings. Anyone tempted to experiment ?! 

[Lesley Silvester]

we bait our mousetraps with chocolate .....

You might just trap a chocoholic's hand that way.


I had a friend who used to trap mink in humane traps and then drown them.

[arobwk]

I shoot them in my live trap or some times they escape and the dogs get them , but my mate pops the trap in a card bored box with a 3inch hole in it pops the exhaust from his 4x4 in the hole wait a few minutes and the rat just falls asleep

Any chance [member=27335]vfr400boy[/member] you could fiddle with your avatar photo so that you and your doggie are the right way up ?!  Every time I see your avatar pic I just cannot stop myself bending my head sideways - I really can't help it and it would be great if you could put me out of my neck-twisting misery!