Rat-proof cat food dispenser?

[Dave N.]

Our little cat (bless her!) has exterminated the local mouse population and has now turned to rats. She brings them in regularly but can't keep up with them to kill them, so they end up running around the house. We thought we'd managed to kill them all as they came in, but unfortunately they've established a colony under a kitchen unit and are thriving on...you guessed it, cat food!

Meaning, of course, that they don't see why they should eat the dodgy looking blue rat poison under the kitchen unit when there's a nice supply of cat food a couple of feet away. We would like to find a way to prevent the rats from eating the cat food without ending up with a starving cat too. We've already removed the dried cat food that the rats liked so much and continued to feed the cat wet food, but the rats have now taken a liking to the wet food too, and ensuring that cat food is only left out in the daytime hasn't helped either.

Anyone got any ideas? It's easy to position food where rats can get at it but not the cat, but the reverse seems much harder!

TIA.

Dave N.

[Adrian C]

You need this :-)

"have built a computer-controlled device that visually determines if Flo is carrying anything in her mouth when she enters, and if she does, it simply does not let her in."

[meow2222]

Maybe you can get her used to eating on a table with smooth slippery legs, if placed away from anything rats can jump from.

NT

[Martin Bonner]

I think you are going to have to bite the bullet and remove the kitchen unit. Either that, or find a man with a terrier who is into ratting. (... you might want to exclude the cat first though :-)

[Bob Eager]

On a window sill (hard for rats to get up there) or similar?

A cat-operated lid (a bit like a pedal bin) on the food container? Cats will quickly learn, but unless they are lab rats..! (make the pressure too much for a rat)

[Adrian C]

OK, One of these near to the food bowl? (If they do work for the Rats that aren't born deaf)

[Dave N.]

Thanks for all your ideas - please keep them coming! I liked the 'cat cam' and imaging software. At the moment the most realistic solution is probably to supervise cat feeding and not to leave cat food in the bowl unattended. A rat scarer might also work, the only problem is if the rats' only entry route is with the cat and they then can't find a way out - so we just end up with a load of demented rats! The house dates from about 1900 and has wooden floors throughout, so I'd be very surprised if the rats didn't have an easy exit route, so I will probably give the rat scarer a go anyway (I think B&Q sell them).

Any more suggestions welcome!

Dave N.

[mike]

Poison the wet food, put it where the ignored poison was so the rats can get it but the cat can't?

[Martin Pentreath]

Hi Dave, why can't you just eradicate the little bleeders with traps, maybe baited with cat food if they like it so much? Kinder to the rats than poison, and no danger of decomposing corpses in in accessible places.

Fenn mark IV traps are generally recommended. Put them in a tunnel to stop the cat getting near them. I've just got some from here (traps and tunnels) to deal with my squirrel problem:

[nightjar]

It is probably not cat friendly, given that similar units are sold to keep cats out of gardens.

Have you tried sitting on the kitchen unit with a 410 shotgun and taking pot shots at them when they look out?

Colin Bignell

[geoff]

How timely

Manis presented us with our first mouse in about 3 years today

big bugger it was too

[Dave Liquorice]

Or simply remove the plinth cover but how you deal with scittering rats is another matter.

Or block up all the access holes to the under side and wait a week. Though rats when they get hungry will gnaw through pretty much anything.

So combine the two evict them from under the unit and block up all the holes so they can't get back in. Then set traps, but remember rats are very wary creatures and won't go near a trap that smells of human, so set them so you can check 'em visually.

[Mark]

Just put one of these under the kitchen unit

poisoned rats under the floorboards is not a good idea

-

[BrainsHere]

Move house and take the rat/s with you, and leave the cat behind................

The rats seem much more important here? Why....

Because the 'cat' controls the adults!

[Huge]

[Dave N.]

Thanks, everyone!

I bought a pack of plug-in rat and mouse repellers (4 for =A320) from B&Q on the way home, and plugged them in, so the whole house is hopefully covered. The cat seems to sit happily near one, so it's evidently not disturbing her. The sound's supposed to be an ultrasonic frequency sweep, so to a rat it probably sounds a bit like an intruder alarm would to us.

No evidence of the rats taking the cat food yet, but it's probably too early to say. If all goes really well they'll find the sound far too irritating and find a way out of the house on their own - if not, at least they'll hopefully find the kitchen too noisy to hang around and will go back under the kitchen unit and feed on the rat bait.

I'll clean under the kitchen unit again over the weekend and will eventually let you know what happens.

As they always say - cat's don't have owners, they have staff...

Many thanks!

Dave N.

[Andrew Gabriel]

If it's one of those ultrasonic things, it scares off mice for at most a week (and possibly not at all), and cats can hear and hate them. (Also, I'm not convinced that just because you can't hear them, they aren't harming your hearing.)

[dennis]

Typical of cat owners.. they aren't bringing you a catch they are just putting it somewhere for later. Yet another wild animal behavior being twisted to fit the needs of the owner.

If you want affection get a dog if you want to feed a wild animal get a cat.

[Andrew Gabriel]

ISTR Desmond Morris saying they are trying to show you how to catch food, because you don't seem to be having any success bringing in any wildlife yourself. It's how they teach their kittens the same thing.

[Martin Pentreath]

I'm doing perfectly well bringing home the wildlife with my squirrel traps thanks very much, certainly a lot better than our incompetent moggy. I'll take no lessons from her!