Will mice and rats eat layer crumble/pellets?

[scottischicken]

Will mice and rats eat layer crumble/pellets even if there are no real seeds in the coop?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Absolutely they will.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes.

Ask me how I know.

Ask me about rabbit pellets, goat pellets, and "livestock 12%" pellets, too. Answer is still yes.

 

[scottischicken]

Absolutely they will.

Darn. I'm glad I'm still in the designing stage of my birds habitat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

They will also eat the roaches that come to check out your feed storage (but not fast enough to control the roaches). and if they get hungry enough, I've had tree rats eat into bags of bone meal, fertilizer, and even ant poison. Sadly, not enough to kill the rats, just enough to leave a hole in the bag - though the one eating grass fertilizer started dropping white leavings instead of black leavings and clearly wasn't doing well.

 

[BDutch]

Yes, mice and rats love all kind of chicken feed.

Whats your next question? How to prevent a feast meal for rodents feeding chickens?

 

[scottischicken]

Yes, mice and rats love all kind of chicken feed.

Whats your next question? How to prevent a feast meal for rodents feeding chickens?

I'm thinking about getting into raising quails because they are smaller than chickens. Should I use 1/2 x 1" hardware cloth for their habitat? And can mice and rats squeeze their way into 1/2 x 1" hardware cloth? Or should I use 1/2 x 1/2" all the way around the cage?

 

[BDutch]

1/2 x 1/2"

Better. Rats won’t go through 1/2 x 1/2". Im not sure about mice.
1 x 1 cm, sold for bird cages is better if you can buy that.
Make sure they can’t dig underneath too.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I use 1/2" x 1/2" for my rabbit cages, works well. Only weak point is the doors.

Nor sure if mice can defeat 1" or 1" x 1/2" hardware cloth, but I had some small diameter poutry netting / chicken wire - I think it was 3/4", and some mice went thru it a couple times. Then the chickens got wise and attacked them. Less mice.

 

[scottischicken]

Better. Rats won’t go through 1/2 x 1/2". Im not sure about mice.
1 x 1 cm, sold for bird cages is better if you can buy that.
Make sure they can’t dig underneath too.

What is the best manual/hand tool to cut the hardware cloth so that the ends are flush, meaning no sharp wire sticking out of the edges? I'm on a budget and I prefer to avoid spending $100 on a Ryobi cut off tool.