Keep birds fed this January and rats away with simple swaps
January is the toughest month for garden birds, but the seeds you put out can also attract unwanted rats. With a few simple swaps and smart feeding habits, you can help wildlife survive the cold without giving rodents a free buffet.
Garden bird feeding expert Lucy Taylor of Vine House Farm Bird Foods explains:
Nobody welcomes Brown rats, or Common rats as they’re also known as, to their garden. This is quite understandable because this non-native species of rodent – which was accidentally introduced to our shores in about 1730 from ships travelling back from Asia – can do considerable damage, carry diseases and breed at an alarming rate. But there are simple steps you can take to help ensure that rats don’t set up home in your garden, with an absolute key one being to remove their key requirement of a source of food – and in this case bird food.
Never put out cheap bird food seed mixes
This might not seem like an obvious step, but actually cheap bird food seed mixes can be a major cause for attracting rats to gardens (whilst also a waste of money as far as birds are concerned). The reason being that bird food mixes which contain cheap fillers like wheat and pulses, aren’t eaten by most birds and instead will be turfed-out of feeders and fall to the ground, as birds like Blue tits and Greenfinches rifle through the mix in search of the odd edible morsel. The food then sits on the ground below the feeder, and although some species like Wood pigeon and Jackdaw may eat some of it, chances are it will remain there and therefore be available to a passing rat at night (rats are mainly nocturnal). So instead buy very good quality seed mixes, or just straight foods like sunflower hearts, as both will minimise the amount of food which falls to the ground.
Use a metal feeder pole or feeding station
Although rats can climb and would probably have little trouble reaching a feeder hung from a fence post or tree branch, they will struggle to get up a smooth metal feeder pole or that on a metal feeding station. As a further measure, you can add a plastic baffle to the steel pole which goes below any feeders, with these often sold to prevent Grey squirrels from getting to the food – but they work just as well for stopping rats.
Bring in ground trays at night
With species such as Blackbird and Robin ideally needing a ground tray or dish to feed from (as ground feeding species they struggle with hanging feeders), leaving this type of feeder out overnight could be an invitation for rats. So by bringing it in and storing it in a garage or other safe place overnight, then putting it back in your garden the next morning, the risk is removed.
“In summary, now is the time of year to increase the level and variety of food you put out in your garden for wild birds. Rats are generally only attracted to gardens by bird food if precautions aren’t already put in place, with the absolute key one being to avoid cheap seed mixes and only use high quality bird food which therefore minimises waste.