AIBU to wonder just how this happened?

[BeepBoopBop]

I've been out of the country for four months. Came back to my house yesterday and found mouse droppings and lots of chewed kitchen roll in the cupboard under the sink - mixed with dried dog food. Found dog food in my crocs (gardening, honest). Then I noticed the 12kg bag of dried dog food was virtually empty, just a cupful in the bottom of the bag, mixed up with yet more gnawed kitchen roll. Thought it was a bit strange, why would I leave a huge plastic bag with just a minute amount in the bottom, rather than take it with me and the dogs.....
As I was hoovering and tidying later on, I thought I'll throw the bag out and then I realised that it hadn't been opened! Still sealed top and bottom, but with a mouse sized hole gnawed in it near the bottom. Remembered buying it before I left and had no space to take it with us. How does a mouse eat 12kg of Millies Wolfheart Endurance Mix?

🤷‍♀️
More than one mouse?
A rat, or a squirrel?

Because there is never JUST 1 MOUSE OP!!

If it helps, you do not have just one mouse….

......and they may not have eaten it all just hidden it all over the place😁

I googled and a mouse eats around 4g of food a day. Closer to 20g for a rat.

So a mouse would eat around 500g of food in four months which means I estimate you have about 25 mice hehe seems a reasonable house-ful!

As a pp said, there's never just one mouse.

Yeah probably a few families there or it's been stashed.

I'd probably get a dude in if there's a decent amount or rodents though.

Defo more than one mouse. Eeek!

Ye gods - run for the hills

I would have thought it would have been armageddon though with 25 mice and the bag would have been shredded. Do you think they queued patiently, waiting their turn? Anyway two fox terriers sleep in that room - they could have eaten the mouse army last night.

That's a lot of endurance mix! I can just imagine if it's 1 mouse it'll be like the bloody Duracell bunny by now 😂

we’ve had fox terriers and they would have gone ballistic if mice we’re in a room with them…they’re ratters by nature so go for anything small and squeaky.

There's a six stone mouse asleep in your bed OP

Impressive mice you have!

Mice show up mob handed.

You've fed hoards of the little fuckers.

Generations of mice now fondly remember the doggy food bounty.

We had the odd mouse in the garage at my old house. One time we had some rolled up carpet offcuts stood up (not very tall) we discovered the mouse activity when we noticed the middle was halfway up with the bird's peanuts. Only one, just a massive food store.

Never underestimate a rodent!

When I was 16 I had a hamster. One night, I stayed overnight at a friend's house whilst my parents kept an eye on said hamster.

I got home the following day and checked on my furry friend. Asleep in her little nest in the cage.

At the time I was into making wheatie bags - ones you can microwave and use for pain, warmth or comfort. I picked up the carrier bag of wheat and it was virtually empty (5kg!). The bit which was left just fell out of a hole in the bottom of the bag.

After some investigations, it transpired that my hamster had escaped overnight as the cage hadn't been closed properly. She'd found the bag of wheat and stashed almost 5kg of the stuff under my bed in a nice, neat, tidy pile in one corner. My bed at the time had storage underneath via two sliding doors. A door was slightly open so she'd buried the lot under the bed, found a bag of hamster treats and buried them in the wheat mountain for good measure.

She'd pulled herself up the bed, between the bed and the wall, to get back to her cage and she'd taken herself back to her nest. She slept for days afterwards - totally wore herself out.

That hamster was an absolute legend and over 20 years later, my parents and I still speak fondly of her and the mountain of wheat under the bed.

You will have a little squad of them. Exactly this happened to us in our old house. I bought ten humane traps and caught all the mice and put them in an old fish tank with some bedding and water while I caught all the rest. They made themselves comfortable and then I gave them a good feed and put them all out together in a field a few miles away. All done. I still think about them and how they greeted each other when I plopped another captured soldier in the tank.

🤣

I love this!!

As the pest control man told me once, if you can fit a pencil into a hole, it big enough for a mouse to get through… I’m guessing you need to get yourself and fish tank and start rounding them up 😂 I had a rat problem once in a previous house and the fuckers had chewed through concrete to get in via a drain 😱 I hope it’s mice you have OP!

With the endurance of a long distance runner.

Well I crept up to bed last night leaving the Terriertorial Army on guard. No six stone lumps in or under the bed so I crept into it.

Nothing to report from last night, the dogs were in exactly the same position and beds I left them in. Very disappointing, but relieved at the same time. I'm getting more dried food today, I'll leave the list of options out for the mice to select (and choose the one they like the least he!he!)

My mum's cat brings in mice and lets them go in the kitchen often. Mum usually catches them and puts them back outside, but some slip through, and they LOVE chewing through granola bags and carrying off the nuts and then stashing them (with tons of melon seeds stolen from the food recycling bin, and bits of string stolen from the junk drawer) in hidey holes around the kitchen. Backs of drawers, corners of cupboards, that sort of thing. They're strong little buggers, they can move a kilo of hazelnuts in no time at all.