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Rodentist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
228
Location
Buffalo, NY
For some background...I rent an older home, and as long as I have lived here, there have been free range mice. I have made peace with them and I leave food and water out for them....better that than dying in the walls, right?

We almost never see them...but Chaz caught one on video last year:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... ID=9496106
(if anyone wants to see my free range mice)

I have been pretty sure that one or more of them steal food from my rats, and then hide it in the drawers underneath the ferret nation with the rat's towels and extra hammocks. The mice like soybeans and lab blocks.

My set up is a three story ferret nation. Trajan, Julian, and Nero live in the top and middle, Milton and Newton in the bottom, and the lady Arya likes to stay with Milton and Newton....until she doesn't, and goes to her own place. Can't fault her there.

Sunday, when cleaning the houses we found a dead mouse in Milton and Newton's house. The mouse was very flat, with wounds on the head and belly. It was...uneaten.

I buried him in my hibiscus...but I am a little disturbed at the thought that one of my furkids offed a thieving little mouse. They have been stealing from Milton for at least 6 months, probably not him....which leaves Newton and Arya, the tiny little lady. However, this sweet little lady *was* taken to the SPCA because she kicked a 4 ft boa's butt.

I have been trying to come up with another feasible explanation to explain the dead mouse's presence inside the ferret nation...but the most logical explanation is that one of my little sweeties killed him.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?
 
rats are natural predators of mice, so killing one of them is not out of the question. What I would be concerned with is if the mouse had a disease or illness it died from and now your rats may have it?
 
Hi and welcome Rodentist.

I loved that video, great editing. :D

Yep, your rats probably got fed up sharing their food with the mice and decided enough is enough. I'm very surprised they haven't done it sooner.
Unfortunately, it's the law of the land.
But like Melissa already mentioned, I would be very worried about any kind of disease these wild mice are carrying which may pass on to the rats.
Any chance of mouse proofing the rat area?

We too have a family of mice we feed and provide shelter but they are in our shed. Every fall we buy some hay for them too.
 
Ah the mice. I am hoping they are relatively disease/pesticide free...I believe these guys have existed for generations in the house. To be honest, I am not even sure where their home base is....they are rarely seen, although if you watch the video, you can see the little Taco Bell I made for them out of some conveniently sized and shaped packing material. They have become accustomed to that, which is a hallway and three rooms away from the rats.

They have been pilfering from the rats for at least six months. I have seen them in the bedroom (where the rats are) twice in seven years...but they leave signs....poops and piles of soybeans in odd places. It would be hard to mouse proof the room because they are so elusive. Especially without hurting them, which I just don't want to do. My SO, Chaz, has some bouts of insomnia, and he was the one who captured them on video. It would also be nice to mouse proof, say, the kitchen, where every time I pull out a pot or pan from the lower cupboard, it is chock full o' mouse poo and whiz. Blech.

I leave food out for them in a safe place...and I leave them soybeans and lab blocks....their favorites. Why did one Robin Hood mouse feel a need to risk life and limb to take the rats' food? I can't help feeling bad for the little guy....
 
that little mouse in the video is so cute. I love their coloration and their movements.

Sad to think that one of your rats killed it, but not surprising. I can't imagine how you would eliminate mice from an older house. We used to live in a house where mice would come in every fall. We used a humane trap baited with oatmeal to catch them, because it was a royal pain having to wash & bleach stuff in the kitchen drawers several times a week!

The previous owners of the house had had no trouble because they had a cat. We never did find out where they got in; there were so many possibilities.
 
That video was taken almost a year ago...I bet it wasn't that little guy...but a cousin or descendant.

The word for the mice, I think....is "elusive".
 
If you can't figure a way to mouse-proof the rat room, you could just mouse proof their cages. Using hardware cloth or a mesh to make the spacing too small for the mice will ensure you don't have another incident, and it will also protect your ratties. While rats are indeed predatory animals, a cornered mouse is just as vicious as any other creature. They can cause serious injury to your rats. Also, whatever parasites or diseases the mice may be carrying will be that much more difficult for them to transmit to your babies.
 
rofl, little thieves! I am thinking that maybe one of your furbums killed him. poor guy. but if he was thieving. then.. i mean... he wasnt very smart to go into the rat cage eh.... Well... RIP little mousy... :mouse2ud2: :rose3:
 
You guys were right! They have mites....and the only place I can think of....is from the mouse/mice.

They have been dosed with Revolution which is almost magical...and my forearms are a tribute to six rattie baths.

There are six loads of laundry, too. Major bummer. The extra hammocks were stored under the ferret nation, so we figure those are cootified as well.
 
Aww, I'm sorry for the little mousie :cry: , and you're so sweet to care for them, but I'll echo what you no doubt already have ringing in your head by now - 'Keep them away from your pets'. Mites are no big deal compared to what else they might share. Even if they weren't diseased they might bite your kids.

Hope all is well with your kids!
 
The poor, little mouse!!!! He took his life into his own hands and got nailed for it. (hey MISTER.... you are in MY FOOD DISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Thank God the rats didn't eat the mouse! UGH!! I had feral cats when I lived in Germany and Tubbykins, one day, decided to share with me.

I was brought exactly one half of her mouse. :shock:

OH... THANK YOU SWEETIE!!! You didn't have to share your lunch with me!!! What a darling cat you are... :roll:

I once rescued a mouse, our male cat had caught. I picked the cat up and told the mouse to "GET LOST LITTLE DUDE!!! I don't know how long I can hold him!!!"

The mouse took the hint and hightailed it out of there. Little Tiger greeted me with his buttcheeks for the next several days. :laugh4:
 
I always considered the conversation to go something like this....since the mouse had been stealing unhindered from my two neutered boys for 6 months, and didn't turn up dead until a few days after the female moved in...

(mouse runs in, steals soybean, runs out)

Arya: Ohmygod, wtf was that?!
Milton: That would be the mouse. Sometimes he steal our food. Just the blocks and soybeans though, no biggie.
Newton: We were going to do something about it...but....these hammocks are soooo comfy and the mouse is all the way down there, you see.
Arya: Nuh-uh, no way! This is my house now, and that is NOT going to fly!
(Arya goes and...."takes care of business")
Milton: (to Newton) Holy $#@!! Did you see that? I am soooo not getting on HER bad side.
Milton and Newton: All Hail the New Alpha!
Newton: (to Arya on her return): Can I be your pillow, Mistress?


Another debate among my friends and myself: Robin Hood Mouse or Forrest Gump Mouse? There are other mice in the house, but since that one turned up dead, there have been no incursion on the rats' food and they stick to their Mouse Taco Bell in the Dining Room.
 
I've had mice stealing from my rats too!

One night I was up late (around 2am) playing and feeding the rats. I was sitting on the floor with only my bedroom light on and out of the corner of my eye i caught something - at first i thought it was one of my rats but realised it was a mouse. We have two cats one of which, if left outside at night is quite the hunter. I don't know how this mouse survived in our house. The mouse watched me with my rats for a while. i guessed it must be after the food. I moved toward the mouse and it ran into the bathroom - and into a hole inthe wall.. it wasnt much different from those you see in the cartoons either apart from a few more chew marks (we have these weird wooden walls in our bathroom) anyway I thought that was the end of little mousey mousey but i was wrong.

One night when cleaning the rat cage I had all three girls in my bathroom (mouse holes covered over) when i came back to play/take them back to explore the clean cage/new hammocks etc i was shocked to find a small "rat" underneath Marcelle Pencil. The mouse was back! It must have already been in the bathroom before i'd covered the holes. I expected my rats to have attacked it but to my surprise they werent really taking much notice to it running along with them and hiding under their tummies.

Perhaps the mouse was a nightly friend of theirs? I'm still surprised that they didn't attack the mouse. I thought that is what rats did to mice. Very strange.

Any thoughts?
 
I think my squishy boys just couldn't be bothered. It was the tiny, sweet, cuddly, kisses-giving female that wasn't have any of that mouse in *her* house.

Stock up on the Revolution! My mousie had mites, and could have had much worse it seems. All the same, I couldn't kill them...I don't even have the heart to put them outside since I think they have lived in that house for generations....
 

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