My cat's bringing in mice to play with - help!

kimmee

Hi

My cat, Murphy, is 4 years old and he started this last summer and has now started again - the last 2 nights.

He brings a mouse into the house through his cat flap and wants to play with it, not kill it. This causes uproar! Murph starts miaowing and crying when either the mouse plays dead or the mouse runs off and hides under any furniture. This is always fairly late at night and on Saturday night he chased the poor little mouse into my bedroom (I'm in a bungalow) and the mouse ended up on my bed while i was in it :eek:

We (DS2 and myself) always try and catch the mouse and release it down the road and although I'm not scared of mice I don't want this going on every night, especially when I've got to get up for work the next morning!

Tried keeping him in at night but he just moans constantly so again, no peace for us! I know it's just in their nature to catch mice but has anyone got any advice as to how we can stop this please?

Thanks in advance from a very tired kimmee

Mankysteve

Besides not letting him in the house/controlling where he can go there's not a lot you can do he's cat and this is what they do. Bells don't work they move too smoothly to ring them properly and neither to shiny collars. Only suggestion is to lock him downstairs at night.

crackerberry

Keep him in, or lock the cat-flap so he's in or out until you open the door to let him in.
Its a pain to have to let them in or out yourself all the time but its what I do. Far better than spending hours several nights a week trying to catch mice in the house. Plus all it takes is for him to bring in a pregnant mouse undetected and you'll end up overrun with the things.

kimmee

Thanks to both of your replies, looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and not let him out - he'll son get used to it (I hope).

Never thought of him bringing in a pregnant mouse :eek:

KimmyCustard

Kimmee

Youre not alone, ours does exactly the same thing!

Shes about 11, (moved in as a stray so we dont know exactly how old) and every summer, its mice, baby birds, a pigeon, all still alive. :eek:

If she brings them in at night when we're in bed, we dont actually know anything has arrived until we either see it walking about the place or I smell mouse wee in our kitchen. She plays merry hell if we lock her in and as we both work shifts, sleep is very important! So we put up with it rather than locking the catflap.

I do take the precaution of putting down mouse traps for the ones that arent killed and make a run for it, usually they all end up behind our sink unit near the bird seed, I do check the traps regularly in case a 'guest' is caught. Occasionally they die of boredom I think, so we sometimes get a present on the carpet.

I dont like killing them but mouse wee and pregnant mice are not conducive to a happy house!

kimmee

KimmyCustard wrote: »

Kimmee

Youre not alone, ours does exactly the same thing!

Shes about 11, (moved in as a stray so we dont know exactly how old) and every summer, its mice, baby birds, a pigeon, all still alive. :eek:

If she brings them in at night when we're in bed, we dont actually know anything has arrived until we either see it walking about the place or I smell mouse wee in our kitchen. She plays merry hell if we lock her in and as we both work shifts, sleep is very important! So we put up with it rather than locking the catflap.

I do take the precaution of putting down mouse traps for the ones that arent killed and make a run for it, usually they all end up behind our sink unit near the bird seed, I do check the traps regularly in case a 'guest' is caught. Occasionally they die of boredom I think, so we sometimes get a present on the carpet.

I dont like killing them but mouse wee and pregnant mice are not conducive to a happy house!

Glad I'm not alone KimmyCustard, tho I do have every sympathy with you! Luckily, when he occasionally catches birds he (eats urghhhh) leaves them outside. I really do think he just wants to play with the mice!

A couple of times I have found a dead mouse in the living room in the morning so I guess he doesn't always make a racket when he brings them in and I suppose the poor old mice die of fright (or of boredom as you say) cos there's no teeth marks on them.

I did buy a humane mouse trap as I think there was one that got away, but never did catch it. Maybe if he plays up too much and we end up letting him out so that we can get some sleep I should just have it permanently in the kitchen.

Driving me mad but wouldn't be without him

skintdragon

Aww, that's so cute, you kitty is bringing you a gift!!

I HATE rodents and would totally freak out if I saw one, dead or alive. When I used to cat- sit for my mates, their cat would leave a dead mouse on the landing. Awful.

Is there any way the cat could be confined to the room where the cat flap is overnight (so it doesn't get to the other areas of the house)?

Minxy_Bella

My cat paid her rent this morning by bringing me two half-dead spuggies.

Just revolting!

morg_monster

I'm dreading this, we adopted 2 strays from battersea a couple of weeks ago. They LOVE to play hunting games and are always bringing us presents from around the house - socks, tissues, hairbands, anything small and soft that they can find... They won't be going outside for another 2 weeks but I'm convinced they are going to be excellent hunters! At least, we keep the door to downstairs shut at night so hopefully no presents in bed at least...
On the other hand, I DO want them to do something about the rats that live at the end of the garden...

kazwookie

My cat brings me gifts as well!

Mice mainly, he is cleaing up the local area, to stop them moving in to my garage during the winter!

tankgirl1

My kitties also bring me presents!
They usually head butt their way through the 'locked' cat flap at daft'o clock in the morning yowling their head off!
Thankfully, 9 times out of 10 its a dead mouse or vole. Occasionaly they bring either a bird (feathers EVERYWHERE), or a live mouse/vole... if its live & uninjured I get it off them & release it (whilst locking kitty in the kitchen for a few hours!)
If its dead I get it off them (pick it up with a poo bag) and bin it
Tried bells, cat flap etc - doesn't work - we just put up with it now, and try to stop the dismemberment happening - especially indoors!
As an animal lover, I hate it, but it's just part of having cats - you can't stop them doing it unless you keep them indoors 100%
The worst is when they bring back a fatally injured, but still alive mouse/bird/vole etc - I'm always torn then.... I want to get it out of its misery ASAP - usually I give it back to the cat, and then corner them, so that they at least make the kill quickly!
All in all though it is not pleasant, to say the least!