Lost mice!!

[Jayinthetub]

After some quality advice on this forum I've been locking the cat flap overnight to try and prevent dawn/dusk hunting as we were having a lot of mice brought in, despite living in a very urban (not sure where they're coming from) area.

Sadly the furry monster is still bringing them in and losing them. We regularly find a rogue mouse trotting round and then have to go hunting. It's a nightmare!

Any suggestions to avoid this or is it just part and parcel of cat ownership?

Cat tax - like butter wouldn't melt...

No advice as I can’t imagine little fuzzy paws there is at all guilty of anything 😍Such a good puss!

He is beautiful and it's a good job we love him but don't be deceived - they're the claws of a vicious hunter!!

One of mine catches mice all the time but usually leaves them on the lawn due to my dramatic response when he tried to bring them through the door - basically lots of panicky screaming and trying not to let him in! He doesn’t have access to go in and out at night but he catches plenty during normal daytime hours. I don’t know what your answer is though, sorry!

Once the mouse is inside does he loose interest. If my cat drops a mouse in the house he tends to stalk it out.

Could you put down some humane traps to entice them to safety.

I have no advice, we have on several occasions had to go mice hunting. I have warned work there WILL come a time when "sorry I was late as had to catch a mouse" will be used

Luckily latest one was pre dead

I feel your pain…We currently have a dead rat rotting under the floorboards (DH has had some B-roads up but can’t find). Smell just starting to abate after 3 weeks (unless we’re nose blind!).

Get a humane trap and pop it down when you know you have one loose. Bait with a malteser.

@BamberGirl your husband is Dedicated!

One of my cats kept bringing in mouse …er…parts and laying them next to our old dog. Since we lost Ddog last year he’s never done this so we think he was just showing his affection (or possibly bragging)

He’s v handy…He put a trap under so had lifted one board already but it remained empty, the smell kicked in just in time for Xmas! Though am thankful it’s not summer and fly season!

He actually lifted the floorboards not dug up a ! Road! 😂

No idea but I had a resident mouse for a while after the cat brought one in. She likes to play with them in the garden for a while before she kills it, I tried to rescue one she'd been playing with and picked it up to move it somewhere safe and it bit me 🤦🏼‍♀️ had to get advice off 111 due to possible diseases etc but it hasn't actually pierced right through the skin so I was fine. Won't bother next time 😆

Our cat loves to hunt and we've had a few lost mice but I can always tell whereabouts they are because he's sniffing around there.

The worst thing for me now is the fact he eats them in the house, he was doing this downstairs and leaving the lovely mouse stomachs by the back door 🤢, which was bad enough but now he's started bringing them upstairs and eating them in the bathroom next to our bedroom - WHYYYYYY.

I love him so much but it is such a grim part of having a cat.

Mine has also brought a dead squirrel in which was just lovely. At least it was dead tbf, cats are just delightful

Mine usually leaves his ‘gifts’ by the door from the kitchen to the living room (only room he can get to when outside) I have a humane trap permanently set the other side of the toy kitchen any escapee mice usually run under to get away. Most escape happily into this and are released into the field they came from as soon as I find them. Occasionally I have found signs of a mouse in other places (my favourite was hiding behind the microwave and coming out to steal cat food for a couple of days) so move the trap closer until they are caught.

My delightful girl deposited a dead mouse on my face whilst I was asleep the other night. She's now shut in the kitchen overnight.

Cute cat though 🤷‍♀️

I think you need another cat, OP!

Thank you all! Good to know I'm not alone and also that things could be worse @AngelasEyelash  I have nightmares about dead mice on my face. When he comes for cuddles in the early hours I often worry that his paws on my face (all 4 of them obviously...) might be a dead mouse for a minute...then I get the nose licks and remember what's happening!

I will definitely get onto the humane traps and I'm liking your suggestion of an additional cat @vipersnest1 - I had been wondering if the boy is a bit lonely...or would that just be double the mice adventures??

@cigarettesNalcohol - he definitely is and it's very much his saving grace!

Gorgeous cats @Oldraver and @BamberGirl although the dead mouse coming in is a bit chilling...

My cat is an absolute %£$@ when it comes to bringing in mice!! Half the time they are dead but the other half he likes to play with them in the house first. I finally lost it when he brought one in, it got away and then he decided he'd like a nice long nap despite the thing getting upstairs in the bedroom! So now I keep the cat flap on 'outgoing only' during the 'hunting hours' of dawn and dusk, I hear it go 'click' when he's outside wanting to come in (it's one of those microchip activated types) so I have to let him in, but it saves all the hassle of mice running around.

Your pic makes me chuckle @Oldraver - makes me think of a speed camera only yours is a mouse camera that takes incriminating pics! 😂

This is our boy exactly!!! Loses them and wanders off for a massive snooze... I haven't had the heart to lock him out yet but our cat flap is the same as yours and if I find more than 1 loose mouse that time may come... I dread finding a family of them

Yes well that worried me when I saw possibly Mrs Mouse trundling across the bedroom floor as if it was the most normal place for her to be!

Oh god my old cat got a full family of birds once. Dh came home to find one bird dead, then found the nest, then 5 dead baby birds. She was a bastard that cat for hunting.

Once came home to see my other cat was sat inside the kitchen window with a bird. Cat at one side, a live baby magpie at the other side, both ignoring each other. Had to go rescue it and put it out as cat couldn’t be bothered anymore.

🙈🙈🙈🤞