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Rats can become a real problem when raising chickens. Rats in a chicken house can eat chicken feed and pose health risks to both humans and chickens.
When you start to see signs of rats, you must act fast. Rat populations grow extremely fast; a single pair can quickly become hundreds or thousands. Fortunately, there are plenty of different ways of getting rid of them that you can try.
Issues Caused by Rats in a Chicken Coop
There are two main problems with having rats in your chicken house.
The first is that they will eat the chicken feed. The second problem is that they can cause illness, both for you and your chickens. Some can even also eat chicks and attack grown chickens. So, what can be done to make rats less likely to attack your chickens?
Rat Prevention
An excellent first step to prevent rat infestations is to ensure your feed is in a secure location. Rats have a very strong sense of smell and eat a lot of food, so you will need to be very careful here. Use a metal bin for your feed, with no holes, so no pesky rodents can enter!
Another important point is the cleanliness of the coop. Rats will often eat the scraps on the floor of the coop or hide in tall grass. To reduce the risk of infestation, I would avoid dropping feed on the floor of the coop and trim any grass around the edge as well.
Dealing With A Rat Infestation
When dealing with rat infestations, options include using snap traps with cheese, rat poison (with extreme caution), getting a cat as a natural predator, or seeking professional extermination services if the infestation is severe.
Traditional snap traps with cheese can be very effective for dealing with rats. You will find that rats are attracted to them and get caught. However, rats can be quite careful around traps, so you will need to introduce these traps gradually so the rats get used to them.
Rat poison is another option. This is very dangerous for people, chickens, and other pets, but will kill rats. Ensure you are extremely careful if you choose to poison rats.
It is absolutely vital to wear protective gloves and keep any poison securely locked away from children and birds.
Do Rats Kill Chickens?
Rats can indeed pose a threat to chickens and, in some cases, even cause their death. While chickens are generally larger than rats and can defend themselves to some extent, vulnerable chicks and smaller or weaker adult chickens are particularly at risk.
Rats may attack chickens by going after their eggs, pecking at their heads, or targeting them when sleeping. Additionally, rats can transmit diseases to chickens, compromising their health and well-being.
Chicken owners need to be vigilant in preventing rat infestations and taking appropriate measures to protect their flock from these potential predators.
Getting External Help
For larger infestations, you won’t be able to handle the rats on your own. However, there are still a couple of ways around this. If space permits, you might want to consider getting a cat.
Not only do they make great companions, but they will also hunt rats. However, keeping cats is expensive, and many house cats are too well-trained to deal with vermin.
Finally, you could call in an extermination team as a last resort. Pest control agencies are fairly easy to find and are a good choice if you are squeamish and want to avoid seeing rats.
