Birdfeeders and rats

madjackslam

have you tried not having the food out 24/7

Unfortunately our rats have no qualms about coming out in the daytime. :eek:

Arthog

When we put out mixed seed , the birds dropped any they didn't fancy, so rats and mice would come for a meal.
We now only put out Sunflower Hearts, which are all eaten, and any odd ones which fall are eaten straight away by ground-feeding birds.
Yes, it's quite expensive even buying in bulk with a money-saver's good deal, but it's a hobby for us and very important for the birds.


Also, the Council pest people seem to say that one rat is not a cause for alarm. When I worked in housing we always passed on reports of sightings, and that was the reply every time.

shortcrust

My problem with sunflower hearts is that my goldfinches and bullfinches are really messy eaters. They like to be looking outwards as they eat so it all misses the tray and ends up on the grass. At the moment I've pretty much got goldfinches at every available feeder spot all day every day (with another couple of dozen sitting in the trees waiting for their turn!). There's a lot of mess!

Apodemus

bugslet wrote: »

What a good idea, thank you.





Personally I'm not overly fussed about the odd rat, but we have extended families setting up home.

If you can pass the badgers my address:)

While I pride myself on having a wildlife friendly garden, the badgers do the most damage. Every morning the lawn and borders are like the Somme, with the digging and scraping. I think I now have two badgers competing as they have started marking the territory by scooping holes and pooping in them. They seem determined to undermine the central heating oil tank and have killed off the hedgehogs that I used to have. Plus point is a reduction in snail numbers in the garden, but badgers really don’t make good neighbours!

Rosiemurphy

yes plastic bottles work really well. Also birds don't eat the crushed corn which just falls on the ground and attracts the rats.

Petchins

I've been feeding that special peanut butter (flutter butter?) from the tubs, suspended in the air. The birds can get at it, but the rats can't get up the pole to eat it. Plus, no dropped bits.

Lorian

shortcrust wrote: »

My problem with sunflower hearts is that my goldfinches and bullfinches are really messy eaters.

They don't realise they already have the black skins off the hearts, and peel them anyway, that's what makes the mess. for me sparrows ten to clean up the rest.

CapricornLass

My father had this problem - Ratty shinned up the bird pole everytime food was put out.


We solved it with a smearing a good foot of the pole with Vaseline, so Ratty couldn't get any purchase on the pole. Worked a treat, and according to my dad the look on Ratty's face was priceless!

teachergirl

I freaked when I saw a rat on my feeder. Called in the pest control, he said it was really unusual to see them on the feeder in the day. We paid a lot of money for dog friendly poison traps to go out. The pest control man said he reckoned someone might have tried to poison them already. We moved our two log stores and swept etc etc. After a few weeks nothing, the pest control man said the poison had not even been nibbled. We left them another couple of weeks..........nothing. So I went to talk to my neighbours whereupon they confessed they had been in her garden and they had been poisoning them:doh:

We are however plagued with squirrels. We have tried the baffle already posted on here and the squirrels use it as a platform to help themselves up it. We have hand made our own as suggested here, also unsuccessfully regarding squirrels. However this one "Woodside Universal 18” Squirrel Baffle Dome Wild Bird Hanging/Pole Station Feeder Guard Protection" (sorry don't know how to get a link) seems very successful so far!:D

greyteam1959

shortcrust wrote: »

My problem with sunflower hearts is that my goldfinches and bullfinches are really messy eaters. They like to be looking outwards as they eat so it all misses the tray and ends up on the grass. At the moment I've pretty much got goldfinches at every available feeder spot all day every day (with another couple of dozen sitting in the trees waiting for their turn!). There's a lot of mess!

We have 40 goldfinches on our feeders at a time !!!
Also 10 blackbirds cleaning up underneath the feeders.
Plus all the other birds.