A rat that walks through a feed store does not stop at the sacks, and the bird that eats what it leaves behind pays for it.
Halaal Farms Ghana team26 August 2026 · 11 min read
The first sign is rarely the animal itself. It is a neat hole chewed through the bottom corner of a 50 kg feed sack, with a thin trail of spilled meal across the floor. Someone who does not look closely walks past it every morning. The keeper who checks the store before the birds get their first feed sees it in the first week, and deals with it before the sack is half gone.
Rodents and feed are a bad pairing, and most farms in Kasoa have both on the premises at the same time. This guide covers why rats and mice gravitate to a feed store, what contaminated feed does to a flock, how to read the signs before you see an animal, and what a chewed bag really costs. It is about prevention and good store management. If birds are already sick, your vet comes first.
Rats and mice want three things from a farm: food, shelter and water. A feed store gives them the first. A stack of old crates, a gap under the wall or a pile of sacks gives them the second. A leaking drinker or a damp corner gives them the third. Once they find all three, they settle in and breed quickly, so a small problem in one month can become an established colony by the next.
Rodents are also a route for disease. Rats and mice can carry bacteria such as Salmonella, and they leave these behind in droppings, in urine and on their fur. A rat that crosses the feed store and then runs along the top of a drinker has done the work of a delivery man, except nobody signed for the parcel. Rodents are not the only source of contamination on a farm, but they are one of the most common, and feed is the most convenient thing for them to carry it into.
Think about your own store for a moment. Is there a corner where nobody looks? Is there a sack that has been sitting against the back wall since the last delivery? Is there a bucket of spilled meal that has been left for a day? Each of those is an invitation, and rodents accept invitations quickly.
Bacteria are not the only trouble with a contaminated sack. Feed that has been wetted by urine or soaked by a leak can go mouldy, and some moulds produce toxins that damage the liver and gut of a bird. You may not see the mould at first. A musty smell, clumps that stick together, or a faint grey or greenish bloom inside the sack are the warning signs. Feed that shows any of them should not go into the trough.
Droppings in the feed also change how much a bird eats. Birds are fussy about what they peck at, and a sack that smells of rat will be left in the corner. Lower intake means slower growth in broilers and lower output in layers. That loss builds up quietly for days, long before anyone notices a sick bird.
So treat any feed you are unsure of as a risk, not a bargain. A cheap sack that has been fouled costs more in the end than it saved, and the damage is often spread across the whole batch that followed it.
Learn to read the store the way you would read a flock. Each sign points somewhere, and a few minutes with a torch will tell you more than a week of guessing. Walk the store at first light, when the night's activity is still visible, and again before you close up. The table below sets out the signs we look for and what each one usually means.
| Sign | What it usually points to | What to check next |
|---|---|---|
| Dark droppings in corners and along walls | Active rats or mice | Compare droppings by size and find where the runs start |
| Fresh gnaw marks on sacks, crates or pipes | Animals looking for food or a new way in | Check for holes at floor level and behind stacks |
| Greasy smudges along the base of walls | Animals using the same path each night | Set traps along that line, not at random |
| Footprints in dust or flour | Movement after dark | Dust a clean strip and check it the next morning |
| Sour or musty smell from a sack | Moisture, mould or urine | Open and inspect the bag, and do not feed it if it is fouled |
| Trails of spilled meal | Animals feeding from spills | Clear spills the same day and stop leaving scoops on the floor |
Droppings are the most useful clue. Mouse droppings are small and pointed, and they show up in many places at once. Rat droppings are larger and blunter, and you tend to find them in a few clusters that mark a run. If you can tell which animal you are dealing with, you can choose the right trap and the right place to set it.
Start with the store, because that is where the feed is. Keep sacks off the floor on pallets or raised boards, and keep them a little away from the walls so you can see behind them. Stack them in a block you can walk around. A tight stack against the back wall is where nothing gets checked and everything gets chewed.
Store feed in metal bins or sturdy containers with lids when you can. A sack can be chewed through in a night, but a bin that closes properly stops the problem before it starts. Sweep up every spill on the same day. A scoop left on the floor is a meal for whatever is nearby.
Seal the gaps. Look for holes where pipes enter the wall, gaps under doors and cracks at ground level. A rat can squeeze through an opening that looks far too small for it. Fix the ones you find, and check again after the rains, because wet ground has a way of opening new routes.
Keep the yard clean as well. Long grass, piles of old crates, broken buckets and sacks left outside all give rodents shelter close to the house. Keep the bins away from the house wall and collect and remove waste regularly.
A cat can help around the feed store, but it will not clear an established colony on its own. If you decide to use rodent bait, read the label, set it in a locked bait station and keep it well out of reach of birds, dogs, children and cats. A poisoned rodent can also poison a predator that eats it, so the bait station is not optional. If you are unsure which method suits your site, ask your vet or the district veterinary office before you buy anything.
Feed is more than half of what it costs to raise a bird, so a chewed bag is a budget problem as well as a health problem. A 50 kg bag broadly costs between GH₵400 and GH₵470, depending on the brand and the season. That works out to roughly GH₵8 to GH₵9.40 a kilogram. Confirm today's price with your supplier before you budget, because feed prices move with maize and soya.
Here is a simple way to see the loss. Suppose rats spoil 5 kg of a bag before you notice it. At the prices above, that is about GH₵40 to GH₵47 gone. If the bag is also fouled with droppings, you may have to throw the rest away as well. This is an illustration, not a forecast, but it shows why a daily look at the store costs less than any trap you could buy.
The bigger cost is the bird. A flock that eats around a fouled patch of feed, or refuses a sack that smells wrong, grows slower or lays less for a stretch, and that gap is hard to make up later. A broiler flock that is well managed loses roughly 3 to 5 per cent of its birds, and a poorly managed one can lose 10 to 20 per cent. Feed hygiene is one of the things that moves a flock from one band to the other.
Check every sack as it comes off the lorry, not when it is half used. Open it, look at the top layers as well as the bottom, and check the corners, because contamination often starts there. Smell the feed. A sour or musty smell means you should not feed it.
If a sack is only chewed at one corner, and the feed inside is dry and sweet-smelling, you can move it to a sealed bin and use it soon while you watch the birds closely. If the sack is wet, mouldy or fouled with droppings, do not feed it, not even to the birds you think are tough. Set it aside, label it, and tell your supplier. A good supplier wants to know, and a bad sack traced quickly is much easier to deal with than one discovered three weeks later.
Keep a record of which sack went into which house, and on what date. If birds fall ill a few days later, that record tells your vet exactly what they ate.
Rodents and bad feed can show up as birds that look unwell, but the same signs come from many causes. Watch for birds with loose droppings, weight loss, a fall in egg output, unusual quietness or sudden deaths. Do not start medicating on a guess. Call your vet, keep the sacks you are worried about, and write down what the birds ate and when.
If several birds show signs at once, or deaths rise quickly, treat it as urgent and report it to the veterinary services without delay. Do not wait another week to see whether the birds pick up.
They can do both. Rodents carry bacteria, including Salmonella, and they foul feed and water. They also cause stress and loss of feed, which lowers growth and output even when no bird becomes clearly ill.
Look at the feed inside before you decide. If it is dry, free from droppings and has no musty smell, you can move it to a sealed bin and use it soon. If there are droppings, wet patches or any sign of mould, do not feed it.
Not safely. Rodent bait has to be set in a locked station and kept away from birds, dogs, children and cats. Poisoned rodents can also poison animals that eat them. Read the label, and ask your vet or the district veterinary office which method is right for your site.
Mouse droppings are small and pointed, and they spread across the store. Rat droppings are larger and blunter, and they tend to gather in clusters along their runs. Checking the size and the pattern tells you where to place traps.
Good storage costs far less than a bad batch of feed, and it is easier to set up before the next sack arrives. If you are planning a new house, read our guide on storing feed to stop spoilage and our notes on the feed budget for a layer flock, so the store is ready when the chicks are. When you are ready to order, send the form on our order page or call 024 915 1503 to plan your hatch date. We confirm the price, hatch date and delivery cost before you pay, and you can pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
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