I need some advice on a rat in my cupboard?

Perhaps poison the trap bait (I’m assuming the pets can’t reach the trap)?

If you know where it’s getting in you can stuff the hole with cat litter soaked with cat urine might scare it off.

Also stuffing cloth soaked with a particularly toxic (almond, horseradish, and wintergreen come to mind) or potent essential oil into the hole or it’s main avenue of travel may be enough to send it looking for a more suitable habitat. Again that assumes your pets don’t have access to the hole.

You might want to grease/oil your trap to make sure it’s as sensitive and quick to spring as possible.

Rats are very clever and intelligent little guys. It may take a few tries to catch him in the trap. Peanut butter is the best bait, but you might try something else that would trigger the trap better, like a piece of bread or something that needs to be pulled on more to set off the mechanism. Make him a PB&J sandwich, rat size, and see what happens.

You could also get a live trap and release him if you’re up for that.
They go in the trap through a slot but there is no way out. Less messy but more work.
Peppermint oil is a great, safe, and natural rodent repellent. Cotton balls soaked in Peppermint oil in the cupboards will not only repel them but also mask any good food smells like cereals etc.

Thank you so much , both, awesome advice.

I have had success in the past with glue-type traps. Determine the critter’s usual pathway, and put enough of them down that critter has no choice but to step in several of them. (Most glue traps can be used for trap and release, if desired).

I would second the recommendation for peppermint oil (thank you @coloma), or some other repellent. I’ve heard about repellents based on fox urine, or some other predator, somehow masked to make it so the rodent smells it, but it is virtually undetectable by humans. I haven’t tried it, but it might be worth talking about it to an expert. If you’re in the US, you might want to check with an extension service expert. They usually have some good information, both for rural and urban environments.

@Coloma They really are :( I hate to kill anything really I do, but ugh! another rat in the vast city population… I don’t know and rabies so common here. Just feel yukky, like he is going to jump all over my pillows and stuff while I am asleep (or he’s mates), as the hardware store guy pointed out they might loll

Rats are very smart. If she evaded the trap once, she will probably stay away from it again. You could try a different kind of trap. But rats notice every single little change, so they may be wary. If traps don’t work, then lay down poison. You might hire an exterminator. It takes several days of eating poison for them to die, and then you don’t know where they will die. Could be in the walls somewhere. Might be a bad smell.

Rats are bad news. Good luck with them.

@Shippy I wouldn’t worry about rabies. It would be very rare in such a small rodent as they would usually be killed when bitten or attacked by another animal that was a carrier. Your cat yes, the rat, highly unlikely. Rats are not as nasty and disease ridden as they are claimed to be. ONLY if they are living in toxic environments like sewers or trash heaps where they could contract salmonella or hepatitis.

A house rat is just hanging out in the walls or attic and capitalizing on your food sources. Don’t panic, most rats live very clean lives. lol

I can’t offer any help, so instead I shall post this, by way of light relief.

Peanut butter and other soft baits can be licked off. I’d stick a sunflower seed onto the bait and really jam it in there so the critter has to pull it. I drill a small hole in feed corn pieces and wire them to the bait pedal. (But that is too much to ask of you.)
You’ll get him.

I am going to be looking later at the trap, since I have to pull a small cupboard away from the door. If the peanut butter is gone, I will try the bread or other suggestions. Will keep you posted!

Feedback: I’ve spent a miserable two days, the first day he just licked the peanut butter off, so I wedged some bread on the trap. Last night (this is so awful), I heard the trap dragging and it was scratching at the door like mad. So I think not sure, that he was caught, but I don’t know where. I feel like this poor thing has been tortured to death. If it is dead. I am too scared to open the darn cupboard. I feel awful. I wish I had of somehow just released it somewhere.

Now I am too scared to open the cupboard to see the trauma inside :( and if he is alive and ugh, or dead. With all the constant dragging noises and scratching etc., I felt like a serial killer.

Oh @Shippy I feel for you. I use heavy Victor rat traps They are the best! Use a paper clip or wire and tie the food to the bait pedal. There will be no misfires or injuries. Bang! The job will be done. Also set out more than one trap. If I see a mouse in my house, I put out 16 traps, minimum! Yes for one mouse!. If I had a rat. I’d do 6 -12 traps . I put traps in pairs, some back-to-back, some at 90 degrees to each other.
You are the one in charge, not the rodent. Go get ‘em!
We’re all standing right behind you. :-)

SHIPPY….!!! You must be brave and open the cupboard!
If the poor thing is not dead you must find a way to put it out of it’s misery.
Is there anyone you can call to help you?

@Coloma I am in hell with this really I am. It’s too dam dark in there. I have opened and peered a few times, I am so upset. I can barely sleep. All round this has been a horrible lesson to me, and I will never hurt another rat ever :(

@Shippy You don’t have a flashlight around?
Does your building have a superintendent or maintenance guy?

@Coloma a kindly neighbor is coming up to help later. Thank God.