Mice
Wessex Wellies
Posts: 40
My cats keep bringing in tiny little brown mice. To be honest I can't tell if it's the same poor mouse or a different mouse each time. The cats don't kill or eat them they sit and play with them. Cruel little buggers !
I'm writing this because there is one under the bookcase in the front room right now. It might be the same one that was brought in (then released outside again) last night !
Anyway, what I want to know is, to try and stop my cat's finding them again as soon as I put them back outside in my garden where else can I put them ? I don't suppose it's like re releasing bats or anything like that ( I know you're not really supposed to do that or take them somewhere else due to protection/preservation).
Do I put the mice in the bushes on the end of my road ?
Take them up the fields/woods ?
Back out in my back garden in the logs/bushes/ground cover plants ?
Last week I let one go in my garage so it could get it's breath back and wander off when it felt like it ! I know last year there was a least one mouse living in there because it nibbled its way inside a teddy bear that was in there and helped it's self to some fat balls.
Thanks in advance.
PS the cat's managed to het a Pipstrel bat in through the cat flap once and it was swooping around the front room when I got in and my 15 year old son was hiding in his room !!
Posts
Cats - love them but ..........
When we had them we had all sorts of wildlife delivered to our kitchen first thing in the morning - we dealt with that by keeping the cats in at night - they soon grew to appreciate the softer life and became more people orientated.
If you have a log pile then I'd put the mice back there as at least there's a chance that they can get their breath back and reorientate themselves. I wouldn't take them too far away as they probably have a nest of babies.
Is the cat catching them at night or in the very early mornng? If so I'd keep the cat in overnight and until midday when most small mammals seem to get their heads down and take a nap. It's at this time of year that they're so vulnerable as they're responsible for the little ones in their nests.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The cats seem to bring them in just before we ( me and the cats ) go to bed.
Today though it was 10 in the morning.
Isn't it supposed to be some sign of respect when you cat brings you live creatures ?
My friends cat is currently delivering her dead baby rabbits, so I'll think myself lucky !
One of our cats was a dab hand at catching moles - thing was he brought them through the cat flap into the big porch which had a rainwater downpipe and drain in the corner and left them, alive and kicking, in the porch - although the drain was covered one mole managed to get into the drain where it died, and blocked the drain - as we found out some weeks later
I'd try to turn your cats into daytime cats - we managed it. They seem to roam less then and that is safer for them as it keeps them off the roads a bit.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My cats don't go very far and if they go in the front garden they don't go near the road. For stupid cats they seem to be roadwise !
Love 'em !