Not Quite a Feathered Friend

I find I am torn between a desire to continue feeding the birds and to scrub the garage roof! Let me explain.

Our garage is half buried so that the roof is at about nose level to my towering 5' 3" tall and we regularly sprinkle sunflower hearts and suet pellets over the flat roof for the ground feeders, a pair of collared doves, the blackbird family, assorted chaffinches, about ten goldfinches, a gang of pugnacious greenfinches, Mr and Mrs Wagtail, a family of robins and a gang of quarrelsome starlings as well as my beloved jackdaws who swoop in furtively to grab a snack.

Last week I was sitting at my computer working away when I saw a strange movement on the garage roof and looked out. A very enterprising, brown, glossy rat scuttled across the roof, grabbed a suet pellet and dashed off again. My initial reaction was a pull between horror at seeing a rat and all the associations they have, and sheer admiration that he was so smart, clearly very healthy and fit and so very shrewd in finding such an easy food source. I watched as he made numerous trips, scampering across the garage roof, grabbing food and racing back to his access point. I realised that he was stock-piling as much as he could and as the minutes turned into an hour, he systematically cleared the large spray of suet pellets until there were none left.

Now, what do I do? We feed the birds and think nothing of it. I feel sure that if the neighbours saw ratty they'd be up in arms and totally horrified. Part of me doesn't want to encourage him back by leaving food out and yet, why is he so different from any other wildlife? It's a bit of a tough one and I still haven't resolved this. I have to admire such an intelligent creature and if I don't put food out, the birds will not get fed either. If I keep putting food out, will it encourage Mr Rat to start a family and cause an infestation of rats?

We have hanging bird feeders and the greenfinches and goldfinches will do fine, but the blackbirds, who I love dearly, will notice the lack of food as will the chaffinches and doves as they are all ground feeders. Kenaz bought a feeding platform, but it is only about 6" off the ground/roof level and I suspect it won't be any sort of hindrance to ratty, once he has had a moment to look at it. The only thing that has given me pause for thought is that near the end of the suet pellets, Mrs Blackbird landed and ratty ran at her very aggressively to chase her off; she flew away unharmed, but it didn't endear ratty to me.

I wish I could think of an easy solution to this dilemma but I can't. I can't get on to the garage roof to fill a high feeding table, there isn't space in my minuscule garden for a bird table, so the garage roof is the only place. Do I go for full wildlife including a rat or let the birds go hungry?