Do rats eat snails?

[Gerry]

Hi all,
I've been somewhat restricted lately, having undergone a hip replacement.

In the meantime rats have moved into one of my compost bins. These bins are quite sturdy structures with firmly closing lids and inside I cover the compost with first a sheet of heavy duty polythene and then a cut to size piece of carpet. There is no way other creatures could have got in there, certainly not birds.

On opening the bin, as well as rat evidence, there were about sixty to eighty broken snail shells and rat activity had been greatest by the shells.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? I look forward to hearing other peoples views on this.

Regards, Gerry.

[Primrose]

Well I suspect rats will eat pretty much anything and I can quite believe snails would form a part of their diet. From time to time we've had rats burrowing/living in our open compost heap and I've come across a number of broken snail shells when digging the copost out so I suspect it's quite likely. Hope your hip is healing. Expect it's been frustrating not being able to keep on top of things in the garde.

[Flanjamin]

So even rats have some use....

[Gerry]

Primrose, Thanks for the good wishes. It is healing well and yes, it was and still is most frustrating.

Flanjamin, Those were my thoughts also.

Thanks for the replies,
Regards, Gerry.