A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Can I use this in my flower bed compost???

I don't really know where else to post this, since it appears that the "organic" section is archive only. So if it needs to be moved somewhere else that's fine

Ok, I know most of you are going to raise an eyebrow or 2, but anyway, here goes. I have read in many places that you can put rabbit droppings in your compost piles and it makes it start really well. Well, I have 25 pet rats, which let me tell you make a LOT of droppings. Can I use this instead of rabbit droppings?

I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't use dog or cat's because of the protein in their diet, and even though the rats do get meat and protein from time to time, would it be ok???

Thanks

Shirley

Peejeeratties,
Don't quote me on this one, but I read alot and somewhere's I read that stuff is bad.
Well, let me say especially for breathing the dried rat droppings, something about the powdered form of it???
Not sure, can't remember where I read it.???
Not sure about using it in the compost!!!

I don't know what to say, I read around the google thingie, and couldn't really come up with a definate answer for you???
But, I am still out on thinking yes or no to that answer????

Weezie

Good Morning or Afternoon

There are horror stories going around about rat's poop and pee on soda cans and so forth, that simply aren't true. There MAY be a problem with wild rat "stuff" since they can and will eat just about anything.

But living with these guys for years, I haven't suffered any ill affects of their waste, which is why I was wondering. (Even though I would still LOVE to use the cat's poop, got plenty of that!!!)

I tried googling it also, and only came up with that rats LOVE the compost pile, as opposed to whether or not you can actually use their "goods" in the compost LOL

Shirley

I did read something on the google that if they were kept as pets, nothing should be wrong with it but the same article said you could drink the stuff as well, and it read like it was a spoof, but I did NOT WANT TO POST that info unless I read other info to back it up.
But what I had read a long time ago was that when the droppings DRIED, is when there was a problem with it and the powdery form it could become when drying and breaking down, was from BREATHING IT!!
So, that is why I hestitated with a full yes or no answer on it..
That does sound plausable that it would not be good for you????????
Keep me posted if you ever found anything on it.

I have read about them being on soda cans and any can top for that fact in warehouses, I understand that comes from mulling around in their feces' and other unclean stuff and having it on the bottom of their feets and then running on top of the can goods in the warehouse's...
They just suggest as a procaustionary measure you should always wash the top of your cans to protect yourself.

I did read that any animal that eats meat is the one's you shouldn't use the poopie on your gardens.. So, maybe if yours are just vegetarians, who knows what that would mean for the use of it.

Weezie

I will never drink a can soda again!


EEEEWWWWWW

Karen

Speaking from experience...

I went to the hospital with severe pneumonia two years ago. On of my lungs filled up and would have collapsed if i hadn't been smart enough to realize I needed help and gone to the emergency room when I did.

The doctor asked me if I had been around old mouse poop. I said I wasn't aware of it, but it was possible, since my eighty-year-old house was having an addition put on and a wall had been knocked out. The doctor said that I had probably breathed old mouse poop molecules, which had made me sick.

Three days of oxygen, interveinous antibiotics and learning to inhale again, and I was well enough to ask to get the heck out of there. Other than having my child, I had never had to stay in a hospital and I didn't much like it.

So- otherwise hale and hardy person breathes dried mouse poop and goes to hospital. There you have it.