Aviary masacre

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:22 am

Might be time to get rid of the plants and put in large pots just have two of each have one outside resting for when you need to replace the one the birds have tore up,good luck hope you find the answer soon

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:27 pm

So sorry for your lost

If even the doves were killed, that would never be a little rat. I agree with the others, the rat may get in aviary through the roots of the plants. I highly suspect that it has stayed under the plants for a long time. You should take all of the birds out, then put poison or traps around the plants. Hope you can catch that evil creature soon.

SamFoy · Post by **SamFoy** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:22 pm

Take out the birds and put in a hungry cat for a few days to see what happens.

urbantiger · Post by **urbantiger** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:09 pm

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions,

i have been at the end of my tether, not finding even a tiny hole.
Its doing my head in .

I do have an empty aviary now, has been for a few days.

so i have set a few Rat traps baited with meat as they wont touch the poisoned grain i put down 2 days ago, (the little b*/<!X>*s have a taste for meat).

urbantiger · Post by **urbantiger** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:13 pm

The rats must be a big size as they ate all 3 of the Japanese quail and they were nearly 8" long.
only left the heads and wings

mike · Post by **mike** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:44 pm

HoangQuan wrote:Hope you can catch that evil creature soon.

Rats are not evil. They do what they need to do to survive and are good at exploiting opportunities (like caged birds). Evil, no. Smart, very.

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:12 am

mike wrote:
HoangQuan wrote:Hope you can catch that evil creature soon.
Rats are not evil. They do what they need to do to survive and are good at exploiting opportunities (like caged birds). Evil, no. Smart, very.

I meant, from my perspective, they are. I will call whatever tearing my birds apart and eating and leaving head and legs behind evil.

urbantiger · Post by **urbantiger** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:12 pm

Mike
for many many years i have dealt with problems and mess caused by mice and rats, getting at feedstuff etc, and put up with it and cleaned up, and tried humanly to deter or get rid of them.
But this i have found particularly hard,
to lose nearly 40 birds and finding the half eaten remains was soul destroying.
I hope you never have to face this as you might change your view slightly, as i have.

The aviary is full of traps and bait boxes hoping to catch the little beggars.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:53 pm

urbantiger
I don't blame you as far as myself they need to get traped and disposed of good luck

mike · Post by **mike** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:12 pm

urbantiger wrote:Mike
for many many years i have dealt with problems and mess caused by mice and rats, getting at feedstuff etc, and put up with it and cleaned up, and tried humanly to deter or get rid of them.
But this i have found particularly hard,
to lose nearly 40 birds and finding the half eaten remains was soul destroying.
I hope you never have to face this as you might change your view slightly, as i have.

The aviary is full of traps and bait boxes hoping to catch the little beggars.

I'm in no way minimising your rat problem.

I don't like that we have labelled an animal "evil" for doing what it does naturally. Rats are evil because they kill birds, cats are evil because they kill rats, coyotes are evil because they kill cats. The chain ultimately stops at people ... but we never seem to call ourselves "evil".

Good luck with your rats.

summert85 · Post by **summert85** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:13 pm

oh gosh, im super scare of rats. eeeeewwwww growing up we lived in a home with a basement. And my dad raised chickens that lay eggs and they off course would hatch. There's 28 we counted. and slowly one day at a time the number just kelp going down. We never knew why? we thought that the chicks might just got stuck somewhere around all the furniture we have down there. because we do let them run loose around.

Anyways, and so we were down to just the parent and 2 chicks. And that's when we noticed heads and wings left *like you said*. So My dad knew then it was rats in our basements. He put on some kind of blue looking pills out all over the basement floor. So the rat thinks its food. Well days after that, we went to check sadly all our chickens are gone. BUT there tons of dead rat all over the floor. And these are are HUGE!! about the size of a Gatorade bottle. eeeewww I hate rats and scared of them. SO gross!

Alec's Finches · Post by **Alec's Finches** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:34 pm

i wonder how a rat caught a finch, i mean rats cant fly... unless it attacked at night

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:38 am

Rats can see in the dark...birds can't...Rats climb wire/frighten birds/birds fly and finish up on floor/rats kill birds.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:05 am

I am sooooo glad that my aviary is on the inside. I thought about a little outdoor aviary, but...... maybe not.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:24 am

I have two small outside aviary,I have hardware cloth [metal ] on the floor I haven't had any problems with rats so far have a large garden and have a empty building next door to me so I do have rats in the area.
I do put poison out for them to eat ,I don't want a problem am trying to keep some kind of control over them.
I know that some have big problems with them but A lot of people have aviary's that don't have problems it has to be secure so they can't get in
It has to be devastating to lose your birds like that