What is pre-feeding?
Pre-feeding is one of the best strategies you can use to get more action on your trap. It encourages rats and mice toward your trap and away from any competing food sources and gives them a taste for the same flavour of lure that is in your trap.
Food competition is the biggest barrier to success. Things like compost bins, dog biscuit bags, food stores and poultry feeders all provide excellent food sources for rats. Removing access to these is the first step in successful trapping. For tips on how to remove food competition take a look at this article.
Goodnature Trap Location Cards also act as pre-feed for rodents, as does the paste that’s dispensed from your Automatic Paste Pump in the Smart Trap.
How do I pre-feed? Just follow these instructions below.
- Squeeze around ten ‘pea sized’ dollops of paste from a Rodent Paste Pouch to the area around your A24. This increases the food available to your resident pests. Make sure to use the same flavour as the lure inside your trap.
- Repeat this process for five days. This builds their preference for the paste (yes, even pests have food preferences), and builds their habit in visiting the location where your trap is, to eat.
- After the five days, stop using the paste pouch. Now the only way the pests can access the paste is by entering the trap!
Pre-feeding is a simple way to improve your trapping success. You should now see pests begin to engage with your trap. If you’re using Smart Cap or a Digital Strike Counter, you’ll be able to see the numbers add up and track the kills you’re having.