The house has had mice in the past – never an infestation, just one or two that probably found their way in from the cold. Now that we’ve been completely remodeled, I’d like to set the tone early vis-à-vis rodent vs. human inhabitation: namely, humans yes, rodents no. We are hoping that the inclusion in this equation of “felines, yes” will aid us in this goal.
Also, there have been sightings of rats in the yard. We had to remove the old woodpile a few years ago because it was harboring rats. Rats also dug their way under the old storage shed, now also removed. Again I’m thinking that the addition of a cat to the Bricker household would go a ways towards solving that problem.
But the cat should be a good mouser.
How do I ensure that the cat we get is going to go kill mice and rats with joy and deadly accuracy? (Thinking of a Maine Coon, if that helps).
I recall seeing a nature program that suggested that kittens learned hunting skills from mama. So presumably you’d want a kitten/cat that hadn’t been taken away too quickly and who came from a talented mousing background.
Most cats are good mousers. Even obese and elderly cats can be surprisingly spry if a rodent scurries in front of 'em. Another great thing about having a cat around is that just the presence of the cat serves as a mouse repellant. Few mice are going to be interested in entering a house that smells of cat (and even if you can’t smell your cat, the mice can).
We used to live in a semi-rural neighborhood that had a serious mouse and rat problem. Our neighbors’ houses were overrun with rodents, but our house (in which we lived with four cats) was virtually rodent-free. When we moved out of the house (taking our cats, of course), we rented it, and within a couple of months, our renters were complaining that mice were all over the place. The renters didn’t have any cats, and apparently the mice were well aware that our cats were gone.
Farmers around here like to go to a friends barn to pick out a recently weaned cat to take back home when their barn cats are depleted. I can understand that. Many also do not feed their barn cats, believing that they will hunt in earnest if they are hungry. I’ve never understood that one. My gf’s barn cats are well fed, but kill rodents for the fun of it.
Go to the pound and ask for a cat which was a stray for a long time. By a process of selection, any long-time stray will be a good hunter, since any stray who isn’t, won’t last.
You might try taking a laser pointer to the pound/shelter and see which cats react to it. I had a cat who wasn’t much of a mouser and she just ignored the laser pointer. My current pride of cats find a laser pointer endlessly fascinating and are at least able to catch a bird on occassion. (Not too many birds in the area, so it’s more likely due to lack of birds than feline ability. I haven’t seen a rabbit in ages, so apparently they’ve cleaned them out of the area.)
Or a Rat Terrier. Best mouser I ever saw. I got mine from people who raised Greyhounds and Airdales, they had rats/mice and the large dogs killed the cats. They got a pair of Rat Terriers and got rid of the rats/mice and the Rat Terriers got along better with the large dogs than the cats had.
He’s relentless at hunting for them, and doesn’t have quirks like a dead rat on your pillow or anything like that.
My cats moved into our house before we did after our house fire. They took great pleasure in removing all the mice invaders. Any sort of terrier would also love the job. My mom has several dogs that could be called terriers(some actual breeds, others not so much), and they’re all ratters. Cats might have trouble with rats, depending on the size of the animals.
-Lil
If your house is infested with rabbits then you have some unique concerns
Short of bringing a bag of mice with you to the pound I think that the best way to pick a good mouser out will be to play with the cat - if it chases toys (especially little stuffed mice) and seems to display good hunting skills, that’d be a good bet. Housecats are wired to be predators so they’ll all do it, but some may be better and more enthusiastic about it.
My cat had never seen a mouse before she was 2. The first time one came into our house, she knew exactly what to do, and got it. Since then she’s been an excellent mouser - one day she destroyed a nest, and killed five in one day (well disabled and tortured them - I did the killing earlier than she would have, because I felt sorry for them). They’re instinctively wired to kill mice and birds.
That’s nothing… One of the cats who lives with my mom caught her first mouse at age 15. She’s arthritic and terribly overweight, but I guess eventually the instincts caught up to her. Mind you, she’d spent the previous 14 years ensuring that the house was free of invisible vermin, and no tail was safe around her, even her own.
Fortunately, the other cats have all been good mousers (and birders), so it’s not like the house was infested (well, other than with cats).
Bricker: if you decide to get a cat through a shelter, email me if you need any advice on specific shelters/etc. My office manager has a cat shelter and she knows most of the cat shelters in the eastern US.
We have found that the best way to keep mice from getting into the house is to have one or two outdoor-only cats. By having them kill the mice and shrews around the perimeter of the house, the number getting into our house was greatly reduced.
We still feed them, and I even built a heated cat house for them. But to us, they’re not pets - they’re tools. They have a job to do. The only problem we have is that a cat usually only last a year or two (it becomes a lunch for a coyote). It’s not too big of a deal, as someone’s always giving them away.
