To carry on feeding the birds even though rats have appeared in our garden?

Also if you're found to have nests of rats in your garden and the neighbours complain to the council, you will be liable to pay for pest control which can run into hundreds, maybe thousands.

it might be better to try more natural ways of encouraging your wildlife.

You could get add a pond, a bit of wild area, a vegetable patch (which will be full of tasty caterpillars), a log pile, and lots of bird boxes.

If you do all that, then the bird life should come without the rats.

If you would like to know more about it, there is a good book called "no nettles required". It's really good if you want to know about how to make things zing in the garden.

Have rat numbers increased this year? I've been putting food out for the birds for years. Only seen a rat this year. Then, same week, saw another on a path in the village.

Are rats more unhygienic than squirrels or birds? They are all over the garden and no one minds. I thought the rat we saw was very cute but DH was not impressed.

Rats breed quickly. One of two might be ok. 20 won't be and it affects your neighbours too. We have blue tits, blackbirds, pigeons, robins, rooks, sparrows, doves and put no food out at all.

It is unhealthy for the birds, they are not toys

Rat hater and bird lover here and I like most of my neighbours too. I made a contraption out of an old plastic planter held up by 'fashioned' coat hangers on top of a washing line pole with a cast iron bird feeder hanger thrust through the middle - basically any bird feeder overspill falls into the old planter up high and none for the ratty bastards. It works.

I've just had to spend quite a bit of money on getting rid of rats from my attic. It needed professional pest control. I won't be doing anything that might attract them onto my property having had the mess and expense of dealing with them.

We had the same problem a couple of months ago. Only saw one rat, but it had climbed up a tree and was feeding on the fat balls we hung out for the birds. I was horrified and called our local council. The 'rat man' came, and put down some traps, but we didn't see it again. He said it's ok to feed the birds, but to bring feeders, etc, inside at night. We haven't done this (yet) as it was a sunny afternoon when we spotted the rat the first time!

Rats in a garden are a complete non issue, they are the same as squirrels (but more intelligent) as far as I am concerned.
If they come into the house maybe reconsider but if they aren't causing a problem why stop feeding the birds? I have seen rats in our garden and in the woods behind, in fact we have fed the rats in the woods before. They hold bit sof bread in their little paws to eat it, very cute

They are intelligent creatures who have done a lot for humankind from medical research to land mine detection.

People who think it’s ok to treat them cruelly have something deeply wrong with them.

Well that's sorted then. We can stop spending the hundreds of millions of pounds we spend on rodent control a year.
Lets see. Local authorities spend millions on preventative baiting. Nothing else for them to spend the money on, is there, so why do they do it. We have public health legislation to force people to take actions on there own land to control them, why would we do that with an English Man's Castle and all that. We have pest control sections employing hundreds of people across the Country, is it just a job creation scheme. Environmental Health Officers inspecting to ensure they are not there, loads of food and other safety legislation specifically to control them.
If you think the risk from rats is just a small risk from leptospirosis then you are very much misinformed.

No, it wouldn't.

Rats (like most mammals) do not really like cayenne or other spicy peppers, but it won't deter them. If you gave a rat two piles of bird feed, one with cayenne and one without, they would likely eat the one without cayenne first, then the one with cayenne.

Rats are not sweet. They are filthy, disgusting creatures, who carry a whole raft of really nasty diseases. I agree that they are cunning and intelligent. I would not want them anywhere near my garden, especially with young children. They bite and go for the throat - enough to kill a child.

@ahe2, l would stop feeding the birds at this time of year, get pest control to deal with the existing rats and plant lavender bushes as these are supposed to deter rats.

Yabu. I can’t imagine your neighbours will be happy for you to continue.

I wonder if sprinkling cayenne pepper all over the garden frequently would help then?

I had rats in my garden and was advised by the council’s pest control that visited, that I should remove all bird feeders. I only reinstated them when we were sure the rats had gone. I also have a pond and was told rats like to be near a water source too.

Rats will happily eat fresh mint, it is more likely to attract than deter them.

I have found using suet balls in a hanging feeder to be relatively unappealing to rats and squirrels.

We had a hideous infestation which took months and much work to get on top of. It was essential to stop all feeding while we sorted it - but we were seeing eg 6 rats simultaneously in a smallish garden (they moved in during building work)

Now, if we feed loose seed we tend to find rats arriving, but no sightings after switching to suet. I also planted mint which is said to deter them

I'd just carry on.

I have bird feeders, the pole to hang a variety of feeders from. Rats can't climb the slippery pole. Put it away from fences, the birds will still come to be fed and the rats can't get to the food. I live rurally too (or cruelly,...) by a river. There are plenty of rats further down the road where animals are kept, but I've never seen one, or evidence of any, in my garden. I've got chickens too, shock horror!!

I stopped feeding the birds a number of years ago as it was attracting rats....tried everything to stop them. Eventually the council set traps at a cost to me....no more rats. No feeding, no rats.... it's simple. Rats are an absolute nightmare

Hmm maybe you need to educate yourself too? Often caught from contaminated soil or water. Yes, it can be caught from the urine of an infected rat, but....the rat would have to be infected, and you'd have to touch, and somehow transfer the infected urine, into your body , very quickly after the rat urinated. I'm sure OPs children aren't playing underground, in manholes.

We had to stop feeding the birds because of rats. We tried putting the feeders higher up but no matter where we put them the rats could either climb up and get them or would eat the seeds that the birds had dropped on the ground. My husband loved feeding the birds and wasn’t worried by the rats but I didn’t want an infestation plus didn’t think it was fair on the neighbours.

You could try just having the food out during the daytime and cleaning any spillage up. I think you can get rat proof feeders too.

Most people will have rats, mice and other weils carriers (like squirrels) visit their garden fairly often. They are an incredibly common (and important) part of the ecosystem.

The risk of catching Weils disease is very small even in industries where people are more frequently exposed to lots of wild rats (agriculture, waste management, vetinary, construction). Even if we assumed that all exposure came from rats (which isnt actually the case, cattle are a significant contributor, and carry and spread it independently of rats), the rate of infection in high risk settings is probably in the region of 0.001%.

In your garden, even if you see rats from time to time, the risk will be magnitudes smaller.

If you were to be one of the unlucky few to catch it, it is still very likely (85%-90% chance) there your symptoms would be mild and flu-like.

I do think the OP should deal with the problem, by removing (or isolating) the food source. It is not desirable to have rats nesting in your garden. Them getting inside and causing damage, though, is by far the biggest risk. The risk of weils does exist but it really is extremely trivial in the scenario described by the OP. If you have ever petted a cow, that was probably far riskier.

The rspb suggest coating the bird food in chilli powder as birds can't taste it but rats hate it!