Unknown animal is nisting under my shed

[KatieD]

Hi everyone!

I love my garden and my wildlife. We feed our plentiful birds and also "our" Fox and Badger. Of course, that attrackts Rodents (no predudice please!!).
Previously we live-trapped mice (field mice, house mice and little voles!) and we got the council out for Rats. Last year we started to buy our own Rat poison and, as they use to live under the shed, we put some Rat poison in trays underneath. The last Rat we saw was just before Christmas and it did not look well, as it had eaten the Rat poison.
After that we filled it back up (2 trays) and I put a little bird food on top of it to monitor, if it is still there but it was gone.
Lately I noticed a mass of moss coming out underneath the shed right next to where the Rat poison trays are.
it is filled with twigs (nicely arranged) a coin, a cloth peg..... The Rat poison has not been touched but the seeds are gone now.
If I can, I will attach some pictures later.
Please help! What is it?

Katie D

[KatieD]

[Pinefinch]

I have no idea what your mystery animal could be and
I am equally puzzled that you feed some animals and poison others. I accept that sometimes rats are problematic but to kill on sight seems a little harsh.

[Beekeeper]

Pinefinch,

Where rats are concerned i would do the same if not able to shoot em, they carry nasty diseases, if Katie has young children she is definitely doing the right thing.

Ian

[salukiwhippet]

The nesting thing is odd, but that poo looks a lot like rat poo. Hard to tell the scale of course but they're certainly shiny fresh!

James

[Dogghound]

I agree the droppings are from a rat. The nest is not a nest certainaly not a bird or mammal nest, rather strange (any flooding or anything). These trays do they have lids on etc? If not I advise you enclose them or you could end up killing anything.

[Tracey.A]

I agree with dogghound, looks like rat to me too. I also agree that you have to be very careful with rat poison, as a friend of mine used it and her dog managed to get at it and died. I'm sure you are being careful Katie Rats seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to rat poison and some seem to avoid it, which I think is what's happening with your rats.

The twigs, coin and peg makes me think of the crow family, they sometimes have a habit of gathering very odd things

Tracey

[KatieD]

Hi all,

thanks for all your replies so far. The rat poison is just under the shed and nothing else can reach it. (apart from - the rat...)

To the person who was asking why feed some animals but kill others: What would you do, if a Rat and her 8 Ratlings all of a sudden appear in your garden and start eating Bird food etc., etc.?

That is an interesting theory, that a rat would be so "clever" to avoid eating rat poison but only the seeds sprinkled on top. We just never had a rat nisting so obvious and in full view of the house. They normally stayed under the shed. Also, at some point we saw the rat appear, but no one has shown so far. We also never had any big droppings like that inside the shed before. The droppings look rather like caterpillars and are about 1.5cm long. Also whiteish grey fluff is there next to it.

[Dogghound]

Its wise to remove rats, although your trays need coving up, hedgehogs, potentially dormice, harvestmice (unlikely but location could dictate it), other mice, voles will eat it and it could get into the food chain.

[animartco]

They are called Borrowers.