Aargh another bloody rat!

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

Cat just sauntered around garden with a smallish rat in her mouth, tried to get a pic but can’t…she keeps running off with it. Thank god my cat flap is closed…

I thought at 12 years old she was too old. Why is she catching things now?

She caught another one (rat) a week or so ago but before that only cute wood mice.

No idea where these cursed rats are coming from but don’t want to put down poison. Garden tidied recently. No bird seed.

Ideas?

Let her catch them. Our cat is the same age and sits on the garden wall looking out for them in the alley.
They are probably from wherever bins are left/rough ground near you, not from your house. Cat (and previous cat) has scared off any in-house rodents at our house.

Why is it a problem?

Because she tries to bring it near the French windows and into the house. I don’t want her ratty present!

Yeah have sealed everywhere in the house so no house mice. That was fun!

there are bushes, trees and stuff in the garden. No shed. Bins out front. I seriously thought at 12 she was too old. She doesn’t stay out that long either maybe 2-3 hours max at most.

Oh and this is the first two times she’s ever caught rats, she’s tabby and white and hasn’t always been my cat, she adopted me during Covid. God knows I feed her enough so it can’t be that…😏

Normal cat behaviour, she's making sure her human doesn't starve by bringing you a nice fresh rat. The fact that humans don't eat them is beyond her. Tell her what a good hunter she is!

🤣🤣🤣. I guess I should be grateful.

It's the time of year, my 12 yr old ramps up hunting in the Spring.

I seriously thought at 12 (13 in May) that she was too old to hunt. Shows me what I know 🤣

Ours is 14 with hardly any teeth, we still get a weekly rat on the doormat. Luckily they’re dead though, he used to bring live birds in, he doesn’t seem able to catch birds anymore.

At least she’s getting exercise…. She grew up with her sister Lola, for a number of years, so I think they honed their skills together.

We've never seen rats in our garden until this spring. I wonder if there's a glut of them or if they're particularly hungry/breeding right now?

Perhaps your neighbour's are feeding the birds?

Crikey. That impresses me. How kind of him to do your weekly rat shopping for you! Hope you are grateful!

Nope no neighbours feeding birds, I have fat balls now. Someone at the back has chickens though…

Think breeding now, spring and all that, saw one stroll past bold as Brass recently from French window, not that near but enough for me to clock him/her.

There's our answer OP. I've been feeding seed to the birds all winter.

Three weeks ago I put out fat balls and the rats arrived.
A week ago I took the fat balls down. Haven't seen a rat since.

They must smell the lard/fat in them.

it is just something in cats. our old cat who we took on after mil died and lived until 21 years was still bringing things home at 20.
Rats unfortunately are becoming a big problem. Bins, bird tables, woods, etc let the cat sort it

I thought the fat balls were safe. Would rats go after mealy worms which is what NDN uses?

Chickens attract rats too. I'd love chickens but can't justify the rat attraction 😭 our cat catches rats too but he has an AI anti prey catflap so he can't bring them in 😂

I suspect someone else has put down poison and that’s making the rats weak, disorientated and easy to catch. Rats take days and days to die from poison and it severely dehydrates them, so they’re more likely to be staggering about during the day in the open and very easy to catch. FWIW I’ve picked up live, poisoned rats with my bare hands before without them even struggling.

DDs rats love them, they get them as treat

The one I saw in my garden was definitely not poisoned! Very lively.

Yeah this man he lives 2 doors down from us but on the other side of the road, with chickens, dogs, cats and bees. His honey 🍯 is delicious though, he’s given me some.

I don’t have an anti prey cat flap just the normal ones but she’s not using them no way! The back door with me as her servant is fine for now! Even with this she’s still sneaked the odd mouse in in the past.

I mean I don’t let her use them. As she’d bring more prey in.