what eating the fruit in my fruit bowl?!

OnePound

hi

a month ago i noticed that part of a plum in my fruit bowl appeared to be nibbled! ive never seen any other signs of mice in this house and i keep a very clean house so assumed i was mistaken. my husband said that because we have a cat it would be unlikely to have mice coming into the house. fair enough.

but this morning ive spotted an identical chunk has been nibbled out of an apple in my fruit bowl during the night!

i kept gerbils as a child so the nibble marks look very familiar to me. im sure i can even see small teeth marks.

the cat is shut in the utility room at night so a mouse could happily get in elsewhere. but wouldnt the mouse smell a cat and stay away?

im attaching a pic of the apple so see if anyone can suggest a culprit. are there any other signs i can look out for to confirm its a mouse? i havent seen poo pellets anywhere.

sorry cant get pic any smaller

thanks

Morvern_callar

You'll probably find it was the cat that brought the mouse in. My cat does that, he brings in field mice from the garden, then he lets them escape to have fun chasing them around the house, and sometimes loses them. I put a bell on him, but it didn't help.

flea72

dont know if you have children, or how old they are, but that looks like the bites my kids put in fruit, and then decide they dont want it anymore, and put it back in the bowl

Flea

Ebe_Scrooge

flea72 wrote: »

dont know if you have children, or how old they are, but that looks like the bites my kids put in fruit, and then decide they dont want it anymore, and put it back in the bowl

Flea

Hee Hee, my toddler does exactly the same thing :-) Many's the time we've found pretty much every apple has one munchkin-sized bite out of it.

lavandergirl_2

or a teenager

gone4gold62

:rotfl:omg ill second that its looks like a toddlers teeth mark :pwhy do they do that,:rotfl:

cooperscreek

We've had both toddlers and mice before and I don't think it's either. In out case this creature is making quite a small whole in the fruit and hollowing out the flesh inside. Same as the original poster ... no mouse droppings anywhere. And in our case whatever it is has eaten through the skin of mandarins (this was when it made the smaller hole), bananas and pears to get at the good stuff inside. I don't think a mouse would eat banana or mandarin skin, and a toddler can't use its teeth to hollow out a mandarin.
Also, it happens overnight so something nocturnal.
I'd love to hear anyone else's ideas on this. Very strange!

naypo

set up a video camera on a tripod on night vision to capture a few frames every 30 seconds overnight (most have this feature) you're bound to capture the mysterious creature then

maninthestreet

My money is on a mouse.

never_enough

Or a fruit bat?! :eek: :rotfl:

I would be inclined to let the cat out at night & see what he comes up with. Alternatively, sieve some flour around the bowl & see what type of footprints you get.