Rats and bird food

[lizwizz]

I have recently had a rat in my garden and the pest control officer has told me to take all my bird feeders down as they are attracting the rat. I love seeing the birds in my garden and always thought rats only went for cooked food scraps, not bird food. I buy the bird food in, its not home made. The rat has also been in the compost heap, which only has vegetable peelings in, not other food. Can I keep using my compost heap and will I be able to feed the birds again once the rat has gone?
Many thanks

[Thunderbird+]

I think that was a bit of a sweeping statement that the P.C. officer made.
My advice would be, Continue feeding the birds but ration it out carefully so that you never have a surplus of food, especially after dusk. Hanging bird feeders are best, positioned where rats cant get at them, smooth metal poles are ideal.
Occaisionally turn your compost heap over with a fork, rats hate disturbance and it will help the compost to rot evenly too! All the Best Tbird+

[kita1]

Make sure you wear gloves, or wash your hands thorougly when handling the bird feeders, rats do carry disease.

Rats are extremely agile and will climb on bird feeders, they will eat virtually anything.

If you wish to feed the birds try and only put the food out in the daytime when you are around.

[heathfield]

We feed a couple of birds and have found that they'll shout for food just before daylight and again about an hour before sunset. Rats should be in their beds at these times!

[garner]

ah, come on its christmas, goodwill to all , it must be hungry to show its face in the daytime.

[horselady]

I had a rat and the pest control man said exactly the same to me. I did it for a couple of weeks and then started to put the bird food out again, no sign of rat so I guess he got fed up and went elsewhere for food.

[lizwizz]

Thanks for your answers. As for Garner, goodwill to all men, yes, where does it say anything about goodwill to rats!

[garner]

and i thought we were All gods creatures

[WendyS]

We regularly have the same problem and living in a partly rural area, rats are never far away. We try to put most bird food either on the table or in peanut cages hanging from the fence, but our agile visiting rat will often climb the fence to get at the peanuts and if they don't want to climb they're intelligent to hang around underneath for the droppings.. He also raids the compost heap but I've got to the stage now where I just let it rot down as normal and then dig it into the borders. Haven't died yet ! You might find your rat hangs around for ages if the environment is convivial and there arn't too many cats around. Ours has become quite tame. He will even come right up to our patio in search of food. I once called the pest control people in but found watching the rats stagger across the garden slowly dying of poison was horrendous and very upsetting. I swore I would never go that route again and as long as we just have our single rat, I'll live with him.

[benjiesmum]

You'll never have a single rat!! Don't kid yourself. Rats live in colonies and seem to be spreading like wild fire especially in the south east and the midlands. According to my rat man they are still breeding even though it is winter and can have many litters of eighht to ten young at a time. Apart from spreading diseases they gnaw through wiring and can attack chickens at night in their houses. I used to think live and let live too but I want to keep my chickens safe! Apart from the above, when cornered or threatened they can be quite dangerous. The best thing to do with bird food is take it in at night and clear away any spillages. The rat(s) are probably living in the compost heap.