[landroverroy]

One of my peafowl was looking a bit off colour today, so I mixed up some chilli pepper with their food. This is an effective antibacterial and usually sorts them out. I added it to the hens' food as well just in case there was anything going round.
Then a rat ran across the run.
I don't normally see rats in daylight, and I don't leave feed out at night. So I'm then thinking of a way, short of buying an expensive treadle feeder, of how to leave feed out during the day,  but at the same time stop the rats eating it.
Then it occurred to me that whereas birds are immune to the effects of hot pepper, humans and dogs are very aware of them. So would rats also be averse to eating ad lib pepper? I googled it and apparently rats and mice will not willingly eat chilli pepper! Eureka! . So, I've sprinkled red pepper on all the birds' feed. I'm going to leave some out overnight and see if it's still there in the morning. [size=78%]   [/size]

[doganjo]

Thanks for that tip, Roy - I didn't know that birds were immune to the effect of chilli, or in fact that it was beneficial to them.  I will do that tomorrow.  I take it there are no ill effects on them at all?

[landroverroy]

No, I've used it loads of times if a bird seems a bit down and seen no adverse effects. In fact I did wonder if that's what gives the red colouring to poultry spice.


Apparently in America where chillis grow wild it was noticed that birds will eat the entire fruit quite avidly, whereas rats and mice (understandingly!) avoided it. A bit of research showed that when birds ate the chillis then the seeds passed straight through them and were dispersed and germinated. However because mammals have teeth and grind their food, then the seeds were destroyed. (Did they force feed the mammals one wonders? ) From this it was surmised that the hot flavouring was specifically to deter mammals, but was undetectable to birds as they were needed to eat the chillis in order to spread the seeds.[size=78%]  [/size]