:eek: ! We live in suburbia and he’s found two this week.
What do I do once I see he’s caught one? I sure as heck don’t want a semi-living mousie in my house. And how do I prevent them from getting into the house in the first place?
Thanks.
I’ve never had a cat who did this before.
Train him to eat the evidence?
My cat is a possumer and the only reason I know is that I once caught him chowing down. Well, that and we’re the only people I know that have no problems with possums.
Be grateful that you don’t have a dog who’s a “catter.”
Signed
“One Who Knows.”
The mice are generally dead after my cat gets done with them. Thankfully she doesn’t make a big mess, she simply kills them and then walks around the house with it in her mouth, meowing until someone notices the present she’s brought.
Then I get the male resident of my home to dispose of it.
IME (and probably because I live in a field), there isn’t much you can do about mice. I find that merely the presense of a cat will lessen your chances of hearing or seeing a mouse in your home, even if the cat itself isn’t a “mouser”. That’s why we got a cat. Luckily, this one likes to kill as well. But even before we saw the first dead mouse, we noticed that they stopped holding their nightly marathons in our ceilings.
Also, make sure you keep everything very clean (the insides of your cabinets and drawers, underneath your range and refrigerator, etc.), don’t leave any food and/or food containers out where a mice might get to them. I find this includes things that you’d keep out anyway, like bananas (who knew, right?). We’ve also taken to storing our cereals, crackers and such in sealed plastic containers where the nasty little shits can’t get to them.
Good luck.
Don’t think you can, to be honest. I used to live by a river (the Tyne, big, industrial end of, not sweetly sun-dappled rural type), and one of our cats was a devil for bringing home, not just mice, but bloody great rats. Fortunately, the only time he brought back anything semi-alive, it was a little mouse, but that still lead to much squealing and standing on furniture. Till we realised that it wasn’t the fifties, and if we waiting for a man to come along and rescue us, we’d be in for a long wait, the cat being the only male in the house!
All I can tell you is it stops with age. The cat’s 12 now, and hasn’t caught anything for years. In fact, a few months ago when a fledgling managed to get into the house, the cat was found simply staring at it suspiciously.
One of ours likes to bring mice and birds home with monotonous regularity.
Sometimes we catch him and have him drop the prey if they’re still alive - mice get put under a yoghurt pot, birds under a wastebin. Then you just slide a bit of card underneath and release them, keeping the cat in for 30mins or so to ensure that they make their escape.
It’s actually very rewarding to pluck a fieldmouse from the jaws of death!
Dead things get thrown under the hedge. Not much you can do about that.
Thing is, we threatened him with a collar and bell but it’s as if he doesn’t understand we’re not grateful for the pressies…
Are you rejecting your cat’s gifts? Cats leave your presents so you’ll praise them. Usually they’re dead, so there are no difficulties getting rid of the gift.
Hunting is part of cat nature. If your cats are keen on hunting live things, there is not much to dissuade him. There only thing that stop them, that I’ve seen, is old age
And even old age may not work. My cat, (who lived for 18.5 years) caught mice right up to his 17th year. Only because of medical problems was he no longer able to catch mice (to be fair, there were very little mice in our place to begin with but whenever a mouse made it’s way into out kitchen, it wasn’t a very long or pleasant stay).
I’d do your best to clear out any mice in the house and give your cat a fake toy mouse with catnip inside.
It’s not clear to me if the OP is referring to mice caught INSIDE the house, or mice caught OUTSIDE the house and then brought in by the cat.
If the problem is the former, there are many ways to get rid of mice; traps and poisons will do in any mice inside, and you can get live traps if you’re squeamish about killing small animals. Preventing new arrivals can be accomplished by examining your inner and outer walls for points of entry - holes, loose boards, what have you - and closing them off. Getting rid of any brush, woodpiles or other inviting mouse shelters that happen to be on the side of your house will help too. Eliminate food sources such as bags of pet food or bird feeders. If it’s not an inviting place for mice, they’ll find somewhere else to live.
Plus, the cat himself is a pretty strong deterrent. Mice will not generally make their homes in close proximity to a known predator if they have any choice in the matter. A cat will scare off more mice than he’ll catch.
Now, if the problem is that the cat is catching the mice outside, and then bringing them in, there’s a few ways to deal with this.
Don’t let the cat outside. I know this is tough in some circumstances if the cat has years of being outside, but cats are much, much better off kept indoors. If it’s possible, do so.
If that’s not possible, belled collars do tend to reduce a cat’s hunting effectiveness. Cats are dependent upon stealth to nab their prey.
Just be glad Kitty isn’t leaving the mouse on your pillow. Cats are very proud of their catches, and they want their humans to know what they have acomplished.
If he’s catching the mice inside the house, be glad. Mice can cause a lot of damage, and bring disease. Eventually (probably sooner than later) the mice will pack up and move on if the cat stays.
If he’s finding them outside, keep him inside. He won’t like it, especially at first, but he’s much safer inside. And a collar can be very, very dangerous. It can snag on branches and various other things and trap the cat. If he isn’t found, he will starve to death.
Kitty is an indoor cat and I’d like to keep him that way. We don’t keep a collar on him because he wiggles out of them. I’m not worried about him getting lost because he doesn’t like to leave the house. I’ve accidentally left the door open for an hour or two and puss still stayed in the living room.
When he finds a mouse he walks around the house playing with it while it’s alive. I don’t want to touch the mouse because I’m afraid of the diseases they carry but I also don’t want to get between a cat and his prey.
I will try cleaning the house from top to bottom. I live with a toddler so that’s a bit of an uphill battle but it may be worth a shot.
I have to admit as disgusted as I am by the mice I admire my kitty’s ability to catch them.
He’s really a wonderful little fellow – the kind of cat who likes to sit on your lap and let you pet his furry belly. 
My cats are treaters.
Also 3am wet fooders.
I had a cat that turned out to be non-mouser. One morning I spotted a rather small mouse in front of the pantry. Jim (named for Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats :D) spotted him too and immediately switched to pounce mode. Wild Kingdom in my own kitchen, cool. Jim cornered the mouse and moved side to side like a boxer shifting his weight to prevent el raton from escaping. “Good boy, get the mouse. Come on, get the mouse.” Jim tensed up and seemed ready to go in for the kill then about ten seconds into the odeal he seemed to just get bored with it all and walk away. “What the hell are you doing?!!! Get the &%$#ing mouse! Shit! She’s getting away.”
I pounced. I caught the mouse. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the tiny rodent in my hands. I’ve never seen a creature look so terrified. Imagine yourself scurrying about your business and suddenly being tackled by someone the size of the Chrysler Building. I couldn’t bear to dispatch him so I turned him loose in the yard. I’m glad he was probably stunned and it never occured to him to bite me.
How old is your toddler? I have a 16 month old boy and I’m finally getting used to a decent cleaning schedule for myself. Some unsolicited tips, if you don’t mind.
Take advantage of naptimes. That’s the best time to clean the bathroom, the living room, playroom, etc. Do as much or as little as you can in the time that he or she allows you. The key is to not get overwhelmed, because then you’re going to give up anyway. I had a system in place up until a month or so ago that basically came down to, “Hey, if Alex doesn’t go there, I’m not worried about it”. Bad plan.
During snacks or meals, if you don’t happen eat at the same time, is a good time to tackle the kitchen since the two of you are going to be in the kitchen/dining room anyway. I have no laundry tips because I still suck at it. Clean clothes wind up sitting in the dryer until I absolutely need them.
If you still feel like you don’t have enough time, pop in a DVD and let your kid chill in his walker/playpen/whatever for a while. It’s really not going to kill him. I have a toy room (I think it’s supposed to be a dining room) between the kitchen and the living room, so I sometimes close mine off in there with the baby gates and sing to him while I mop and stuff.
It gets easier, I promise. In the meantime, check out http://www.flylady.com She has some really good tips. I had to unsubscribe because they flooded my inbox (I swear, they send out at least 50 emails a day), but you can get most of the tips without subscribing. The emails are mostly just reminders and, really, who checks their email that often?
Good luck!
One little kit was a great mouser-he’d snag one and go stretch out on the back porch to play with his prize:
[Kitty sing song voice]I’ve got a rodent, don’t you wish you had one?[/voice]
The other kits would sit nearby and watch, enviously. 
Ember tried to catch me a new pet last night, good kitty that she is. Mr zoogirl relieved her of it and popped it into the nearest empty cage. Unfortunately, it was the cage with the tricky top. When we got up this morning and he tried to show off the new critter, it was long gone (sigh).
Live mice around here end up caged, named and tamed. Dead ones get “Burial At Sea”, or “The Royal Flush”.
Em’s strongly discouraged from hunting, though. With thirty+ pet mice and an dozen or so rats in the house, teaching her to leave them alone is kind of a nescessity.
Oh, and by the way? If you think I’m crazy for keeping a wild mouse, consider this. I used to have a little deermouse named Fallow. Thanks to some photographer friends, Fallow was on the back cover of the Canadian Wildlife Magazine for Kid’s, was the October picture for their calender and was on the front cover and inside the Wild America book on mice. She earned me over $100.00.
I like mice!
Mine are lapers and sun-beamers. But my parent’s cat could hunt! Hoo-boy!