Cats bringing mice home

[RedRobyn2021]

We have not had this problem before. They are birman cats so they used to be indoor cats, but 5 years ago we moved to a house that's rural and I started letting them out in the evenings and they would usually be back within the hour. In the summer months they ask (loudly and persistently) to go out in the mornings too and if I'm home I let them out then.

Anyway, this summer is different to the other 4 because in the last 2-3 weeks they have been bringing home dead and live mice. It is horrible. The live ones are completely terrified (understandably) and it takes ages to get them out.

They both wear collars with bells when they go out and always have. Does anyone have any advice on other ways I could stop this?

To be honest I'm thinking of keeping them in for a while.

It's part of being a cat owner, especially in a rural area. Humans domesticated cats in the first place because they were so good at catching rodents.
to try and keep it to a minimum, shut them inside before dusk, keep them in overnight and don't let them out until a bit later in the morning.
we also live rurally with 2 cats and have had several mice/rodents and a bird this week. 😣

No advice, but I do sympathise, as mine; mostly a house cat, but does go into the garden, brings in mice on a few occasions. I don't like it either, but it's in their nature to hunt small animals, so you can't blame them, only try to minimise, or stop them from being able to bring them in.

My cat has to be let out and back in again, so if the door isn't open, she can't get in and drops it, so you could try locking the cat flap, so they can't bring it in, or keep an inner door closed, to isolate it in one room. I also have a humane trap that I can use if needed.

Please don't stop them from going out though!

That's part of having cats - you can't stop them doing what comes naturally to them - which is to hunt and kill their food.

Please don't stop them going out now you've started - that would incredibly unfair - just set the cat flap so they can't come inside until you let them in, so they have to leave all their prizes outside and not bring them in the house.

You get used to it OP!

How do they bring them in when it sounds like you let them out manually (ie no cat flap)? Don’t leave the door open or whatever, only let them in if they don’t have anything.

Our cats have free access via their cat flap, and we’ve just got used to the mice really, were pretty good at catching the live ones now😅

We don’t live rurally but ours is a notorious mouse hunter and will turn up at the windows and back door with them. I’m particularly careful about checking if he’s got anything at dawn and dusk and we leave the windows open but locked at a point he can’t get in with anything as he will bring mice in if we don’t stop him.

Evening is their favourite time for hunting so it’s not the best time to let them out, cats are crepuscular.

I have two part Birman cats who bring us one or two mice home weekly. They are usually alive although earlier this week I found one drowned in our downstairs toilet, poor thing.

I bought a humane mousetrap from Amazon which has been excellent at catching the mice. I pop a little piece of chocolate in there (mice apparently like chocolate - who knew!). I usually pop it down in the room near where the mouse was last seen and close the door. A couple of hours later the mouse is usually inside and I return to the fields.

Also, can I just say that personally I would remove your cats' collars if they are now going out. The bells really don't work (as you have found out) and they can so easily get caught on things ending up with a cat being injured as I found out several years ago with one of my previous cats.

@Haus1234 we have a dog flap (we got a dog 3 years ago) off the conservatory so the dog can go out for a wee. But also so they can get in if it rains, but I now leave the kitchen door closed to stop them bringing in mice. So I have to make sure I'm giving the dog lots of opportunities to go to the toilet.

The dead ones are pretty gross, but it's the live ones which are particularly difficult. I have a 16 month old daughter and trying to catch a mouse with her there is an added difficulty.

I grew up with cats, so I know what is in their nature. But I have never known my cats to bring home so many live mice. They also (as far as I have seen) do not eat them. I saw one of them kill one in a field yesterday and she didn't eat it then either so it's not like they're just bringing them for me.

crepuscular - brilliant. New for the lexicon. @elenacampana

@Icequeen01 this is really good advice. Yes I have heard of this but the collars they have are the quick release kind, so if they get caught on something they only have to pull and they release. They have our contact details on the collars which is one of the reasons I like them to wear them, do you think the quick release ones are safe?

They are microchipped, but where we live if someone found them it would be quicker for them to have my address and number right there

My top mouse-catching tip is to drop a piece of cloth over them - tea towel or something like that. They stop running when they think they are in a safe hidden hole and then it's easy to just scoop the whole lot up and put them outside.

I think it would be cruel to keep them in now they've tasted freedom. I was very squeamish at first but got used to it! Now if my cat goes out I close the other doors in the house so he can only bring the mice in to hallway. It's very easy to catch a mouse when there's nowhere for it to hide. I use a tupperware box. Quickly put it over the mouse then very, very carefully slide the lid underneath and take the mouse outside. Before the cat would bring the mice in to living rooms/bedrooms etc and it was impossible to catch the mouse when it had so many places to hide. Just keep the doors shut. They batting you gifts because they think you can't hunt. It's a compliment. It is sad when there's a dead mouse but really there are so many other animals and birds that catch mice. The poor things don't stand a chance.

I live in a rural area and my kitten just bought me her first kill.
As in played with it in my bedroom for ages then ate the whole thing.
Some nights I get giant moths which I didn't know we even had in this country flying about my bedroom and the old cat likes to eat a bird now and again. Its horrible.
Once I had a big old rat from the old cat. She wasn't hungry so she just gave it to me when I was in bed - chaos ensued 😫

They did a study on bells and found it did reduce numbers of birds cats caught, but not rodents. My cat is also a mouse fan but thankfully doesn’t often go for birds, so I don’t bother with a collar now. I agree with other posters, you just get better at catching them. Humane traps and shoes are my go-to (they love running in shoes). Put them along skirting boards as mice prefer to stick to edges of rooms. You can also pick up cornered mice by the base of their tail (doesn’t hurt them as long as you do the base, not the tip) and they can’t bite you that way as they will if you scoop them up. Again, it took me a long time to pick one up but now I can do it no problem. The dead ones are easier to deal with though 😔