Dog Community

i caught a mousey!

Posted : 10/27/2006 12:01:27 PM

last night i heard a rattling sound under the sink and put the mouse cube under there with a peice of homemade cookie in it, apparently it smelled good because i got up to answer the phone earlier than i would liked to this morning and i heard a rattling sound again, when i went to look the cutest little guy was in there! he was tiny and scared so i took him outside and let him go in the front yard. i don't know if he was a weird one or if they are all like this, but he was a hopper. he hopped all over the front yard in the leaves, then hopped across the road and away. it was sooo cute. i wish i still had my camera so i could've taken a picture of the little hopper.

when we first moved here i found some mouse droppings behind the stove so i got the mouse cube. my husband laughed at me and said ya know im just going to take it out and stomp it to death, if it actually catches one. well within 2 days of putting it down he came upstairs before work with the cube, to show me how cute the mouse it actually caught was! he went so far as to walk out to the woods to let it go, big tough guy huh. i hadnt seen or heard anything at all after that until last night, the mice cube works great, both times i've had to use it i caught them right away. we prefer the catch and release program to poison or those bloody snappy things.

jeano

Posted : 10/27/2006 2:25:49 PM

Just so you know....you can take them MILES away and they will return to your house. I called the university extension on letting the mice go outside and they said you have to go more than THREE MILES away before the mice don't come back. And when you let them go in strange territory they generally get caught by an owl or cat or other predator anyway.

I did an experiment, and dabbed a bit of red fingernail polish on the head of a mouse I caught, then let it go in the park about a mile away.

The mouse was back in my house within two days.

Stephanie Book

Posted : 10/27/2006 3:49:50 PM

Aww....he sounds pretty cute! I kind of like mice, but I can understand what Jeano's saying about them returning. When we catch one, we let the kitties have it [

] But to me, it seems better than actually killing it, makes me feel a little better. [&:]

espencer

Posted : 10/27/2006 4:14:50 PM

ORIGINAL: LoveMyDogCassidy

When we catch one, we let the kitties have it [] But to me, it seems better than actually killing it, makes me feel a little better. [&:]

Dont the kitties end up killing the mouse anyways?

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 10/27/2006 4:32:45 PM

Yeah. But the kitties may eat it. If they do, that sounds better than just bashing it in the head or flushing it. At least then they're being useful for something.

Joyce

swamper

Posted : 10/27/2006 5:36:08 PM

I go with the snap traps and have caught 4 in the last 3 days (3 in one day). I've got them bagged and in the freezer for a friend of mine that uses them to bait her box traps (research purposes).

cakana

Posted : 10/27/2006 6:01:04 PM

Yeah. But the kitties may eat it. If they do, that sounds better than just bashing it in the head or flushing it. At least then they're being useful for something.

The last kitty I had was a great mouse hunter and always ate her prize, well most of it anyway [:-]...but she also got tapeworms from them and that was not pleasant. My one dog catches rats (not sure what constitutes a rat vs. a mouse, but these are pretty big). They tend to live in the tons of honeysuckle we have on the fence. She also eats the whole darn thing...blech!!!

Valerie B

Posted : 10/27/2006 6:46:59 PM

To answer the difference between a rat and a mouse, look at the scientific name. First off, the genetics are different. A full-grown rat is at least 3x bigger than a full-grown mouse in the USA. A common house mouse is Mus musculus, while a rat is Rattus rattus. Rats also tend to have a broader face than a mousie. (I know all this from being a mouse owner, lol. They're sooo cute!). Of course, young voles are also often confused for mice, as they look very similar in size and body type when the vole is pretty young. LOL, so it can get confusing. Hope this helps some.

P.S. I am not offended by this post. I understand those who have "house mouse" problems. And that's right about the "three mile" thing. Mice will come back into the house, especially in winter, if dropped less than that away. The best place to "drop" them would be at a nature center or some place that will be at least 3 miles from a house in any direction. Other structures are ok, as house mice do need a shelter, unlike field mice, who are adapted for that kind of life.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 10/27/2006 7:09:43 PM

Davis has a bit of a problem with the Norway roof rat. The UC Ag department just tells us to keep ivy, if we must have it, contained in some kind of pot so it doesn't spread all over and to keep the trees pruned away from the roofs. On nice evenings you can sit outside in the patio and watch the rats run across the 2 X 4s on the fences. Bleh! [:'(]

Joyce

jeano

Posted : 10/27/2006 8:00:10 PM

Joyce, the mention of ivy reminded me about ivy and rats. Yep, the looooove ivy. I remember that when I lived in California that it was recommended not to have ivy at all because ivy=rats!

If you have a house mouse problem, well, you might as well snap trap them. I think it is lots better than starving to death wherever you leave them. It's true, house mice don't survive outside of structures.

In New Mexico we had both field mice and house mice that came into our house. What with hanta virus I really didn't want to mess around and snap trapped them all. Except for the ones Stevie caught. [

] He never ate them. He would just bring them to me and leave them at my feet, smushed. (His method was to whap them with his big rottweiler paw.)

corvus

Posted : 10/27/2006 8:08:09 PM

I lived in mouse heaven for a couple of weeks in Mexico. We were staying in cabins in the middle of the forest that were abandoned for most of the year. The mice had taken over and we just had to learn to share. They get so bold! We had to hang toilet paper from the wall in plastic bags so they wouldn't shred it, and it was very hard to keep the food and kitchenware away from them. They had a strange penchant for eating soap, too. They were very cute, though. I was always having to remind myself not to try hand feeding them. I wouldn't mind them if they weren't so unhygenic. Most animals don't poo and pee in their own nests, you know. And many animals at least pick a particular place to go to the toilet in rather than spreading it around wherever they go. [:'(]

sillysally

Posted : 10/27/2006 8:09:01 PM

The snap traps actually take care of things rather quickly. Quicker than kitties in my experience.

Roxie865

Posted : 10/27/2006 10:22:02 PM

I don't think I'd let Trixie eat a mouse if I caught it. I've heard of cats being poisoned after eating mice/rats that had eaten rat poison. It's risky to me. If she catches it without me knowing, then that's one thing. But she won't be eating them with my permission.

Stephanie Book

Posted : 10/27/2006 11:34:12 PM

Yes, the kitties do eat it, so I know my rationale doesn't make much sense. Somehow it's just better if the cats get to have it, though!

Since we've got some rats around the grain, barn and the hay, Cassidy has caught a few of them. Those things are huge, nasty and ugly! She doesn't eat them, but the cats probably carry them off after a while. We used to have a stock tank with a lid that we kept feed in, and we'd regularly catch mice and rats in there, and the rats we'd let Cassidy get, but the mice we'd find a cat to catch them. We stopped that though, so haven't seen many around, but I know they're still here [:'(] We didn't have problems with mice in the house until very recently, but now I think we've got one or two. No cats in the house here, and the dogs really don't help as far as the mice!

My cousins have dogs that are very obsessed with catching mice in the house, it's actually pretty funny. One, especially, a Springer Spaniel, is crazy about trying to get to any mice! She pounces on the grates where they go, and has even tore up part of the wall to get to them[:-] Kinda funny until you get to that part! lol

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 10/28/2006 5:21:39 PM

Jean, the ivy here has a life of its own. When they put this neighborhood in they must have put ivy in every yard. It took forever to get rid of ours, but we have it sneaking in from both sides and the back. I don't know what's more depressing - the fact that I can entertain myself watching rats running across the fence or the fact that I'm not upset because I'm doing that [][] for entertainment.

Joyce