Are rats dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs?

Do healthy rats carry diseases that attack rabbits? Do rats like eating live food like new born rabbits? If babies disappear is it more likely raccoons reaching in with their hands instead of rats squeesing in the cage? I'm asking because several litters disappeared this year. In one case I never saw the litter but all the nesting material and fur was outside the cage. I've also had does in group cages that had bites on their backs. I assumed that it was the rabbits fighting but now wonder if rats might do that.

rats carry all kinds of nasty stuff that can make many animals sick, including people. and yes, rats will eat pretty much anything. I think some people on this forum with colonies have had rats eat tons of babies.

Rats carry all kinds of diseases and are very opportunistic feeders. They will eat any kind of meat- I once caught a rat trying to pull my lovebird through the bars of its cage. Coons will grab hold of adult animals and tear them apart piece by piece through the cage wire, but I doubt they could reach through the cage wire and into a nest to snatch babies because their arms are only a few inches long.

I would bet that rats not raccoons are responsible for your losses.

Rats and raccoons are both relentless predators but MSD is right that this sounds more like rats. Rats will go right into nest boxes and carry off kits. It's not just a problem in colonies... If your cage wire is larger than 1"x1", rats can get in easily. They will also enter and exit through J-feeders. They may start off stealing feed and then progress to the kits as their population increases and they become bolder.

That said, finding the nesting materials outside the cage is not typical of the rat attacks I have seen. If the nest boxes could be reached by a raccoon from outside, you cannot rule out the possibility that it is raccoons. Cages alone, without a second layer of protection, will not exclude either of these nasty predators.

A good one-bite poison in secure bait stations will solve the problem. Be sure to do a regular walk around to remove dead ones so your other animals will not be in danger of secondary poisoning.

Rats are nasty beasties and will chew off the toes of bunnies if they are wanting to.

I have a rat again in my rabbitry that will soon meet a quick and dead end.

I have a very strong dislike of WILD rats. (need to make that caveat as tame rats can be rather cool).

Domestic rats make very sweet pets. MidnightCoder had some when he was a kid and I was very fond of them. Very intelligent and gentle.

Wild rats are just as intelligent and a lot more cunning. The competition resulting from their high birth rate makes them ruthless and vicious.

I'm using Tomcat mouse poison blocks. I hope I'm not wasting it because each little block is a dollar. So far the whole block disappears instead of signs of it being chewed. I'm leaving one block out each night in a empty cage.. The bait station that came with the package is too small as it was out a week without takers. I suspect there must be a whole litter of teen rats still small enough to get into cages.

a7736100":pd3w1rqa said:

I'm using Tomcat mouse poison blocks. I hope I'm not wasting it because each little block is a dollar. So far the whole block disappears instead of signs of it being chewed. I'm leaving one block out each night in a empty cage.. The bait station that came with the package is too small as it was out a week without takers. I suspect there must be a whole litter of teen rats still small enough to get into cages.

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Please be VERY careful with the poison! I finally resorted to it when the rats continued to get in, even though the rabbitry was wrapped in chicken wire (1" hex variety)and all the cages were 1/2 x 1 floors and hardware cloth sides. It worked, but I found 2 smaller dying rats IN the rabbitry (even in one doe's cage which someone forgot to double latch), and one of my bucks stretched out dead in HIS cage, with a few crumbles of poison near his feeding/watering area. I figure one of the rats dropped them near enough that he ate some too. This is the first outdoor breeding I have attempted since then (they were snatching babies through the floor wire), but I now have a 10 pound NZW buck using the enclosure as his "cage", hoping his scent will deter rats even coming in, and am re-doing the doe's cage so they can't come up from underneath. Considering a secondary wall and door baffle as well. I will never use poison again; if this doesn't work, then ALL does will give birth indoors (currently just have 2 large enough indoor cages). I never want to reach into a nest box and get half a baby again!

We have a rat terrier, best investment ever! Small enough to cuddle on the sofa without crushing my spleen and still a working dog. We used to have rats around our condo in Cali, but once we got Loki they disappeared. I saw him get two and then we never saw any evidence of them around again. Our neighbors borrowed him to de-rat their enclosed patio area where they had feeders and a storage closet. I object to poison on the grounds that other non-problem animals sometimes fall victim. Not that it isn't a good method for others, it's just a personal choice.

ETA: If you have small kids Rat Terriers are also cunning monster under the bed killers. They tackle closet monsters of any size as well. That's what we tell our sons when they get scarred. Loki's got their back.

The small cubes that the rats can carry off can be dangerous. The other problem with them is that the rats may store them for later and never get around to eating them. I recommend the large bars that can be anchored so the rat must eat it in place. Putting the bait in an empty rabbit cage is a good idea to keep it away from other critters.

I don't think anyone likes using poison, but a rat terrier is not an option for everyone. I see poison more as a control than a solution.

We have had two major rat infestations here. The first time, the rats were here when we moved in. An obliging mink came along and cleared them out. The second wave of rats arrived in bales of year-old hay - all we could get at the time and it never occurred to us that it might be infested. Again, Mother Nature stepped in in the form of a weasel family.

No a terrier is certainly not the answer for everyone. I didn't mean to imply that it was, sorry if I did. But they are awfully cute little rascals. Did the weasels bother the rabbits when they ran out of rats?

The weasels took out three chickens (while they were roosting at night) when they ran out of rats. That was our fault... We didn't notice the rat holes that gave the weasels easy access to the birds. Once the holes were patched, we had no further problems. They've never bothered the rabbits.

But the story had a sad ending for the weasels. They took to living in our very primitive cellar and cleaning out the mice there. When they began to run short, they ventured into the house itself and our moggie, Marilla, :benice: dispatched them very promptly.

ugh rats. I've had them eat kits and they'll bite the toes off adults through the bottom wire. The rabbits get really spooky when rats are around and may injure themselves. Kits scream when picked up because they are afraid their nest is being raided. It's not a good life for a rabbit. Get an enclosed locking bait station and poison the buggers. Ours proved too smart for any trap but we have poison out year round now.

I'm at a point now where I have to do something. They are moving from the barn to the house, and I blame all of the grains and food in the bunny poop I pour around the house. I am afraid to put down bait of any kind, for the dogs and for the rabbits. I would go for the rat terrier, but unless I'm willing to pay $$$ for a real rat terrier instead of mixes on CL, it will have to be a cat. There is a high probability the dogs will in turn, kill the cat.

Well a Jack Russel would do the same job but I don't find them as sedate in the house. Excellent vermin dogs though. A maine coon or even a good sized tabby should be able to handle a GSD. Our foster kitten had no issues with either our dane mix or our ratty. Really does depend on the cats personality. Maybe try a jacky or rattie rescue.

Trying to stay ahead of any rats and mice here.
I am going to be building all my cages 1 by 1 inch for the walls.
And 1/2 by 1 inch wire for the floors.
I currently have used cages that are 1 by 2 inches for the walls
and I am concerned about that size holes.
Some of the used feeders that I have, have a top hinged cover.

My hubby likes blaming the chickens for the rats and mice we find.
I have to keep reminding him that he feeds the wild birds grains also.
We keep the grain in plastic tall bins.

We have a bassett that is quite the little varmit hunter.

The only good rat around here is a dead one.
We had to resort to the Tom Cat poison this fall. Not what I wanted to do.

Bred for centuries to be ratters and vermin finders: Cairn and Border terriers. As already stated, Rat Terriers. In fact, most of the terrier breeds were developed to sniff out, track, dig out, and kill rats/vermin.

There are three breeds named "terrier" in the Toy Group. Modern representatives of these breeds may or may not retain the ancestral ratting skills of their forebears. You'd need someone experienced with the breed to tell you for sure.

Owl boxes are very popular, at least in northern California, for giving owls a home. Many vineyards have used them for vermin control for decades. A family of barn owls can take down over 1,000 gophers or 3,000 voles in a year in open land; the linked website doesn't provide the numbers of rats. (Judging by the relative size, though, I'd estimate 2,000 or so.)

Cats, even large ones, take down mice. I'm impressed that Marilla took down weasels; wow... But rats are usually just a bit big for cats to take on. Cats' muzzles aren't as strong as those of the dogs bred for this purpose: look at the relative shapes. The terrier (I'm thinking here of the shape exemplified by the Manchester Terrier) can bite down and immobilize an adult rat almost immediately; most cats would be overmatched. Although a neighbor's cat patrols my veggie boxes, I don't expect him to de-rat the raised boxes, but he's an amazing mouser! and juvenile squirrel discourager!

My recommendations would be for a terrier or other high-prey-drive dog, or owl boxes. Too many raptors are killed each year by secondary poisoning for me to recommend rat bait. My own house has steel wool stuffed into the holes where we believe mice used to enter :twisted: until our cats took out the mice. It's been three years now since one of my cats killed a mouse in the house; we may finally have used enough steel wool!

From the WildCare webpage: "In 2010 WildCare began an initiative to test raptors, foxes, bobcats and other predatory animals for base-line blood coagulation levels and potential rodenticide poisoning. Shockingly, analysis of the data shows 68.1% of tested animals shows a positive result for rodenticide in the blood."

WildCare has a list of non-toxic rodent-control measures, some of which are wildly inappropriate for people raising rabbits (I mean, really: humane live traps for RATS?!), but the list reminded me of one method I've used with success: the RatZapper. Even though LargeGrayCat from next door tends the veggie boxes, I have seen rats on occasion running along our fence line. So...I went to the hardware store and bought a RatZapper (Classic; it was $42 then, $50 now) and put it inside my compost box (a BioStack, in case anyone's interested) so the cat couldn't trip it and get hurt. The great appeal of the RatZapper, at least to me, is that you never have to see or even touch the dead rat: you simply place an opaque plastic bag or a paper bag over the end of the Zapper, slide the dead critter out into the bag, and re-set it for the next one. :twisted: No muss, no fuss, no more yucky rats. And they don't suffer or pose a threat to other animals: they die instantly due to the very way in which the RatZapper works.

LilacGal":n7o86mtl said:

A maine coon or even a good sized tabby should be able to handle a GSD. Maybe try a jacky or rattie rescue.

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Maybe one but not three.

The rescues are as bad or worse than paying a breeder.<br /><br />__________ Mon Nov 04, 2013 1:11 pm __________<br /><br />

DogCatMom":n7o86mtl said:

Modern representatives of these breeds may or may not retain the ancestral ratting skills of their forebears. You'd need someone experienced with the breed to tell you for sure.

Owl boxes are very popular, at least in northern California, for giving owls a home. Many vineyards have used them for vermin control for decades. A family of barn owls can take down over 1,000 gophers or 3,000 voles in a year in open land; the linked website doesn't provide the numbers of rats. (Judging by the relative size, though, I'd estimate 2,000 or so.)

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That would be my first thought. If the breed has not been used for that purpose for many years, it lessens the probability it will do it's job.

About owls--I don't think I can attract owls this close to the city. Also, I worry about them getting the occasional rabbit that finds it's way outside the barn, or in the growout pen, which has no top.

LilacGal":f2u14yua said:

We have a rat terrier, best investment ever! Small enough to cuddle on the sofa without crushing my spleen and still a working dog. We used to have rats around our condo in Cali, but once we got Loki they disappeared. I saw him get two and then we never saw any evidence of them around again. Our neighbors borrowed him to de-rat their enclosed patio area where they had feeders and a storage closet. I object to poison on the grounds that other non-problem animals sometimes fall victim. Not that it isn't a good method for others, it's just a personal choice.

ETA: If you have small kids Rat Terriers are also cunning monster under the bed killers. They tackle closet monsters of any size as well. That's what we tell our sons when they get scarred. Loki's got their back.

Click to expand...

We have a pit bull terrier, somewhat related. He's small for a pit bull and has that terrier snout and ears. Our old house had a rat problem. He'd hear one, look at one of us for permission and then go find it, with his long snout. Once he'd find it, he'd take care of it quick! Our other dog just watched. He's gentle with our buns though, or any squirrel or bird in our yard.

__________ Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:34 pm __________

Someone was just telling me yesterday about a raccoon killing someone's rabbit. They said it was a pretty large rabbit.

The thing I like about cats, is most times the scent of a cat is enough to deter mice.