I may have a rat

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ladysown

ladysown

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But I'm not sure.

two of my seven week old white mini rex kits are missing toes. This seems a rat problem.

this is a new development.

My only thought that it isn't a rat is that none of my feed bins have been gotten into, and when I had a rat before it was the first thing "rat-alized".

Any other thoughts as to what it might be?
 
Very odd. Rats usually go for grain and feed before toes. They tend to get really nasty and vicious when food is short and the pressure is on. On the other hand, they will seek out anything injured, so if one kit had, for instance, torn a toenail or something like that, it could trigger things. But in this case I'd be looking for a different predator first.

Can anything else get in there? Cats, weasels, raccoons?
 
It actually could be the doe too. I've never heard of them eating toes so late, maybe she did it when they were tiny and its just now noticeable because they're bigger?

I had a Mini Rex doe that was normally a great mother. Her last litter she had two and ate all the front toes off of these beautiful broken black babies. They lived fine, even grew toenails out of their feet. It was a pain to trim the nails though.
 
7 weeks? If these are fresh open wounds I would be thinking a dog or similar got up under the cage...I have lost rabbits that way before, it is horrible. Their toes stick down thru the wire and some dogs think it is great fun to nip at the really loud squeaky toy. :evil: But they don't stop at nipping.

Where are the rabbits, how secure? Mine were outdoors, obviously. If they are fully enclosed by a secure garage or something, that would be less likely.
 
These seven week old kits are housed in the upper part of my racks. No dog can get up there. Never seen any of the multitude of stray cats up in that section....sitting above the racks yes, but not below. The stray cats get the mice (haven't caught a wild mouse in a dogs age). It's just two out of the eight in there, and it's fresh wounds. I had wondered why they were looking stressy this morning so I gave them a good going over. Just the two..and the rest looking like a couple of good handfuls of hay were in immediate order. Found it odd.
 
that IS odd...so, when you say they are in the top section of the racks, you mean that there is something under the cage--poop chute, another cage, a tray, something? That is really strange. Rats usually aren't so subtle--droppings and tunnels every where, noisy, etc...keep us posted, that is a bit of a mystery.
 
yes, they have a poop chute under them.

hubby is fairly certain it means we have a rat and for the price of a rat trap...we'll give it a whirl. I just think it's odd because I've seen other evidence of one. it's not a particularly rat friendly shed...no real good hiding spots.
 
In the meantime, I'd put some kind of resting board... even a piece of cardboard... in the cages so that the rabbits have somewhere safe to perch if your mystery predator returns.

What size wire are your cages made from? I don't mean the floor, which I assume is 1/2 x 1 inch, but rather the sides and tops.
 
one inch. on the sides except for baby wire on the bottom.

had a resting board in with them, but one of them decided it was potty area so I removed it. I think just before bed tonight I'll put it back in...(well...I'll actually put in a clean one). but won't leave it in during the day to help them remember to use their potty corner... (silly wee beasts).
 
Okay, my cages also have 1 inch wire and when we had the rat problem we found that most rats could not get into the cages through that. If your wire was larger, say 1 x 2 it would almost rule out rats as they would just enter the cages and that would mean more damage than just toes eaten from below.

So... could be rats, weasels, mink, cats. Hope you find out and are able to get it out of there.
 
Does your shed have a loft? My rabbitry does. I have lids on my j-feeders. But the rats/mice do not go into any other bunny's cages...just the two that are close to the ceiling. They come down, go into the cages, then into the j-feeders, then crawl up into the back of the feeders to munch on food and poop a lot, then carry a bunch of food up to the ceiling and eat and poop there. They grind the food up into fines so that the rabbits cannot eat it. I have tried traps, poison, and A LOT of cats...nothing works for me...... but I have never had any injuries to any of my rabbits (alhough I am sure they do not like their little night-time visitors :evil: ). They seem to go for the food every time, not little toes, so your case makes me wonder as well. :?
 
Is there enough clearance between the bottom of the cage & the poop chute for a small raccoon or an opossum? We had problems with a young opossum a few weeks ago.
 

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