Sooo much pooping

[clucker1]

Just seen a rat ugh near the chicken run, surprise surprise also where my dog has been doing lots of sniffing recently! If I use a bait box with loose bait ie so rat has to eat it there and then and not take part of it off is this ok to leave chickens and dog out in the garden? Has anyone any experience, I can keep the chickens away from the area by fencing it off but I don' t think I can prevent the dog from going round there esp as it is her favourite haunt by those lovely chickens! Other option is no dog in garden or only on a lead which is all rather a pain but better than dog eating poison. I have been fine with baiting rats before but our dog is new to us so this is a first.

[Chickabee]

Don't do it. I hat my bait in a pet proof box. Fenced in behind my chicken run. Without me knowing, leaving everything looking undisturbed my dog managed to open the box and eat all the bait.

 

Luckily he's still with us, after a huge vets bill, lots of beating myself up and lots of praying

 

Lock away all the chicken food at dusk and try using traps. I put mine in a cage that the rats can get in but the dog can't. If he did he'd just get a sore nose

[clucker1]

Thank you so much Chickabee, very much appreciated. The bait has worked very well for us before but now with dog too, the risk is too much I have decided to mix the two. So I think I might either try no dog in the front garden, she still has small back garden and or bait in a box within a pen, we could use our intro pen aka old rabbit run to put the bait in. How does your non bait trap work?

[Chickabee]

I've got 2 normal traps, 1 humane trap and an electric shock trap. The latter seems to work on small rats and mice, but not big rats

[UKMARCH]

You can get a lockable bait box that a dog shouldn't be able to open and if it has a rod inside to put bait blocks on rather than loose bait which might spill if the box is knocked over that way the rat has to go inside and eat the bait. You could also weigh it down with something heavy. I suppose it depends on how your dog behaves whether its worth taking the risk.

[Chickabee]

Depends on the dog. Mines a lab

[LilyintheValley]

When the council guy came to look at my rat problem he left a bait box behind. I asked if it would be dangerous for my dog & 2 cats and he said "Can they use an allen key?" I said I thought not, at least I'd never seen them use one, so he said they'd be fine. And they were. The rats weren't though, they ate the bait

[Chickabee]

Yes probably best to leave it to the professionals. My council dousent offer that service. I'd have to call in the exterminators (sorry that word makes me laugh)

[LilyintheValley]

The council guy was great, they charge £30 per 4 visits and he said he'd keep coming back until the problem was sorted. He did come 4 times & then, as there had been no new activity, he took his box away & left me his number to ring if they ever come back. I've since bought rat-proof feeders & rat-proofed the floor of the run so fingers crossed we'll be ok

[clucker1]

Thank you everyone, rat bait in box is outside waiting to be gobbled up hopefully by one of those horrid creatures! Our free pest control service provided by the council went several years ago, thanks for the suggestion though. If food is involved our spaniel will find it, so she is banned from the front garden at the moment to be on the safe side. So far, day 3 she hasn't noticed and doesn't appear to be too hard done by

[Alis girls]

Sorry visions of cats and dogs trying to use an Allan key swim before my eyes plus a lot of cussing in "cat" and "dog " of course you have a council official with a sense of humour. BTW doesnt your cat scare them off. We got out 2 original pussies because of mice in our house. They did a brilliant job.