Dead rat outside house ?

[Jethro_uk]

Got home last night, and my eye caught a shape on the ground. Turned out to be a dead rat (I think it was a rat ... or a big mouse). Since we don't have a cat (although there are neighbourhood cats) I'm not sure what to make of it. It was quickly bagged and binned and a passing glance didn't seem to show any signs of violence, but I really wasn't motivated to perform a rat autopsy.

We had a rat issue a few years ago. Council expert came round, and pointed out that while we kept all rubbish in proper bins with lids, both neighbours didn't - they just left black bags in their back yards, and rats were happily running along our garden wall between the two. A series of poison boxes on the rat run, and a word with neighbours seemed to fix things.

Anyway, is funding a dead rat outside your house something to be of concern or is it not too unusual ?

[mogga]

We found one a few years ago. Massive bugger. Don't know if the cat got it or it died or old age. We live fairly near a canal and one of the neighbours stores rubbish in their house.

[Tim Streater]

Day before yesterday: Mr & Mrs Rat seen up the hawthorn opposite us, guzzling berries.

Yesterday: one of them seen dead on the road.

Today: no sign of dead ratty at all.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not if there is rat poison down, no.

I live in pretty rural place..its astonishing how many dead animals you find littering the countryside. I've seen a stoat that the dog MAY have caught (he did kill a feral ferret) or just found...deer skulls...dead pigeons, a couple of squirrels.

MOSTLY foxes or buzzards clean up the messes, but not always.

[Jethro_uk]

On R4 a few months back, one of the science programmes, someone asked why you rarely see dead birds ... it was quite intriguing the process that will dispose of carrion so quickly.

ISTR the myth of the elephants graveyard comes from the same processes ...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Couple of years back, looked out of the window and saw next door's cat tossing a mouse in the air in the back garden.

Five minutes later, look out again, and dead mouse is on the lawn, and the cat has got bored and wondered off.

Another five minutes later, a magpie swoops down, grabs the mouse, and flies off with it.

The thought that next door's cat was feeding the local magpies did make me smile... More usually, it sits at the edge of the lawn waiting to catch them (not that it ever has, although it's got the odd pigeon, leaving the garden looking like a massive pillow fight).

To get rid of the pigeon, I left it behind the shed where I see foxes from time to time. It was gone by the morning. Probably would have gone if I left it in the middle of the lawn too.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Jethro_uk writes

Likewise and only part grown. This is a farm so not any great surprise.

I guess at this time of year, Foxes, Cats etc. have a surplus of food and no offspring to feed.

[Huge]

I throw the (dead) mice we catch onto the lawn and they disappear. I have always assumed a crow, magpie, sparrowhawk, kestrel or buzzard get them. We get all of those in the garden

[newshound]

Live ones are almost certainly more common than you think. Dead one could imply poison, old age, cat (or dog), accident? A rat found its way on to an apparently very inaccessible bird feeder mounted outside a first floor window above concrete path the other night.

[Andy Cap]

Cat's aren't immune to birds either !

C

[ARW]

Wikipedia suggests that there are 1.3 rats to 1 human in the UK. There are IMHO probably more rats than that.

Natures way. It gives them (cat/foxes) a chance to get a bit of fat on for the winter.

TBH I prefer a terrier than a cat for rat control.

[Mentalguy2k8]

Not unusual, they're nocturnal so you probably saw it before anything had time to come along and take it. Normally it would have been running about, died and been eaten/nicked so there was no trace by the morning.

Might have had it's neck broken by a cat, cats tend to lose interest once they stop moving.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Depends on whether you can get a grant for it. The Arts Council might be interested, look at the shit they give money to.

[damduck-egg]

With fields the other side of the fence I'm used to them moving in at the end of the garden after the harvest and the onset of colder weather. I'm not paranoid about them as they haven't lived amongst human rubbish or in a sewer but do like to keep the numbers to a minimum before they breed another lot. Set up a camera with IR and a monitored from the house and found where they were mainly running. Laid poison in a bait box and the numbers have dwindled from about 5 to who 1 sniffs around the box but doesn't go in.Will have to lie in wait with the air rifle for that one. One of its colleagues was the complete opposite,it must have liked the taste of the bait so much it got into the shed and chewed it's way into the plastic tub containing the sachets of poison and ate a fair bit of it. We don't have a cat but at least 6 come through regularly and about 3 of them are night hunters,fun watching then on the camera. They seem to deal with any youngish rats that do emerge but understandably are a bit wary of big old ones . Once the initial batch of autumn arrivals has been dealt with the cats seem to keep them under control.

G.harman

[Brian Gaff]

You are funding the rats, what do you expect? grin. Sorry. Brian

[Mark Bluemel]

Ratatouille ?

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1

ROFLMAO.

[tony sayer]

The cats shouldn't be wary of the Rats, the real threat comes from Airborne Attackers;!!..

[Dave Liquorice]

available else where says Barn Owl. Now Barn Owls are pretty small they could lift a kitten but not a cat equal in size to them.

And can an owl actually let go of heavy prey in it's tallons during flight? I thought the majority of birds of prey couldn't the weight pulls the tallons into the prey making the hold stronger. And why doesn't the cat scraper the first time it's dropped rather than hang about to be picked up and dropped repeatedly?

[ARW]