Feeding the birds, rats & neighbours!

Hi all.
I'm in a major quandary. I love watching the birds feed in my garden and get a lot of joy from them. However it appears I have a resident rat who visits occasionally BUT VIA my neighbours garden!!!. We've 'discussed' the situation and it seems the only alternative I have is to stop feeding the birds completely which I'm reluctant to do. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear from you TIA

 

Unfortunately it is said that we all have rats near us and yes when we feed the birds they do become more obvious as they pick up the bits dropped by the birds. By not feeding the birds the rats will move onto other food areas but they are still around. Not to every ones ideal but rat bait can be used but it does need to be under cover so that the birds don't take it. A difficult situation.

 

I had exactly the same problem @eddybaby I didn’t want to stop feeding the birds, but I didn’t want to put bait down as all you’re doing is creating a vacancy for other rats and I wouldn’t want a poisoned rat to be picked up by an owl or something else.

So I’ve created a bird feeder that stops bits of food falling onto the floor, which the rats then eat and put a squirrel baffle on to stop the rats climbing the pole (I was so surprised to see a rat doing this when I set my wildlife camera one night).

Just attach plastic plant saucers with stiff wire to your feeders and this will catch any bits of food falling. The added benefit is that ground feeding birds such as robins, dunnocks etc soon learn that there is a feast in these trays and eat from them. Hope that helps.

 

I dont think rats know one garden from another, they are in the area and your neighbour could actually say you were attracting them.
Its how wildlife works, we cant attract just those we like.
Some good suggestions above.

 

I have been using a squirrel baffle on my feed station since spotting a rat up there eating the sunflower seeds in broad daylight. I'm not so worried about the bits dropping because there's a constant wood pigeon patrol cleaning that up.

 

Ask your neighbour to stop his rat from visiting your garden.

 

A huge, and I do mean HUGE, amount of bird feeding goes on in neighbouring gardens. I do see rats occasionally in the day and evidence they have been in my garden at night (chewed handles on tools accidentally left out, etc). They like my garden as I have no pets, a water source, and loads of ground cover. I just accept they are around. There are colonies of pigeons and squirrels. I don't regard rats as any worse than these in the pest stakes.

 

Hmm, I don't want to worry you, but have a read of this @ViewAhead:

rodent-borne-diseases

 

I haven't ... but, even if I did, what can I do? There's no food source in my garden, so nothing I can change. There are no children or pets playing out there and I don't grow any edible crops.

I choose to be chilled about it.

 

Ah, no food source, I assumed that you fed the birds too @ViewAhead, so that makes perfect sense !

 

No, not me.

 

Neither do I Viewahead and would like to carry on but my neighbour is such a wuss when it comes to any sort of animal .Think she expects me to stop the feeding I'll try out the suggestions made by CatDouch and others. Thank you

 

Hi CatDouch. I had one of those types of feeders before but took it down (long story) I may dig it out and adapt it as you suggest. They do say that we're all only a few yards away from a rat! BTW Have you never heard the expression 'like a rat up a drainpipe? Maybe it's just a Yorkshire expression I recently saw my 'resident rat' climb a tree to get to an old hanging basket in which I'd put a mesh tray & food in ...theyllvstop at nothing Thank you for the advice