AIBU to not know what to do with the rat?!

[TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge]

And to name it Campbell, after UB40?! (May have changed the lyrics and sang 'There's a rat in the garden...'

Currently there is a large rat in a trap in my garden. A humane trap.

I noticed something had been trying to dig in to my quail house, near their feeding area, so had a trap delivered on Saturday and caught the thing last night. Who knew rats scream? Yep, noisy blighter kept me awake. Horrible sound.

Anyway, I've been out to see it this morning, slowly peering round the corner of the quail house, thinking it would be a hideous scream inducing sight. Actually, it looks completely harmless and has a fluffy white belly!

So what do I do with it? I didn't think of that bit. I know I need to get rid but how do I do that
A. Nicely for Campbell
B. Nicely for me and
C. How in hells name am I meant to grab the trap handle when it folds down flat when not being held and therefore,when lifting it, puts your fingers right in biting distance?!?!

Help!!?

God I would have moved out by now. What is a quail house?

It's like a hen house but for Quail instead! The Quails, I add, seem to be taunting Campbell!

Rat in my Quail house that is possibly the poshest problem we have ever had on MN!!
As for Campbell, chuck him a truffle (mushroom not chocolate obvs), scoop up the cage and drive out to the nearest big town for an escape to the city type relocation!

Ask the servants for advice.

A stick or rod should be ok to poke the handle enough to get it out of biting range. In terms of relocation I think it will probably just try to make its way back plus it might be bullied by rats in the new place, they are fairly territorial and like their own family who live where you live. Are you planning to catch them all? Might be better to reinforce the quail house defences - although they will probably gnaw through most stuff.

Tis all too common a problem. The age old quail house/rat conundrum.

YABU to have not put any thought into what you were going to do with whatever you caught in a trap....

You can either pick up the trap and relocate dear ratty (as other posters have said, it may be illegal to release a pest), kill it yourself or have a pest controller kill it. Sorry. That's the reality. It's not a nice way to go, but a lot of people immerse the traps in water to drown them. Not sure how the pest controllers do it but I'm sure it's not holding it's paw to give it a lethal injection humanely
I would just relocate the bugger if it's legal?

Should I'm kinda hoping he's a stray... The defences on the quail house are good, aside from that bit! Nothing can get up underneath them and generally can't dig around, just seems I stopped a bit short and one area was slightly unlevel and it's been digging under there to grab food.

It's possible it's on it's own, right? I know a house behind has had rats due to all the bird food they leave out, maybe he's just been coming for a takeaway?

We had major repair works done to the orangery last year which kept the rats out, only for the problem to appear in the smokehouse. One girl from the laundry house had a panic attack, luckily the footman is her brother and was able to calm the situation.

Putting it in the freezer is a kinder death than drowning.

Oh, sorry, there is one more option.
Buy a cage and some sawdust bedding, you now have a pet rat called Campbell

God, there's nothing humane about humane rat traps yes they do scream and you're lucky it hasn't eaten bits of itself trying to get out! Just use a snappy trap,over and done with in a second. If you release vermin away from their food source they starve as they are removed from their food sources so not very humane after all.

It's a rat, drop the whole trap in a bucket of water and go for coffee.

what is the point of a humane trap?
poor ickle rat vermin

i spose you will have to call pest control

Dame I hate the thought of killing and finding a dead one would be horrible. Besides, I have frogs and hedgehogs visiting the garden so worry about them getting hurt in a snap trap. Or one of the local cats getting a snap on the foot or nose and wailing like a banshee!

Ummm. I think you would have been better off putting some poison inside.

Oh cross post. See poison not good option for wildlife. Get pest control if you don't want to do it yourself.

If you don't want to kill him just open the trap and let him go, and reinforce the quail house!

It's not illegal to release a pest!

It is illegal to release vermin once you've caught them. Squirrels come under that category.

But I won't tell.

If you have poultry you have rats. There's always so much grain and pellets around with poultry that the rats just congregate.

Ignoring the fact that it's illegal to free vermin once you've caught them, you could take Campbell miles away and release him, but his family will remain, and no matter how many you trap there will always be more.

When we kept poultry we just rat-proofed the feed containers, made sure we didn't put out an excess of feed each day so there wasn't much hanging around to attract the rats, and we bleached out the feeders and drinkers every day to keep the risk of infection down.

To deal with the digging problem, surround the quail house with fine-mesh weldmesh, with about a foot of it buried. It does help.

this link tells you quite a bit about what you can and can't release.

Following to find out the fate of dear Campbell - I second the cage and sawdust option - the white fluffy belly had me pulling an ugly face at the screen he sounds adorable!
Although if I were you in reality I wouldn't contain him for too long incase he is a she and stress of being contained brings to an end the probable pregnancy and you end up with a trap full of baby rats! And I for one have no advice for a breastfeeding rat unfortunately!

Could he be a pet rat someone has lost from the sounds of it?

Please don't drown or freeze him. That is horrific.

Best bet is to relocate. Go for a drive and release a few miles away.