There’s a rat in my kitchen, what am I going to do? (Unwanted cat gift)

[soddingkitten]

Any tips for removing our unwanted gift from Sodding which do not involve poisoning, as we don’t want to accidentally poison Sodding cat (not his real name) in the process or by proxy (post mortem snack)?

It’s not a full grown rat and it’s managing to stay out of sight by hiding in ductwork and crannies behind our units. We’re on day 2 and my son saw it’s tail earlier, so it’s still with us. Sodding’s had no joy catching it, though he still seems interested. It’s studiously ignoring the humane trap my neighbour lent me. We are also due to go away for a week on Saturday so I don’t want a pest control person rigging up the kitchen when Sodding will only be lightly supervised by my neighbour. Equally I don’t want a rat in my kitchen unsupervised for a week either. My neighbour says she OK with dealing with rat aftermath if Sodding does get him while we’re away.

What to do?

Pest control company with an air rifle.

On the bright side the cats feeling better!

It'll be hungry, what food have you tried in the humane trap? We have pet rats and they will do anything for a bit of hot buttered toast, also keen on cooked chicken, ham, cereal, scrambled egg, well they'll eat anything really but I'm sure it will come out for something tasty.

You need one of these (can get from Amazon, around £30 ish). Place near a skirting board or where you know they are, bait with peanut butter or chocolate. Easy to dispose of the corpse as you just pick the whole thing up and tip it out. No poison needed and it's pretty instant (a friend had a mouse caught by its leg in a snap trap, pretty gruesome)

The only thing is it will need to be checked regularly and any corpses disposed of, or it will stink!

And with the picture

Well I would burn the house down!

Try a piece of hot dog/frankfurter in the humane trap 🤞I had a similar problem years ago (thanks Tabitha!) and the wee mouse walked right in after midnight 👍

Know anyone with a decent small terrier?

Does anyone else have the UB40 song running through their head now?

Had this exact problem a few months ago

We decided to sleep on it and came down to the decapitated back half, god knows where the head went but not in the kitchen at any rate!

The cat will get it eventually...

Thanks all. I cracked this morning and phoned my friend’s ‘mouse man’. He does rats too. 😄 There was only one bit of under unit kickboard we hadn’t removed. He pulled it off to reveal a sizeable cache of Sodding’s Iams biscuits - Sodding grazes all day. Mouse man has laid traps but says “why would the rat go in the trap if he has access to cat biscuits?” We’re moving Sodding’s bowl to make the journey to steal them more exposed and hazardous. We cannot leave Sodding home alone without food between my neighbour’s feeding visits. Wish us luck! 🤞

True. He is back on top form. He’s been bringing lots of prey home recently. I wish he killed it first but he’s a sadist and brings the critters in to play with. 😫

My last reply was to @FormerlyPathologicallyHappy who was very kind when Sodding was poorly recently.

The cat will get it eventually...

My money is on the rat. It seems to have the brains in this combo.

Rats carry a hell of a lot of diseases, completely different from having a mouse, I really couldn't be so blase about it. You need to get rid asap especially as you have children. It will be all over your surfaces every night. You need to scrub everything with anti bac religiously.

I’m aware @itsmyp4rty . We had rats years ago when we first moved here. We’re not taking it lightly, but our options are limited by not wanting to poison our cat - only recently recovered from serious illness.

Sorry can't help but I now have an ear worm. Hope you eRATicate it soon.

But seriously, good luck 🤞

I had to borrow the neighbours cat a few years ago to deal with a mouse my incompetent cat gifted us. Our new cat is better but makes a huge show of eating them. Good luck catching ratty, I've had pet ones and they're clever little things.

I had a brainwave earlier. Sodding’s food tray is not atop the dining table with all the chairs pulled out and away from the table. I’m not saying it is impossible, but it would take a very determined rat to get to it and Sodding would probably catch it in the process. I will double check none of the dry food cupboards are compromised/accessible tomorrow, but most of our loose dry foods are in glass/plastic storage containers thanks to the last incursion. Old habits die hard!

NoW atop. I wish we had an edit button.

The rat is a gonner. One of the mouse man’s fearsome traps did the job. Hallelujah! I’m so relieved as my table idea was not going to cut it - rats can jump up to 3’ vertically and 4’ horizontally. Our dining room is nowhere near big enough for that!

You gone and fixed that rat! 😁

This will be no help, but...
When I was a kid, our garden backed onto a small holding, they had ducks and any eggs were left to rot in a certain place. Our cats used to frequently bring in rodents. One day, my sister and I were watching TV and she shrieked and lifted her feet off the floor, I looked and in the middle of the floor was a baby rat frozen in fear. I then decided that my sister (2 years older) was a complete wet blanket, proceeded to pick said rat up by the base of its tail and bomb down the bottom of the garden to release it. 1/2 hour later the cat brought in a dead one. I think I was in my early teens at the time.