How do I catch a mouse in my kitchen?

[letsallmeetupinthehyear2000]

Came home from works Xmas meal last night slightly tipsy🎅🏻 to find my cat had got its own takeaway - a cute little mouse 😱 that she was “playing” with. tried to take it from her - put cat outside front door - whereby she promptly ran down the road down the alley up the alleyway, over neighbours bins over 2 fences and back through the cat flap in kitchen within seconds! . we played cat and mouse for several minutes until mouse luckily ran under large double fridge. At that point cat was highly excited - it was freezing cold and I gave up and went to bed to nurse my head - hoping mouse would be safe under fridge. This morning I haven’t seen the mouse but cat keeps staring at fridge so I assume it’s still under there. Have pushed a bit of cheddar under for its breakfast but how do I get it out and return it safely to its family who must be worried sick outside ?

It won't come out whilst the cat is there. They prefer chocolate to cheese too. So remove the cat and lay some traps with chocolate, or a blob of Nutella. It also may have already died under there, having been 'played with' by the cat. If the traps don't entice it after a few hours, pull the freezer out and have a look.

Dunno, my cat brought one in and it lived in our kitchen for a month before vanishing. We named it and just considered it a temporary pet, lol.

If you can coax it out then put a Tupperware bowl over it and use a broom to scooch it out the front door. We’ve done that successfully a few times. Of course we’ve also come downstairs in the morning to find only a mouse tail left. 😳

One of those humane traps baited with peanut butter always works for me.

Thanks I have successfully rescued several mice before by trapping in glass jar and releasing outside. This one luckily didn’t look injured ( I’m hoping) I’ll try the chocolate instead - cat is sleeping upstairs at the moment! There may be little holes around the edge of my cooker it might have managed to scoot in and outside - think old terraced house

Humane trap baited with a little bit of a mars bar or similar will do the trick if you can lock the cat door and keep the cat out until it feels safe enough to emerge. They love chocolate. Hope you can get it out safely soon!

Get a humane trap and bait it with peanut butter, leave it overnight and keep the cat out of the kitchen while you do it

screwfix/toolstation sell humane mouse traps for less than £10.
Bait it with peanut butter and chocolate and leave it till mousey can't resist any longer.

I safely returned two (quite fat by the time they'd spent a week in my kitchen) wood mice to the hedge this way.

Yes I would agree with the humane trap - i was advised to use something sweet to put on the trap . It's so cold out at the moment though - the mouse may be happier living underneath your fridge if he can pop out for crumbs when the cats not around .

We had luck with these and peanut butter.

https://amzn.to/46FCPAk

I use an old welly boot on its side, laid wherever I last saw the mouse.

I put food in the leg of the boot (usually wild bird food)to stop the mouse wandering off elsewhere for food. Sometimes I stuff some kitchen roll in the toe part. The darkness and tunnel like shape of the boot is supposed to feel more safe to them than being behind the fridge.

Sometimes it’s a few days, often quicker but I’ll be sitting nearbye and I’ll hear some pattering in the boot. It’s easy then to pick up the boot quickly holding the calf opening together. Once outside I leave the boot on its side and retrieve it later (obviously checking it’s empty). Usually I see the mouse running out into the undergrowth.

This works well on mice that the cat brings in, they just want to get back outside.

Thanks everyone - no sign of the mouse. I admit I haven’t bought a trap but I’ve seen or heard nothing. Cat seems to have “ forgotten “ about it so I assume it escaped through a hole. Not moved the fridge yet though so I’m hoping it’s not dead underneath but I would imagine cat would still be sniffing round if it was.