Not exactly a pet but....

Hectors_House

We've found we have a field mouse in our kitchen.

We realised it was there when it started attacking the loaf of bread my sis leaves out when she makes toast.

We set a couple of humane traps but that didn't work. Then we set up a video camera overnight and realised the mouse is too large to fit in the traps and has been quiet happily kicking them around the kitchen in its search for grub!!!

There's signs of nesting too so we've started putting out bird seed just to give it something more nourishing to eat before we make a concerted effort to catch it this weekend.

Any advise from folks what to do when we catch it?

If it's had its babies it seems cruel to dump them all outside.

If she hasn't had them yet we were thinking of relocating her out into the countryside nearby.

lynnemcf

erm, I thought field mice were only 1-2 inches long, if its big enuf to move a trap, are you sure its a mouse? Maybe its a rat!!! I have noticed LOTS of dead rodents on my early morning walks with my dog ... one of them was HUGE, it must have been 6 inches long nose to tip of tail (yuk).

Hectors_House

lynnemcf wrote: »

erm, I thought field mice were only 1-2 inches long, if its big enuf to move a trap, are you sure its a mouse? Maybe its a rat!!! I have noticed LOTS of dead rodents on my early morning walks with my dog ... one of them was HUGE, it must have been 6 inches long nose to tip of tail (yuk).

Well we're going to link the video recorder up to the TV tonight so we can get a better look at the little blighter but from what I saw this morning it looks like a very fat field mouse with big, round pink ears.

It has pulled the telephone down with it behind the fridge in its attempt to use the cable as a ladder too. :eek:

tanith

Field mice are tiny so it could well be a rat or housemouse and come to think of it they weigh next to nothing as well so no chance they would be able to pull a telephone down. Good luck whatever it is.. feeding it is only encouraging it!!

ljonski

feeding it is only encouraging it!!

and lead to babies

Have you still got your blind cat ? if so leave him in the kitchen and hopfully itmwill scare them off .Lj

Hectors_House

ljonski wrote: »

and lead to babies

Have you still got your blind cat ? if so leave him in the kitchen and hopfully itmwill scare them off .Lj

Minky the blind cat went off to a new home with an elderly couple recently (a work colleague of my sis heard about him and told her that his in-laws adopt purely black cats as they know they are the hardest for the adoption centres to rehome) and we're getting regular reports. He was outside helping the old guy make up a bonfire yesterday by following him back and forth and dragging small twigs over too.

My own cat, Sweepy doesn't seem to be aware it's there and she is locked out of the kitchen at night anyway.

My partner is going to rig up a bigger humane trap and we'll find the blighter one way or another this weekend.

I know I'm soft for feeding it but I've experienced the aweful pong of a dead rat before so don't want whatever this is possibly damaging the kitchen units looking for food or dieing under the fridge!

tanith

He won't starve if he's not getting enough food he'll move somewhere else he's staying because you are feeding him.. just shut your cat in there and your problem will be over..

Hectors_House

You don't know my cat. She's the biggest wimp ever and we can't leave the back door open as we have another neighbourhood cat (uncastrated) trying to get in the house to spray.

I'm sure we'll locate the blighter and we live at the edge of our city so can easily deposit he/she in the countryside.

I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to killing it unless we're left with no other optioin.

CFC

That's not a fieldmouse.
Just imagine the blighter weeing and pooing everywhere and that will help you get over your reluctance to kill it...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Relocated a field mouse from under my shed a couple of weeks ago. It fitted in the humane mousetrap fine - and weighed nothing. Oh, and their ears are brown and downy, not pink at all.



You have brown rats.




You still want to share breakfast when all these are grown ups and having equal sized litters of their own?

Hectors_House

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Relocated a field mouse from under my shed a couple of weeks ago. It fitted in the humane mousetrap fine - and weighed nothing. Oh, and their ears are brown and downy, not pink at all.


You have brown rats.

You still want to share breakfast when all these are grown ups and having equal sized litters of their own?

Yes folks, we took a look at the footage last night and we believe its a young rat.

We think we've tracked down where its setting up its nest and where its coming up to feed. My partner has built a bigger trap and we'll try to catch it tonight.

I'm reluctant to use any poison as I've only experienced the smell of a dead rat once and its a dreadful stench that really lingers and we don't want to have to pull the units apart to get to a rotting corpse but we will have to resort to that if we can't catch it ourselves.

We live next to a train line and all kinds of wildlife use it as a corridor between the woods nearby and the gardens but I thought the railways put ratkiller down regularly...I might have to look into that.

Thanks all for your help