Will mice and rats eat layer crumble/pellets?

[BDutch]

manual/hand tool to cut the hardware cloth

I used heavy duty scissors. They cost around €18,-.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Angle grinder from harbor freight.

You will spend half that for a decent pair of hand held wire snips of any design, your hands will kill you after a short while (its how I built my first two rabbit cages), and you still end up with short, sharp nibs.

Bull nose wire cutters give the closest cut, but its real hard to get them in between the wires when you have a 1/2" grid. Most people use the scissor style snips. They work with any size grid, but I couldn't get a consistent cut close to the perpendicular wire. [this may be my fail).

 

[scottischicken]

Angle grinder from harbor freight.

You will spend half that for a decent pair of hand held wire snips of any design, your hands will kill you after a short while (its how I built my first two rabbit cages), and you still end up with short, sharp nibs.

Bull nose wire cutters give the closest cut, but its real hard to get them in between the wires when you have a 1/2" grid. Most people use the scissor style snips. They work with any size grid, but I couldn't get a consistent cut close to the perpendicular wire. [this may be my fail).

Thanks!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thanks!

They have one at half that price which is perfectly fine for cutting hardware cloth, and plastic, but not much else. The one I linked has served me well cutting rebar. LOTS and LOTS of rebar cuts.

Wear eye protection, jeans, close toed shoes. Otherwise you are like to get tiny fragments onf galzanized steel - about the size of a large grain of sand to a small red pepper flake - thrown at you as you are cutting. I ignore them at this point, but still wear my eyes.

 

[aart]

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.

Just about any power cutoff tool is going to be too aggressive, IMO.
Yes, had tools are laborious but makes for a better product/material to install.
I laid it all out on a smooth concrete surface, wore knee pads, and often used the floor to push the cutter handle against to reduce hand fatigue.
This is what I used:

 

[NatJ]

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?

Young/small mice can go through 1/2" by 1/2" hardware cloth. I've seen them do it.

I think those holes are small enough to stop adult mice.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I use one of these on my circular saw.

It may be considered aggressive But it's fast and with my mad skills I can cut it then bump it into the wire to grind it to a smooth edge.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There are three methods of dealing with rodents ranked by efficiency and cost. You are jumping to the second method without considering the cheaper method.

1. Sanitation Bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids, buy a good treadle feeder with an inward swinging door, a distant and narrow treadle, no plastic parts, and a spring loaded door to prevent rodents from just pushing the door open. Most do not have all four features so do your research and avoid advice from sites with links to Amazon. You also need to clean up the paths the rodents use to get from their burrows to the feed and water sources, get them exposed to natural predators. Rodents leave a urine trail that glows bright yellow in the natural UV light that most winged predators can see. You will spend $200 to $300, half for the feeder, maybe $30 for a metal trash can, the balance on labor to clean up junk and trash or block off openings under buildings. Not recommended for small breeds or if you have chicks or poults in the same coop. If you do buy a treadle feeder, avoid the soft close if you have smaller breeds like silkies or bantams and buy a duck step so the little ones can reach the feed and be ready and willing to adjust the spring tension on the door. Look at the negative reviews very carefully, ignore the positives, most people aren't dealing with rats, they just needed a feeder and even a poor feeder like the Chinese made Grandpa feeder will sometimes work at first.

2. Exclusion Which is what you are doing. You will spend four to five times the cost of the sanitation method but it can work IF you don't free range and like another poster said, spend some time crafting a tight fitting door. Bury the hardware cloth under the coop, total encapsulation with no openings bigger than a nickle. This works best and is justified if you have small breeds like banties or silkies. Plan on spending four to six man days installing the hardware cloth. It can be very effective if done right and maintained.

3. Elimination The worst choice as the expense and time needed never ends. Rodents wise up quickly so traps and poison rarely works for long. Side effects include poisoning the natural predators that already help keep the numbers down, and the risk to pets. Cheap to implement, just rarely works.

If you go with the hardware cloth, Harbor Freight sells cheap aviation tin snips that are much easier to use. Once you staple the hardware cloth down you won't have a problem with the ends. Remember that the only thing that stops rodents is steel or iron and ceramics like tile. They will chew through concrete, aluminum, plastic, and wood

Good luck!