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RAT IN CAGE

D

danuutka

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Messages
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Points
330
Location
Leeds, United Kingdom
Hello I’ve just looked at our night camera and seen that a wild rat has gotten into our pig cages. It’s walked around the cages, drank from the bottles etc.

It seemed to just exist peacefully next tot the pigs, and didn’t attack any of them but I will be checking for bite marks anywhere. I will be thoroughly cleaning EVERYTHING in the cages too.

We’ve been in contact with exterminators for the past few weeks with no avail, we’ve covered all holes to the best of our abilities and have traps all around the house.

What should we do in terms of checking the pigs for health issues? I know rats carry all sorts and it was in the cages with them for multiple hours so whatever illness can be passed on will be, but is there anything we can do?
 
Gosh hope your piggies are alright, it sounds like they are getting in through a whole around your main water pipe? That’s the usual culpri. You can buy an expanding foam to fill any hole around pipes etc from B&Q DIY stores as a temporary fix or move the piggies to a different room and keep all doors shut
 
Bill & Ted said:
Gosh hope your piggies are alright, it sounds like they are getting in through a whole around your main water pipe? That’s the usual culpri. You can buy an expanding foam to fill any hole around pipes etc from B&Q DIY stores as a temporary fix or move the piggies to a different room and keep all doors shut
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We’ve already expandable foamed everywhere (or so we thought) - it seems to be getting through our landing cupboard and has removed all the steel wool and expandable foam 😭 I’m hoping if anyone got hurt we would’ve heard them squeak. It seems like the rat was just eating their hay and drinking from their bottles, but not actually looking for a fight
 
Hi
In any confrontation, the rats will always win against guinea pigs. You have been very lucky but it must have been a very scary experience for your piggies. Unfortunately, now that the rats have discovered a convenient source of food in the middle of winter, they will be back and may decide to take over the cage at some point. :(

Please move your piggies into your carrier and into a different room for the night and remove anything edible from the cage overnight until you have worked out where the rats come from and have been able to deal with them/the access point.

The other aspect is a higher transmission risk of diseases between rodent species, even if they are not closely related ones; so please deep clean the cage and any furnishings once you have got the rats out of the house again and deep clean the water bottle and any food bowls daily.

I am very sorry for your scary and upsetting experience. You never know how many small holes you have in your house until you have rodents invading... Even in well-built ones! :(
 
Good to hear the piggies are ok, rats are such clever creatures. trouble is that rats might be just after food but others could follow and might not be so friendly
 
Oh my goodness, how scary! I'm so glad the pigs are alright.

When I had a mice problem a few years ago I contacted my local council which sent someone round free of charge. I just thought it's another source of help that you may not have thought about
 
Oh my word. So sorry to hear that the rats are inside your house. As Wiebke has said, now they’ve found a food source they will keep returning. I’m afraid they are persistent and intelligent pests, so you are going to need a professional to help you to get rid of them, but in the meantime Wiebke’s tips are spot on.
 
Oooh that must have been scary for you and your piggies... I love rats and have had many pet rats in the past, and a family of wild rats at the top of the garden, but even I wouldn't want them living in my house! 😧
Could you somehow attach some really strong wire mesh to the outside of the piggies' cage to try and keep them out, at least temporarily? Or I wonder if there is a cage out there that has the bars really close together so they can't fit through?
 
Wiebke said:
Hi
In any confrontation, the rats will always win against guinea pigs. You have been very lucky but it must have been a very scary experience for your piggies. Unfortunately, now that the rats have discovered a convenient source of food in the middle of winter, they will be back and may decide to take over the cage at some point. :(

Please move your piggies into your carrier and into a different room for the night and remove anything edible from the cage overnight until you have worked out where the rats come from and have been able to deal with them/the access point.

The other aspect is a higher transmission risk of diseases between rodent species, even if they are not closely related ones; so please deep clean the cage and any furnishings once you have got the rats out of the house again and deep clean the water bottle and any food bowls daily.

I am very sorry for your scary and upsetting experience. You never know how many small holes you have in your house until you have rodents invading... Even in well-built ones! :(
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Thank you for your response ❤️ it has been a horrifying experience to be honest.

We have been aware of this rat (there is only one) for about a month, and have tried multiple things to catch it/scare it away. We have traps, expandable foam/caulk and steel wooled every gap in the house. It appears that what the rat did was come through our cupboard on the landing, pulled out steel wool from under the pigs door, and gotten in that way. We can see the bite marks in the carpet. We went round the entire piggy room about a month ago and pulled up the carpets to patch up all holes etc so we know it couldn’t have gotten in via the room. We’ve been trying to get in contact with local exterminators but have not had any luck.

We’ve now bought one of those big cage traps to place in front of the cupboard, and will use weight plates to cover all of the gaps in the pigs door. We have also deep cleaned and disinfected all cages, beds, furnishings etc, and the water bottles. We have also checked each pig over (they’re fine) and given Ivermectin.

We’ll keep a very close eye on the piggies over the next few days, because I’m so worried that the rat will have transmitted something.

I’ve reviewed the whole footage from the night and thankfully my piggies seemed to be okay and not too frightened - weirdly enough they just existed beside the rat, and the rat didn’t try to get at them either (it was more interested in their hay). I’m very relieved because I was so scared they would’ve fought (especially as one of my piggies is old and frail), or that they would’ve been spooked, but they all seem okay on themselves. It’s the best of a bad situation, and it’s just so frustrating that we’ve done all we can to keep any vermin out of the house and especially the room, but they outsmarted us :(
 
Bill & Ted said:
Good to hear the piggies are ok, rats are such clever creatures. trouble is that rats might be just after food but others could follow and might not be so friendly
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Yes I totally agree. I feel like I’ve been outsmarted by something the size of my hand!

For the past month we have had this rat in our walls (you can hear that it is just one set of footsteps), so hopefully it won’t be bringing any friends. I have 10 pigs in 4 separate pairings/herds so moving them elsewhere isn’t really practical at the moment. We’ve bought additional traps to try to booby trap the entire house basically.
 
Posyrose said:
Oh my goodness, how scary! I'm so glad the pigs are alright.

When I had a mice problem a few years ago I contacted my local council which sent someone round free of charge. I just thought it's another source of help that you may not have thought about
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Oh really! We had no idea - well definitely try that in the morning. We’ve contacted about 5-6 exterminators but they tend to lose interest when we let them know it’s just one rat, even though we’re willing to pay whatever price!
 
VickiA said:
Oh my word. So sorry to hear that the rats are inside your house. As Wiebke has said, now they’ve found a food source they will keep returning. I’m afraid they are persistent and intelligent pests, so you are going to need a professional to help you to get rid of them, but in the meantime Wiebke’s tips are spot on.
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Absolutely. We’ve been trying to contact local people to no avail. We’ve already gone around the entire piggy room, and all the other rooms - it appears that the rat is coming through a linen cupboard type thing (where an old water boiler would’ve been), where we’ve not been able to as accurately expandable foam. It has consequently bitten through the carpet and made its way across to the guinea pigs room (we’ve been keeping the door closed with steel wool shoved underneath but the rat has pulled it out so we are going to use heavy objects to essentially barricade the door).

We have about 5 traps around the house just in case, don’t keep any piggy food out, other than whatever is in their c&c cage. We have 10 piggies living in different pairings so it’s difficult to move them around anywhere :(
 
Wheekallweek said:
Oooh that must have been scary for you and your piggies... I love rats and have had many pet rats in the past, and a family of wild rats at the top of the garden, but even I wouldn't want them living in my house! 😧
Could you somehow attach some really strong wire mesh to the outside of the piggies' cage to try and keep them out, at least temporarily? Or I wonder if there is a cage out there that has the bars really close together so they can't fit through?
Click to expand...
I’m a fan of pet rats myself, but the thought of my little ones getting hurt by a wild rat/getting diseases is terrifying.

Unfortunately they are in a c&c cage (the bars are the thin ones not the square hole ones if that makes sense) and it seems like the rat managed to jump over 😭 they’re such good climbers as well so it even went inside of the top “deck”. We’ll try have a look for some wire mesh thank you!
 
danuutka said:
Thank you for your response ❤️ it has been a horrifying experience to be honest.

We have been aware of this rat (there is only one) for about a month, and have tried multiple things to catch it/scare it away. We have traps, expandable foam/caulk and steel wooled every gap in the house. It appears that what the rat did was come through our cupboard on the landing, pulled out steel wool from under the pigs door, and gotten in that way. We can see the bite marks in the carpet. We went round the entire piggy room about a month ago and pulled up the carpets to patch up all holes etc so we know it couldn’t have gotten in via the room. We’ve been trying to get in contact with local exterminators but have not had any luck.

We’ve now bought one of those big cage traps to place in front of the cupboard, and will use weight plates to cover all of the gaps in the pigs door. We have also deep cleaned and disinfected all cages, beds, furnishings etc, and the water bottles. We have also checked each pig over (they’re fine) and given Ivermectin.

We’ll keep a very close eye on the piggies over the next few days, because I’m so worried that the rat will have transmitted something.

I’ve reviewed the whole footage from the night and thankfully my piggies seemed to be okay and not too frightened - weirdly enough they just existed beside the rat, and the rat didn’t try to get at them either (it was more interested in their hay). I’m very relieved because I was so scared they would’ve fought (especially as one of my piggies is old and frail), or that they would’ve been spooked, but they all seem okay on themselves. It’s the best of a bad situation, and it’s just so frustrating that we’ve done all we can to keep any vermin out of the house and especially the room, but they outsmarted us :(
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It is a nightmare, isn't it? And so frustrating... :(
 
Wiebke said:
It is a nightmare, isn't it? And so frustrating... :(
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It really is! I feel like I try so hard for my babies, I’ve spent so much money on everything for them, and then whilst I was asleep something awful could’ve happened in the room next to me! It makes me not even want to sleep tonight
 
danuutka said:
It really is! I feel like I try so hard for my babies, I’ve spent so much money on everything for them, and then whilst I was asleep something awful could’ve happened in the room next to me! It makes me not even want to sleep tonight
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It is disconcerting, isn't it?

Please do not feel like a bad owner and just concentrate on dealing with the situation as best as you can. These things can happen to anyone.

We've are having repeated field mice issues since there is a small gap somewhere in between our and our neighbours' house (which are inches apart) where they obviously can get into the cavity walls and behind the attic insulation in an area we cannot get at, likely through a vent/vent hole. We've blocked any access into the lived-in rooms but we cannot get at them without taking the house apart at great expense.
We've tried about everything and every single trick in the book without success... :(
 
It honestly sounds like you are doing absolutely everything you can so try not to feel too bad about it.
 
You are clearly doing everything you can to prevent them gaining access. They are just very intelligent and persistent. When my parents had a rat issue, they baited their traps with peanut butter and chocolate. Those were the baits that worked best for luring them into the traps, but they are very clever and at times it seemed they had managed to access the bait but not set off the traps. Good luck.
 
This may sound daft, but if it's just one rat and you know where s/he's getting in, would it be possible to stuff the gap with shed snake skin borrowed from a local exotics petshop? If they believe a snake is in the area, hopefully they won't try to come in again?
When I used to have snakes I used their shed skin to prevent mice and rats coming close to the house I lived in at the time, we had loads in the garden as we lived by a river and canal and as soon as I'd put one in a burrow that got too close, it was vacated very quickly!
 
I am sorry to hear you are having a problem with rats. I don't blame you for being in a panic, I would be the same. Hope you get the problem rectified soon. All the best.
 
That sounds horrid! I suppose my first thought in what you've said is you know you have just one rat. The exterminator knows what you tell them. I'm pretty sure your rat was pregnant and now there are more than just one (wink wink).
They can get in through a hole the size of a thumb by dislocating bits of themselves so they are tricky to keep out. Hope you find a way xx
 
So I have used human rat traps in my old house successfully, I find coating raisins in peanut butter is a very intoxicating temptation for rats. I hope you caught them x
 
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