Please identify this rodent for me

[Hullabaloo9]

OK my cat has been bringing in these rodents the last few days. Some are dead when I find them, some I rescue and put outside but one has escaped both me and cat. It is currently living in the cavity behind all my kitchen cupboards and popping up randomly in different drawers. I've emptied my kitchen and am now unsure what to do. Suggestions welcome!

Basically I would feel a lot happier if I'm dealing with a mouse or vole rather that (as I suspect) a baby rat. The picture is of one of the dead ones.

😂

OP yours is 12cm body plus tail. Our mice are 12cm including tail. I think yours is a young rat. Kudos to the cat. (Ours catches rats too, and squirrels, so you have my sympathy!)

It's a young rat - too big for a mouse, coupled with the size of the feet and the thick tapering tail.

Hamster. Maybe a skinny hamster.

Possibly wallaby. (You may scoff, but there are wallabies on some Scottish islands and I think what with bounce they may well have escaped and multiplied.)

@Elnetthairnet

You’ve a good cat there!

It's not a cat, it's a rodent of some kind.

Siberian hamster .

@DomesticatedZombie

Hamster. Maybe a skinny hamster.

I'd agree with the rat people as it looks more like the pet rats that I've had than the mice that the cat used to bring in. The mice were teeny tiny, much smaller than the animal in the photo, and the ears and tail look more rat like. (Fwiw all the rats we've had have had hairy tails, just very fine and sparse hair)

12cm is a very big mouse!

@Northernsoullover

Its a rat. Don't dick about with humane traps. Get your council pest control in and look for entry points.

The cat is the entry point

For those who don't believe me:

www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/loch-lomond-island-home-wallabies-and-how-get-there-1469479

I think the tail on that wallaby is sort of inbetween hairy and smooth. So - I'd mark it down as 'possible', OP, and maybe put out some vegemite.

Try putting a bucket or something under the entrance to the cavity wall, so that when it comes out it will fall in and can't come out!

Don't know but my killing machine brings them too. I'd assumed mouse but could be wrong.

That's a rat

Baby rat if this helps?

Another vote for juvenile rat too. Our cat has been catching identical ones and yesterday we were left the gift of the bottom half of one on the doorstep.

The head is too big for a mouse and the tail is too thick.

I have seen many many dead mice, voles and field mice over the years.

We had a mouse problem years ago and they were tiny and cute (but still smelly and destructive). That creature is extremely ratty.

@RatMam

Baby rat if this helps?

Oh my god you caught it with your bare hands! That's impressive.

@DomesticatedZombie

This one isn’t wild, don’t worry. Well, not in the same way as OP’s He’s finishing for peas in a paddling pool in my living room currently after swinging from my curtains earlier!
This was when I picked him before he came home. He looks like this now

Toddler rat... burn the house down immediately

Bat

[quote RatMam]@DomesticatedZombie

This one isn’t wild, don’t worry. Well, not in the same way as OP’s He’s finishing for peas in a paddling pool in my living room currently after swinging from my curtains earlier!
This was when I picked him before he came home. He looks like this now [/quote]
Crikey

Definitely a rat. Gorgeous cat. Our cat caught over 300 in about 4 years when we lived abroad.

I think it's a rat. 12 cm body would be a bloody massive mouse.