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Grrr I Need A Cat!


julzjc
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Grrr I need a cat or a JRT to come live in my garage/attic for a few days! Have one rat in the garage and one in the roof and i can not kill the damn things. I cant lay bait incase the dogs sniff out the dead rat before I find it and so far the darn thing keeps evading all the traps. My dogs are great mousers but they are just way too big to hunt in the garage. Times like this I really need a cat. Grrrr. Guess Ill just have to keep waiting on the traps to work and keep the kids and dogs out, PITA as the kids do all their crafts, chalk boards etc out there. Bloody things are springing the traps and stealing the food without getting caught, well one is missing the tip of its tail but thats it. Wish OH wasnt allergic to cats or i knew a young JRT, all the ones I know are deffinatly in their retirement days. Are there any cage type(cat trap) traps for catching rats?

Edited by julzjc
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I friend of mine used rat cages a while ago.

She said they cost about $70.00.

Dont forget you wont have just one rat, there will be more.

They are pretty cleaver,maybe put some peanut butter or fruit, say banana in the cage.

I know my pet rats love banana.

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I had the same problem ages back and I ended up buying one of the humane traps as we also had native rats where we were living (I also caught a bandicoot in one...how it managed to squash itself in was a mystery!) :)

The traps are so good that friends asked me to buy some for them.

The rat is still alive when you catch it so you can release it somewhere along way from home or at the car-sales yard (whatever you fancy really :laugh: )

I have found that it is best to wrap a piece of cheese up in some muslin, smear the wrapped package with peanut butter then attach it to the little bait-wire with a little bulldog clip, otherwise the rat pulls it off so gently the trap door won't snap closed.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HUMANE-RAT-TRAP-MOU...AU_Pest_Control

I am pretty happy with mine, though little mice will get through the holes

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what are you putting down - rats are very clever and you can't put down something like ratsak that they need to eat multiple does of before it acts as they are too smart for that, they will not keep coming back and eating at something unlike mice. Rats need a one feed kill like Talon. If you do get one killed, remove he body as soon as possible, as if the other rats see the body near the food, they will not go near it either. We live on a farm, so do have rat experience.

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Will dogs definitely eat them?

We had mice earlier this year, and I put out bait where my dog coudn't reach it (in the roof), but then i found the mice all outside in the backyard (and very much dead).

I can only guess my dog didn't touch them though.

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Unfortunately having a cat is no guarantee, we had a rat in our house when we had 4 dogs and 3 cats :rasberry:

The way we got him was to put peanut butter and chocolate on the UNSPRUNG traps and let them take the food for a few times so they don't get scared away from the traps. Once the food is going regularly, then actually set the trap. I hated doing it as I used to have pet rats, but it wouldn't go near the 'humane' ones and we couldn't risk it chewing electrics etc.

Good Luck :laugh:

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Thankyou for all of the links and ideas guys, away to check them out now. Unfortunatly Linda K I deffinatly can not bait as my dogs will 100% eat the entire rat(barring the skull) if they find it. I have been using honey/peanut butter with grated cheese, rats love it, but they spring the traps then steal the food. I will deffinatly look into the humane style traps to see if they help. At my wits end, damn rat in the roof keeps waking the kids at all hours at night (telling them its just a friendly possum lol).

CC- I hear you, of my two cats in Scotland, one was a mouse killer and the other, well, she thought mice were kittens :rasberry: . Had to love it when you caught her nursing mice (paw on tail so they couldnt escape), cleaning them etc in her bed and then ditching them and running over for a cuddle...ie mice escaping under the sofas :laugh: lol.

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One rat down, one to go.

CC you were right. The rat got caught on a glue trap FINALLY and the Bonnie took off with it. Seriously though, having two dogs that are ment to have huge prey drives and they couldnt even dispatch a rat! I ended up having to get a shovel and dispatch it myself. The two morons just took it to the grass and just kept licking it, letting it run, catching it, licking it again. Indie gave up and went to bed so I had Bonnie bring her new "pup" to me and gave it a whack on its head. Lazy dogs. Guess atleast I know the rabbits are safe if they ever escape.

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If you are using the wooden traps, you have to wash them after every caught rat - others can smell death on it...

Bait the trap with chocolate - rats absolutely lose their frigging minds when it comes to chocolate - they love it, and will chance death to get to it. My Dad paced a trap with chocolate in their roof, and hadn't even reached for the manhole cover before he caught the mongrel thing!

I had pet rats that would try to pry your lips open if you were eating chocolate...

T.

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Persephone- i really didnt want to use the glue traps but I ran out of options this week. They kept springing the normal traps, couldnt bait, was going to buy a ratzapper but yeah, very short on funds :) and I couldnt justify spending more they another $2 trying to get rid of it right now. It was only on there for no more then 5min. Deffinatly didnt want to use the glue trap but I had no choice,sorry. I will be getting a ratzapper whenever we can though .

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