Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher After 25 Years' Experience

by Ike Matthews

DRUGS AND CHEMICALS

for enticing Rats out of their holes. I hope none of my readers will be attracted with this device. I hold that there is nothing that will tempt a Rat from its hole like hunger. The nearest approach that I have found to entice the Rodent out of its hole is oil of aniseed or oil of rhodium, but the latter is expensive. I can rely best on oil of aniseed, because I have often successfully tried it in experiment upon the plate of a set trap. I have placed only three or four drops of oil of aniseed upon the plate of a set trap without bait, and often the trap has closed and trapped the Rat by the nose; so that it will be seen that the Rat must have been licking the plate, or it could not be caught in that manner. I have also frequently noticed when I have set, say, 20 traps covered with meal and sawdust mixed, that if I have put only two drops of oil of aniseed on half the

traps I should find next morning on looking at the traps that most Rats are in those in which I had placed the aniseed. I think that oil of rhodium and oil of aniseed are very good to drop on the traps after setting, or to mix with the stuff with which the traps are covered.

There is also another way of bolting Rats. Sometimes when the ferret is put under a boarded floor, all the Rats will run together and pack themselves in a heap at the end of a joist. When the Rats pack themselves on each other thus, the ferret on reaching them will tackle only one at a time. You can always tell when this happens by the ferret working a long time and bolting no Rats. Now, immediately you notice this, put your mouth near the hole where you have put the ferrets in, and make a squealing noise with your mouth to imitate a squealing Rat. This causes the heap of Rats at the end of the joist to disperse through fear, and when they get running about they will bolt into the net. Many times I have not had a bolt for half-an-hour and when I have squealed at the hole I have had four or five Rats in the nets at once.

These are some of the methods of clearing Rats from various places, and from experience I think they excel all others.

PART II. HOW TO KEEP AND WORK FERRETS.

The first necessity in ferret-keeping is that they shall be kept in hutches or “cotes,” as they are commonly called. Care must always be taken to have their places well swilled with carbolic water, and then allowed to thoroughly dry before whitewashing the inside, which is also essential to keep them healthy. This should be done at least four times a year. Always have your hutches leaning from the wall, so that wet or refuse will not lodge, for when the bottom of a hutch is always wet it is liable to give the ferrets a disease called foot rot, which is very frequent where ferrets are neglected. Always keep the feeding part of the hutch well covered with sawdust.

In feeding ferrets for the purpose of Rat-catching, never do so before going out with them; I think it is quite sufficient to feed them every 24 hours. If you feed them oftener they are liable to get too fat, and also lazy and unwilling to work as they should. The best food you can give them is bread and

milk, and occasionally a little raw liver. Mix the bread and milk with a little hot water, stir well with a spoon or squeeze through your fingers, so that the ferrets will have to eat it where you feed them; if not they will carry the large pieces of bread that are wet into the corners of the sleeping place, which would soon cause that part of the hutch to smell very sour and become injurious to the health of the ferret, especially where four or five are kept together, as they are of a very perspiring nature. Always give them plenty of room to run about when you can; if you don’t they are likely to take cramp.

Ferrets are usually subject to distemper. The first symptom is the ferret’s neglect of its food. When you see this you will observe a little matter at the corner of the eyes, and the ferret will have a slight running at the nostrils. Immediately you see these symptoms separate that ferret from the others, as this is, I think, the worst disease one has to contend with.

In the whole of my ferret-keeping experience I have found distemper, if caught in time, can be cured; but if it gets too far I know of no cure for it. I have known a gamekeeper to have dogs with the distemper, and he has not touched his ferrets or handled them at all

during the time his dogs were bad, yet a week afterwards his ferrets caught the disease. He tried all the remedies he knew of, but in 14 days 12 hitherto good, strong, healthy ferrets died: all he had. This will show at once that the disease is very contagious. The moment you see signs of distemper coming on feed the ferret as little as possible. Give it as little to eat as will just keep life in it, for in feeding the ferret you also feed the disease. When you have kept the food from it is the time to start curing if possible. Now, from experience the first thing I recommend is to sweat the disease out of it, and I find the best way to do this is as follows:—Get an old bucket with a few one-inch holes bored in the bottom, and almost fill it with good new straw horse-droppings; put a little hay on the top of the droppings, and then put the ferret on the hay. Place or hang the bucket over a boiler or on the mantelpiece, and let the kettle steam under the bucket, say for 30 minutes, and you will find the steam and the ammonia from the droppings will together sweat the disease out of the ferret; then you can start feeding it again. Feed it with something substantial, such as the jelly from stewed cowheels; give them the jelly only, not the meat; and you will have a good result. Also give them a

teaspoonful of cream. This is the one and only cure for distemper.

Another disease in ferrets, especially young ones, is what I call “red mange.” This starts always under the belly, and you will find that the skin becomes very red and speckled. This is easily remedied by the simple process of washing in lukewarm water and rubbing with sweet oil and black sulphur. The same mixture will answer for “foot rot” if rubbed well into the paws. The general cause of this latter disease is neglect of the ferrets and the hutches not being cleaned out regularly.

I think the best bedding for ferrets is good oat straw, fresh every fortnight. Throw the straw in carelessly, and the ferrets will make their own beds. When breeding ferrets, never go near them more than you can help, as they are of a wild nature and liable to destroy their young. When you know a Jill or bitch ferret has young, give her a little extra good food, but don’t interfere with the young ones on any account, and if you want to give her a little extra bedding put the straw in the same place as the food, and she will take it into the sleeping place herself. It is advisable not to touch the young ones for five weeks, or better still leave them until they come out to feed themselves; and when running about, if there

be a good number, say nine or ten, in the lot, it is a good plan to remove them into a larger place for sleeping, as young ferrets are very liable to catch the red mange, which arises from too many being together and sweating very much.