Birds that live indoors are usually safer than those that are outdoors, but sometimes there are problems even with indoor birds. The biggest danger indoors is from other pets in the family (like dogs and cats) but sometimes a wild animal gets inside somehow and has lunch.

I am afraid that exterminator would have to use some kind of toxic substance (poison) that may not be safe for your birds. But maybe they have something else to offer.

I'm going for drastic measures and hope the rats don't use it against me...

I'm cutting down food rations for my birds (so there is less in the aviary for the rats to steal by the time they come out). While this puts my birds in a more immediate danger (no birdfood to steal means = eat the birds) I've also put out an order for rat poison. As soon as it arrives I'll dig holes where I se the rats-tunnels. Leave some poison there and cover the hole with a lid / stone so my birds can't get to it.

I hope the rats will eat the poison and bring it to their nests rather than drag it out into the aviary...

I have not heard back from the exterminator firm yet...

Another risk of cutting down on the food is that the birds might decide that there isn't enough food available to raise a family, and abandon their eggs. But if rats are invading the aviary, they might decide that the situation is too dangerous and abandon the eggs anyway. So there's a risk no matter what you do.

I hope you're able to get this resolved soon. It's a bad situation that's not easy to correct.

Bob, I know the answer is most likely "No" but are you able to move your birds to a save location, away from rats? You fear they may abandon eggs, but they still would be alive...No guarantee egg abandoning would happen. I think their reproduction instincts are strong enough to tell them continue take care of the eggs.
If your birds get poisoned, there will be no fun. What if they survive but get permanent neuro-damage?

can you simply remove all the food completely out of aviaries overnight? Birds don't eat at night, anyway

At the moment I don't have enough cages to relocate all of them, and the cages I do have don't fit the nestboxes I have.
It would indeed have been my first reaction: move the birds away so there's NO food whatsoever to be found there... (plus that would make it safe to put poison out).


Well, they always spill some on the floor and there's no way for me to remove all of the spilt food...

As for updates: no dead rats found yet, no more birds have been lost... But I do see the rats are still there...

I think rat poison works slowly, taking several hours to several days. So if the rats took the poison they probably went somewhere else to die. In any case it's good news that you haven't lost any more birds.

I'm sorry to hear you may have rats. I have had mice hanging around the aviaries before and it can be a real pain, especially when you've got birds kicking the food out on to the floor outside of the aviaries!

Something that worked really well for myself to keep the food well out of the way was using hanging feeders central in the aviary. Think sort of like the drop down chicken feeder style only hanging up

I just had a browse, this is what I'm referring to - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1kg-1L-Hangin ... 2209394104

They're really useful and they mean I only have to top up the seed perhaps once a week and just change the water frequently

Hopefully you resolve the issue and don't lose any more birds

As of today the score is 3-2 for the birds.

It could've been 4-2, since I had trapped a rat in a cage (where they stay alive) but I let it go into the wild...

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen the last of it's brothers and sisters though, or it's parents for that matter.