Raised Bed and a Dead R*t

NewBoy2

I built a RB 5 years ago and within a few days I found the back end of a dead rat sticking out of the SSW corner.

I have just replaced the RB  and finished it 2 weeks ago.

2 days ago I found a whole rat buried in the same corner.

? Is it foxes or cats 
? Why is it in the same corner.
? Why do they bury it.

I found a complete egg when I demolished the old RB 3 weeks ago.

B3

Foxes bury eggs. The woman next door feeds them to the foxes and they bury them in my garden😠. I don't think burying food is a cat thing.
One small positive, the fox is keeping the rat population down a bit. You just need to discourage it from using your raised bed

BobTheGardener

Definitely fox behaviour.  They bury food as a way to store it and can remember where they put it, so even if you remove the item, they will still attempt to dig it up.  I've also found a few complete eggs buried in borders and raised beds over the years.  Must have 'cast iron' stomachs is all I can say.  I have a security camera video of a fox digging-up what looked like a mouldy slice of pizza from the corner of my 'species tulip' raised bed:

GemmaJF

Fox, cats 'present' their kills occasionally to the owners, but they leave them in the open so the owner knows they did the job. Not a cat thing to bury prey.

josusa47

My last cat had never heard the theory that cats catch critters as gifts for their humans.  She always scratched and bit me to blazes if I ever tried to prize a victim from her jaws.

GemmaJF

josusa47 said:

My last cat had never heard the theory that cats catch critters as gifts for their humans.  She always scratched and bit me to blazes if I ever tried to prize a victim from her jaws.

They choose if it is a gift or not. Back in the day when we had cats at my childhood home they would occasionally leave beheaded rats on the doorstep. Personally grown away from the concept of keeping cats down the years, as my interest in wildlife grew. 

madpenguin

There is nothing quite so bad as stepping on an eviscerated mouse in the dark-in the middle of the night-with bare feet 

GemmaJF

madpenguin said:

There is nothing quite so bad as stepping on an eviscerated mouse in the dark-in the middle of the night-with bare feet 

Lovely!

I have a childhood memory of my mum being in a rush to go fruit picking. She was getting really mad with me because I couldn't get one of my wellies on and the bus that picked up all the workers was due. Turned out there was a dead mouse in the toe. To this day I check my wellies before putting them on. 

B3

What about a Lego brick or an upturned plug?
What you dont need to think about is, if you rub garlic in the sole of your foot, your breath smells of it 20minutes later

madpenguin

My Dad recalls the tale of his Aunt wondering what the rattle was in the kettle that was always on the Aga.
An investigation found the skeleton of a mouse.
Just how the mouse got there,how long it had been 'cooking' for is anyone's guess!!!

granma

Mouse in a kettle😒 yuck😧
Reminds me of the great aunt who used to make her own bread cobbs.
Huge mixing bowl held enough to make several at once..the very last one would be three week old..
 Odd how a mouse found its way in and couldn't get out alive.
And yes it was still sliced up for tea with great aunt being pleased as ....the mouse had only eaten it's way around where it had its last nibble .
 Suppose one could look on it as " mousy's last supper "