A few months back, I started noticing evidence of some unwanted visitors that were coming into my rabbitry during the night.  At first, it was garden debris left in the middle of the rabbitry - I don't have a garden, but both my neighbors do!  Then I started noticing droppings in the feed bowls inside cages!  Yup, you guessed it - RATS. 

I put out snap-traps baited w/Peanut Butter... caught a few, but I was still finding droppings in a few of the feed bowls.  It's only certain cages that I'd find them in - Top row, center few cages (or Mid Buck Row).  The rats started getting smart and would avoid the snap traps, so I changed it up a bit and put out those sticky glue traps.  Caught only 1 with those, but they got smart again... so back to snap traps.  It seems to be a never ending dance of trying to stay a step ahead of these critters and trying to catch them off guard. 

In the last few months ever since the rats came in, I started having issues with a couple of my reliable brood does.  They started delivering on the wire, cannibalizing their young, and not pulling fur just to name a few problems.  With summer coming up, it's obvious I need to get things under control NOW and get rid of them once and for all.

Today I talked to the owner of my feed store to see what suggestions he may have.  I explained I don't want to use poisoned bait of any kind - especially since the rats are defecating in the rabbit's feed bowls.  I don't want to risk any cross-contamination since our family and our dogs eat rabbit.

He did have a product suggestion that he swears by.  He showed me a product called Shake-Away Rodent Repellent.  Basically, it's a granulated crystal made from Fox and Bobcat urine.  Naturally, rats & mice will not remain in an area that has been 'claimed' or inhabited by their natural predator.  The smell of the urine drives instinctual fear into the rodents and they vacate the area.

I was concerned about how the rabbits would act/react with this product in the rabbitry - but after further consideration, it couldn't be much worse than the problems I'm already experiencing with a few of my does, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Today I cleaned out the entire rabbitry - swept & hosed everything down - did a thorough cleaning of everything.  I did my routine Auto Fly Sprayer maintenance and also set out some of the Shake-Away product above my stacker's in the center of the rabbitry (where the rat droppings were the most concentrated).  Directions say to re-apply twice a week for the first two weeks... so with each application, I'll slowly work outwards with each application from the center until I have the whole rabbitry 'claimed'.

Wish me luck!

So far it's working! I have finally widened the area of treatment to now include the entire rabbitry and surrounding area's and now there is hardly any evidence of rats anywhere. I will get the occasional dropping here and there, but NOTHING like it was before and now my does are back to their normal behavior and haven't had problems with delivering on the wire or with them not pulling enough fur or feeding their young - they're back to being the great mama's they were before.

I would recommend Shake-Away to anyone who asks - just take proper precautions and start slow... you don't want to trap the vermin in and you don't want to scare off your pets ;)

~Sunnie