Reply With QuoteI’m willing to bet the nest is under one of the sheds. Time to get the air rifle!!!
We’ve got 3 cats. All come and go as they please and have the run of the house.
1 cat is 15 years old and is totally chilled. The 2 others are 7 years old and one, is a psychpathic hunter of any wildlife. We live rurally and there are plenty of mice and shrews that get brought in dead or alive (shrews are a nightmare to catch) and we’ve bought humane mouse traps to catch and release them.
This last week, she has brought in a white baby rat....then 2 larger rats (all dead) but then a very large rat (body about 10cm) alive....in the hallway......the stupid cat wouldn’t go near it and luckily, I closed all the doors, open the front door and chased it out.....
Tonight, another baby white rat......
There must be a rats nest somewhere.....the bins are wheelie bins, an old compost heap but not being used now, other than that nothing that might attract rats (I guess other than shelter). Neighbours gardens back on to back garden and there are sheds, compost bins etc (at the end of their gardens).
So....any suggestions on how to find the source of the problem (where the rats are coming from) and /or how to stop the bloody cat catching them and/or bringing them in......clearly don’t want to put poison down as potential for secondary poisoning for all local cats.....
I’m willing to bet the nest is under one of the sheds. Time to get the air rifle!!!
I would imagine that the only way that it will stop is if you get rid of the cats. Since that is fairly unlikely I guess you will have to put up with it.
I went outside tonight, to see if I could see the cat as she went out after I caught the baby rat. I have an air rifle already and I swear I heard a air rifle shot.....so I wonder if one of my neighbours is aware of the issue and they are in their garden....and they are taking shots at them....?Originally Posted by lew07
Sometime the obvious evades you....a collar with a bell - she will hate it.....but may give the prey a head start....???
Lol don’t shoot each other!!!!
(1) Get a GPS tracking collar for the hunter. You will know where the cat goes and where she lingers. You may be able to figure out where the rats are.
(2) Own or borrow a Jack Russell terrier. They are, of course, excellent rat catchers. (Also good mouse catchers, surprisingly). Use terrier to eliminate rats.
But if you're in a rural area then the cat could be going a long way for hunting purposes and there could be lots and lots of rats. The GPS tracker may also assist you in making sure that the cat is not hunting someone's pet rats...
Last edited by markrlondon; 26th August 2019 at 00:24.
Is gps accurate enough to find a rats nest? We were discussing using gps for attaching to small children, in case they wander off - but apparently they are not accurate enough. I don’t know!
The rats have only been an issue this last week.....the fields are being cut, so I wonder (hope) if this is a very temporary position........?
Also live in the countryside. In my experience you cannot eliminate rats. If you clear out one nest or area, soon enough another lot of rats will move in. Sounds like your cat is doing a good job of keeping the numbers down a bit. It's the best you can hope for.
I have a Tractive GPS tracker on my dog. You could very easily track him to within 2m most of the time outside, and what side of a given house when indoors.
Would recommend Jack Russell as they are amazing ratters or anything that is small and furry!! Our new 8 month old one is all over the hedgerows when we take her out for a walk. A lot more so than our 10 year old.
Maybe someone around you has one? I’m sure they would find the source fairly quickly.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
...and maybe my cats :)....???
White rats?
Pets surely?
Cheers,
Neil.
If you mean would the Jack Russell attack your cats then probably not. They learn who is a friend and who isn't quite easily and quickly.
Seems like the cat is doing a bloody good job - far better than a Jack Russel would manage, but then cats are, as individuals, better predators than dogs.
Just let her crack on. Earn her keep.
Edit:- Ah...forgive me... Just read the bit about the live rat...don't worry. She'll learn. Mines 13 now and regularly kills rats 2\3 of her size.
Last edited by Umbongo; 26th August 2019 at 22:21.
2 cats in the household one is very lazy and at best has annoyed an earthworm.
The other had one summer of bloodlust where he killed every moving creature.
Nothing since....strange
I think that even though cats are good predators they can also be lazy about it. Dogs like Jack Russells often have the advantage of unbounded enthusiasm!
Some years ago I had three cats and a Jack Russell. And (temporarily) two or three mice. On more than one occasion I observed the cats watching (from their comfortable cat box) one of the mice running round the kitchen but they couldn't be bothered to lift a paw to do anything about it. The dog on the other hand went nuts and caught them. It never occurred to him not to be enthusiastic. ;-)
Cats bring you dead creatures just to remind you that they will kill for fun.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
Let them keep up the good work.
I read somewhere that while cats kill millions of small birds in the UK every year, the birds have responded by increasing the numbers of eggs they lay and chicks they hatch. Hope it's true.
Oddly, it's been ages since I saw a starling, and I rarely see a house sparrow these days, this in a suburban bungalow with gardens front and rear. Blackbirds, yes, magpies, wrens occasionally and blue tits, but nothing more fancy.
We have lots of starlings, tits, wrens, collared doves etc in our front/back garden . Our vCard bring in he occasional bird, but mostly they seem content with picking up slow worms (we have loads) and walking round with them in their mouth like a zappata moustache!! I hasten to add they don't puncture the worms at all, no claw or teeth marks, just carry them around.
In this urban location (NW London) we used to have hordes of sparrows and fewer blue tits. But the sparrows disappeared entirely very suddenly a few years ago. The blue tits consequently increased in number tremendously and are now as common as the sparrows used to be. Goldfinches also increased in numbers but less so.
I used to think that the sparrows were essentially gone for good since I have seen only one or two here since the crash in numbers. But then I went for a walk in a very nearby park and walked round a small housing estate built on the corner of the park and there were loads of sparrows! They are doing fine there, less than a mile away. It seems that perhaps the increased blue tits numbers here are preventing sparrow re-infiltration around my house.
There are claims that changes to building practises caused the crash in sparrow numbers but that isn't plausible: The crash was way too sudden.
As for starlings, they did seem to drop in number for a while but have now recovered. I often see them flying by and increasingly they are coming back to the gardens around here.
Song thrushes have declined tremendously. I haven't seen any for ages. There were two mistle thrushes nesting nearby for a couple of years a few years ago but I haven't seen or heard them since.
We also see blackbirds (fewer in number than in the past but seem to be increasing this year), plenty of magpies, wood pigeons, occasional collar doves, chaffinches sometimes, wrens, robins, goldcrests occasionally, rarely green woodpeckers, rarely greater spotted woodpeckers, rose ring parakeets (mostly just passing by on their way to or from Hampstead Heath or perhaps to or from Gladstone Park), crows (increasing slightly in number I think), and sometimes pied wagtails.
Last edited by markrlondon; 28th August 2019 at 23:55.
Where did all the sparrows go?
At home we now mainly see Robins, tits of all varieties, wrens and those bloody parakeets. What a row they make!
I counted eleven of them in a tree in our garden earlier this year. I always thought tropical type birds wouldn't last five minutes in the wild here but those parakeets have positively thrived. Incredible really.
Cheers,
Neil.
^^ although the parakeets can live in tropical climes they are also to be found in the foothills of the Himalaya's, so they can cope with our winters quite well.. I agree though - bloody noisy things, always screeching...
The predators at rest
I've never subscribed to the 'cats the cause of decreasing bird numbers' theory. Cats have been about forever,birds have been about forever,cats have been killing birds forever.
Anyhow,this is an interesting read RSPB - Are Bird Numbers Declining
Unfortunately cats are pretty efficient killing machines. i would imagine if you give it enough time the rat problem will be solved by your cats.
We currently have two cats, but have had more, we have had the joys of birds, frogs, a marinated chicken breast (the neighbours didn't want it back) and unfortunately somebody's pet budgie being brought to our house for evisceration.
It's part of having cats and we have never found a solution to the little beggars habits.
White rats sounds odd. You sure they’re not getting them from a neighbour who breeds them for reptile food or something?
I shoot rats for people and I’ve never seen a white one, let alone two in quick succession. I guess it’s possible a pet has a escaped and bred with the local wild ones.
People saying “they’re doing a good job” & “let them carry on” are missing the point, they are bringing them back alive! A good job would be killing them outside. You wouldn’t consider a copper to be doing a good job if they were catching murderes in the city only to release them in your house (ok that’s a slightly wild analogy haha)
Nobody suggest locking the cat flap, at least for a while? Dead rats outside the door rather than live ones in the hallway.
Cats killing and eating rats is all very well unless somebody else has put poison down for the rats.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
Lovely cats...your black one is a slim version of my psycho cat....!The predators at rest
.....an update
So this settled down for a week or so....back to mice, so the assumption was harvest had displaced some rats and now she had caught them all or lost interest.....nah!
This morning outside the bedroom door a huge dead rat - body must have 6-7 inches long.
I’ve cleaned it up, no visible sign injury/ cause of death.....do these things get totally stressed and die of heart attacks - I thought they tended to be real fighters and would fight to the death.....also find it hard to understand how she got through the cat flap.....
Yesterday saw her in neighbouring garden that adjourns 2 farm barns....guessing that may be the source....
Today collar with a bell....wife is really not happy, but I can’t think about the cat being rehomed (as the worst case outcome - locking cat flap is next step).....the cat runs away from everyone else other than me and my wife and is such a sweet nature (yes I know that is very contradictory to the above!).....
Broken neck, possibly. Or suffocation. Or very tiny punctures into the spinal cord, too small to easily see.
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