Preferences of rodents toward cereal baits have been studied in relation to the availability of food from their natural habitat in crop fields of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) and lentil (Lens culinaris). The experimental area was infested by three rodent species—Bandicota bengalensis, Taxera indica andMus sp. At the podding stage of groundnut crop they showed a poor response towards plain bait of whole wheat grains, the consumption of which increased significantly after addition of arachis oil at 1% concentration. The withdrawal of oil from the bait had no significant effect on its daily consumption by the rodents. In paired bait tests in podding groundnut crop, the addition of oil significantly increased the bait consumption of wheat and millet grains. The differences between daily consumption of millet grains became more significant when the bait station pairs were shifted to growing lentil crop which reflect the effect of environment on the feeding responses of rodents. Laboratory tests withB. bengalensis andT. indica trapped from the experimental fields confirmed the results of field studies that addition of oil in the cereal bait enhance bait consumption.