Cat bringing in rats

[nickEcave]

We live in a London semi. A few months ago our cat starting bringing in dead or half dead rats over a period of a week or so. This past week it is started happening again. I'm fairly sure they are breeding in our neighbour's compost bins as we've had our cat 2 years and this only started happening since they installed the compost bins last autumn. I'm going to talk to them about it but I'm a bit concerned that their solution will be to try and poison the rats and I'm worried my cat could get poisoned as she is a real hunter. Has anyone got any advice before I approach the neighbours?

Personally I'd be too worried about them poisoning the rats to mention it. My cat brings in loads.. neighbour gets rat nests in garden and my cat clears them out... my neighbour is grateful, me not so as get rats indoors... but it's part of countryside living I guess.
Sorry I don't have a solution . If rats are live I just pick them up by tail and chuck them out. Some are HUGE. They don't look like verminous city rats though that I've seen before. It's horrible if they are running around bleeding and they smell awful too. It makes such a mess but I tell myself I chose to have a cat living near stables etc where rats are rife. For you in the city, not so great. I don't like it but grin and bear it. Once he's cleared out a nest that's usually it for months until the rat stock goes up again .
But I'd rather clear up dead rats and blood than have a poisoned cat

The only thing is to make their compost bins more secure, and encased, but I know rats can gnaw through anything.. I worked somewhere where rats gnawed through a fridge and had all the milk and coffee!

I think I need to tell them as they have a toddler that plays in their garden so it could be a health hazard. Hopefully they wouldn't use poison as it could be dangerous for the child. I would suggest getting an exterminator in to gas the rats and then removing the compost bins.

The compost bins are enclosed plastic ones, so presumably the rats are gnawing through them to get it? I don't think there is anything practical they can do to make them more secure, I think I will strongly try and convince them to get rid of them altogether.

In a built up area you need to get rid of the rats. They carry many diseases and your cat can pick them up and pass them on to you eg tapeworms.
Rats are also prolific breeders and good parents so seeing a rat or two means there are many more around - a bit like ants!

Your local council should be able to help-ours doesn't charge for rats but I know many do. Poisoning isn't great but I was told the combinations they use now are not likely to affect cats and dogs if they chewed up a dead one. Cats very rarely actually eat them.

Despite following the usual advice to discourage them I realised we had rats in the garden recently. We don't now.

If you tell them ask them very firmly not to use poison. Put down some snap traps in your garden as close to the compost areas as possible. I think they’ll need to put their compost bins on slabs or on top of strong wire mesh.

The compost bins are on the far side of their garden from us and there is a narrow alleyway between their house and ours. To be honest our cat is catching at least one a day at present so don't think the rats are even making it into our garden. She has access to the garden 24 hours through her catflap. I've just done some googling on how many rats there are in a litter and how frequently they reproduce and I'm feeling a bit sick. Hopefully I'll be able to convince the neighbours to get exterminators in and get rid of the bins - any sane person is not going to want their toddler playing in a garden infested with rats!

You don't need to wait for your neighbour to do something. You can report seeing rats to your local environmental health dept. They will advise you.

If the rats really are in the bins, the neighbours just need to give the bins a really good water, and the rats will move on. Then they should keep the compost bit moist, and avoid putting meat, carb or cooked veg in.

But your evidence for them being in the compost (ie timing) isn't exactly rock solid!
Maybe try to find put where they are coming from.

There are rats everywhere in London, but you can try to make sure there's no food for them anywhere.