Will rats kill baby chicks?

[Akrnaf2]

That's terrible - rats are such a plague!

Read this
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989415000244
Especially the tabel of bird damaged by rats in the end!

 

[3riverschick]

You need heavy-duty hardware cloth to keep rats out. find out where they're coming in and fix hardware cloth over the holes.
you might have to line the whole bottom and of the coop either inside or out and up the sides for a foot or so
hardware cloth will keep them out. also keeps out weasels.
Karen

 

[chickmom3941]

You need heavy-duty hardware cloth to keep rats out. find out where they're coming in and fix hardware cloth over the holes.
you might have to line the whole bottom and of the coop either inside or out and up the sides for a foot or so
hardware cloth will keep them out. also keeps out weasels.
Karen

Hi, and thanks for your suggestion. We did put hardware cloth on the bottom and partway up the sides when hubs built the coop. Maybe he didn't put it up as high as I thought he did though, because there's for sure two holes where they have chewed through the walls. I like your idea to put the cloth over the holes - I think we will try that! Maybe the cloth + more boards over the cloth. Geez, at this rate, we should have made the coop out of sheet iron - lol.

 

[chickmom3941]

Read this
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989415000244
Especially the tabel of bird damaged by rats in the end!

Wow - that's a lot of reading! I didn't have time to read the whole article now, as I have a Dr's appt. this afternoon, but I saw the tables showing chick loss of the various bird species - that's really incredible (and sad). It makes me dislike rats even more, and I didn't think that was possible...

 

[getaclue]

See if there is a nearby Do-It-Yourself pest control. They sell one that won't kill secondary animals. I don't remember the brand name, but it's the only bait blocks they sell.

 

[Sublight]

Hi, and thanks for your suggestion. I have considered poison, but I'm afraid that our dog might find and eat a rat that has been killed by it. I don't suppose there is any kind of poison that would kill the rats, but not our dog, is there?

Just don't use one bite poison. Even if the dog does get into it, all you have to do is get some vitamin K from your vet. The poison causes the animal to bleed internally. The vitamin K allows the dogs blood to clot and he wont bleed out.
Happened to my dog, he wasn't in pain, he just got lethargic and started to fade. Vitamin K crushed, mixed with water and forced down his throat did the trick. He came back, and is as annoying as ever.

The vet said he got into a full block. The vet also said a rat cant eat enough poison, to poison my dog. He is a jack Russell terrier, so he isn't big. If your dog eats a rat, he will be fine. If he eats a block, he will need cheap vitamins. You just need to be aware of his/her activity.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Wow - that's a lot of reading! I didn't have time to read the whole article now, as I have a Dr's appt. this afternoon, but I saw the tables showing chick loss of the various bird species - that's really incredible (and sad). It makes me dislike rats even more, and I didn't think that was possible...

Chickmom, what are the rats eating----are your chickens wasting a lot of feed??? Rats that bad and many have to have food?? Remove the food(or their access to it) and the rats should go some where else to eat?? Live Trap them, go out at night and shoot some with a pellet gun, gotta get rid of them.

 

[MyISAbrownhens]

Yes. There was once a rat that killed my friends adult chicken but chewing off its legs while it was asleep.

 

[chicks are life]

Wow that's just...grusome

 

[3riverschick]

I once had a flock of Marans. the Cockerel was young.
I am sure it was one of the swamp Rats from the nearby Creek that got into the coop. the Cockerel died defending his hens .
nothing could have gotten in there but a rat cuz I had a pretty sturdily built .I thought.
Karen