Best mouser cat

[friesandchais]

Hello
So I'm petrified of mice and when we moved into this house 10 years ago who we blocked all hole to stop then entering, long story short every so often maybe once or 2 assay they find a way in then we again block any holes check the house and eventually they. But it a cycle and keeps happening. Me and dh and dc are all scared and hate knowing they maybe in the house. Everyone is telling me to get a cat to solve the problem. My friend told me she got a cat and she's now never had a problem since. I would want it to be a indoor cat. I know not all cats are mousers. But what are the best mousers? We really like British short hair cats, are they good, are they good around children? Female or male is better? Will a kitten be a mouser too? And can you train them to be Mousers?
This will be our first pet.

My BSH has no hunting instinct whatsoever. She couldn't catch a fly. She once "caught" a pipe cleaner and sat proudly beside it showing it off.

I would agree with those that said its a tortoiseshell you are after. My sister has one and I wouldn't mess with it!

We’re rural and have cats (as do most of the people in the area) to keep the rodents out of the house. The farms also have barn cats that live in the outbuildings for the same reason. Ours are inside cats for the first year or so, and then tend to spend the warm weather outside till they are older, then slowly become inside cats again.

Mines half maine coon half BSH and is a prolific hunter. However, he does bring dead, half dead and alive mice into the house. I don't think having good hunter cats eliminates mice, I think it brings them in.

We have two cats. The mouser is a tiny female tabby cat. Even with a bell on her collar she manages to catch them (she brings them in rather than killing ones we already have so having her massively increases the number of mice in our house)

Our big ginger Tom has very little interest in them unless he’s stealing them from his sister (he’s a jerk) he much prefers chasing and very occasionally killing squirrels. He’s usually polite enough to leave them in the garden.

Any cat can be a good mouser, colour plays no part in it.

i got a tabby when we had a mouse problem and, even though he didn't seem to catch that many, the mice didn't come back to the house. My current ones are black and are murderous beasts.

i think any cat can help keep mice out of the house as they sense there's a predator. We still have mice around but they are outside and in the garage rather than the house. As other posters have said, we do get them brought in though so it might not help you.

Some of these posts are so cruel! Why would anyone let/enjoy any cat purposefully tormenting and torturing a mouse. It’s obviously not the cats fault if it happens, but shouldn’t be encouraged surely?!
FYI if any mouse or bird is grabbed by a cat they need to go to the vet, not just released, even if they seem ‘okay’, as cat saliva is toxic and they will die a horrible slow death.

Some of these posts are so cruel! Why would anyone let/enjoy any cat purposefully tormenting and torturing a mouse. It’s obviously not the cats fault if it happens, but shouldn’t be encouraged surely?!

Out of curiosity, what would be your solution to a rodent infestation?
I certainly wouldn’t inflict poison on any animal - such a slow and painful death!

You can't take wild mice and birds to the vet.

No one is "letting" them do it. They are natural hunters, they just do it. You can't stop them.

rodents aren’t welcome in my home (or garage) so I won’t be taking any to the vet. Ridiculous

As with other posters, my cats have been either -

Apathetic home cats who barely catch anything, on the rare occasions they try you get to watch hours of mouse torturing which usually results in the mouse escaping in the end

Serial killers who like leaving dead/decapitated/rotting animals around, ideally in places you can't see so you end up on all fours trying to sniff out the carcass

My Arabian Mau is an amazing hunter and I think it goes with the breed. However he would be a very unhappy house cat, he spends his days climbing trees and fighting outside.

That's life I'm afraid. Predators and prey. Better to be food for another animal than poisoned to death.
I'm a vegetarian and accept the 'circle of life,' I'm not taking every field mouse to the vet!

My anecdotal evidence, based on years of cat ownership, suggests that female cats tend to be better than males, and tortoiseshells / tabbies are uber-hunters.

However, it's swings and roundabouts, as the uber-hunters are rarely lap cats and tend to be a lot more independent and quite aloof. The snuggliest cats are (neutered) orange toms, but they're useless hunters.

As I say, purely anecdotal and I'm sure lots of people have tortie love bugs and ginger boys who are ruthless serial killers.

I can't believe you know so little about mice and even less about cats. Or basic animal behaviour. Also that your job is not to pass your silly fears on to children. "We're all scared." Please. And any 'British short hair' you acquire will be a big standard mog with a price tag for the gullible.

Grow up and call pest control. Stuffing up a hole is not how you manage pests.

What about a Jack Russell? Born ratters and mousers.

My cat is a great mouser when he's in the mood. When he's not, he's not. On account of him being a cat and doing whatever the hell he wants to do.

When I was little we had mice in the pantry so my mum did the logical thing and put the cat in there. When she checked for progress and the cat was sleeping peacefully whilst mice were scuttering around her.

What's with the fear of mice in your household anyway? No one likes them, they are vermin, chew threw things, leave droppings everywhere, but how can you be afraid of a tiny cute thing like that?

I never saw a mouse until I lived with a cat for 9 months as part of a rental house I moved into shortly. He bring back live mice and leave them in the house.

Where I live (rural), people rehome farm cats//feral/semi-feral cats for mousing issues. I think this would only be appropriate if you have a large garden with outbuildings etc.. as the cats like to stay out of the humans way for the most part.

There are lots of longhair breeders in the UK. The long hair gene is recessive so even two shorthair parents who carry th gene can have longhair kittens.

Breed doesn't guarantee hunting instinct. Although if you wanted something high energy, go for a bengal boy.

I breed British, they're essentially quite lazy, although my stud keeps jumping at the window trying to catch my chickens.

Selling kittens for 200? That's very questionable.

It’s perfectly morally fine to get a cat to solve a mouse problem. You don’t have to “love” cats to be decent enough to care for them properly and give them affection. Make sure you can afford the pet health insurance. Many cats prefer to be ‘working pets’ anyway and they tend to live longer and be more fit than cats kept indoors 24/7 with no stimulation.

You’ve a better chance getting a mouser if your cat is an indoor/outdoor cat. They are also more able to keep mice away if they can patrol around your garden and home and catch mice before they chew their way in. They will also scent mark the outside- shrubs, walls, patio furniture and this deters mice as well. Please still train them to use a litter box though, it’s irresponsible to have an indoor/outdoor cat and assume they can just shit in yours or your neighbours gardens.

In the feline kingdom, the female cats are the primary hunters. So although many Tom cats are good mousers, if you want to increase odds your cat will mouse, go for a female one.

Rescue cats will have lived stray for a time and will have had to hunt to eat, so a rescue cat rather than a new fluffy kitten will have a higher chance of having learned the skills of hunting.

Cats do like cat companionship, so one good thing is getting a rescue cat and then once they are settled adding a younger cat/kitten to the family. The older cat will teach the kitten how to hunt and they will have another cat to play with outside and inside.

My ginger moggie is a killing machine. Mice, rabbits, rats, pheasants, pigeons, frogs. Only squirrels have eluded him so far, though he never gives up.

I keep him in most of the time now, I can't stand it.

The colour of a cat’s fur has no impact on its temperament (genetic abnormalities aside) or ability to hunt. It’s a bit like saying “my kid has blonde hair so is good at maths”. So you can disregard about 50% of the posts on this thread.

Prey drive is, to some extent, breed related. However, the breeds with a strong prey drive are unsuitable as indoor pets. So get an indoor cat if you want, but don’t expect it to solve your mouse problem.

I used to live in a farm cottage which had a mouse problem - big holes behind the toilet, cooker, boiler etc etc. The landlord blocked some of them up but the mice still came in every winter, and my record was once catching 13 mice in one night (in 6 traps). We had a dog but he couldn't catch them. When the dog died we got a rescue cat, and he exterminated them. His first night he caught two mice and cleared them out. Then we moved and got two new kittens from a farm and they bring mice or birds or frogs in regularly. Most of the mice have been dead but I've tracked down a couple that have run under the sideboard and died and started to smell. The birds are the worst, though - one cat brought a pigeon in our bedroom window, flapping and fighting, and ripped its head off just as it got inside and blood sprayed right over the white curtains and down both the inside and the outside of the window.

I couldn't have kept any of mine in - cat 1 was a stray and accustomed to going out anyway, but the kids let the kittens outside accidentally at least once a day when they were small and we were trying to keep them in until they could be neutered. Luckily they didn't go far at that age!

We never had a problem with mice in the house (or never saw them or any evidence of them) until we had cats.
Ours like to catch them, play...then get bored and set the frickin mice free!
I don't mind picking up mice and will get rid of the ones I can catch but we know we've had several that have made homes inside.