Mice!

[VickieB]

I turned on the back porch light to check on the bunnies before going to bed tonight and saw 3 or more mice in the cages, beside the bunnies, eating their food! Has anyone had this problem and what can we do? I can't have mice on my back porch!

 

[animalmom]

That is a good question... I've wondered if mice weren't visiting some of my rabbits. I find that even with hanging my cages it doesn't make them mouse proof.

This might get me flamed, but I put out rodent poison in my bunny barn and storage shed. I started out using the pellets and that's a pain for me because I have to slide it way back so the dogs can't get to it. It worked though.

Then my husband, always on the look-out for solutions found a product called "TomCat" at Tractor Supply that has a refillable bait holder that is designed so children and dogs can't get to the poison block. It also keeps the rodent from taking the block away. I don't like to handle the wire "snap" traps... kind of like the configuration of my fingers.

I'm not forgiving when it comes to mice or rats and what few rats we have around here run off with the small wire mouse traps. Not only are they into my feed they are further into my pocket by stealing the mouse traps. Besides, if you have mice you have snakes. For me it is a big toss up as to which I like the least. We tried barn cats, but with our coyote population the cats don't last long.

Some folks don't like to use poison if they have dogs because you don't know where the mouse or rat died and if the dog finds it and eats it then the dog can get sick. Well, yes, but my dogs are so well fed that they don't come home with any trophys (if you know what I mean).

Let us know how you handle this situation. This is the first year I've had mice in the bunny barn. Yuck!

 

[alsea1]

I use the tom cat stuff too.
I cannot stand the idea of rodents making my animals sick.
If they get a foothold your in trouble

 

[VickieB]

Tonight I have to upgrade the report to rats. They are just too large to be mice. They were back tonight, and I had the Tomcat out for them. I sure hope it works! The idea of rats on my back porch is just a little more than I can handle. Yuck...

 

[alsea1]

Its hard trying to feed only your animals.
Rats are very clever too. Reminds me. I better get my baits out.

 

[VickieB]

I put a some calf manna in the tomcat along with the bait, hoping to lure them in with it. It didn't work. When I turned on the light last night I saw a rat scurrying... This morning I checked the Tomcat and it didn't look like they had touched anything. When I saw the rat last night, he was running through some of the drop pans. I'm thinking of just taking the blocks and putting them in one or two of the drop pans. Has anyone tried this? I can take it out in the morning, and put it back in the evening.

 

[VickieB]

Okay, I think I have the rats under control. I make sure the rabbits are through eating by 9 at night, and take away all food except for those with babies, and only leave a small amount for them. I took an extra drop pan, put it on top of my top cage, put a nice portion of food in it along with a couple of the tomcat blocks. I did take a knife and shaved a little of the block off into the food and mixed it well. The first night I checked and didn't see any rats in the cages, but saw several in the top drop pan. They were gone by midnight. The next night I saw one rat. Last night I checked numerous times and didn't see anything. I think the rabbits will just have to adjust to going to bed with no food every night, and I'll put the poison out nightly, and bring it back in every morning.

 

[Sycamore27]

Seems like you came up with a good management plan.
I would expect your buns weren't eating that much while it was dark at night anyway, so I shouldn't think they'll be too mad about having to wait til you get the food into the cages in the morning.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[bowbuild]

Vickieb,

I run a pest control business, and I would ugre you to put the bait out, and NOT touch it again. The more you handle baits, traps the more they will stay away. Always wear glooves when hadling anything rodent related to keep your scent low on your equipment.


Bowbuild

 

[VickieB]

After getting rid of them the first time I quit putting the poison out. But then, within a month or two, I started seeing them again. I couldn’t find the poison to put in the trap that I had, so I just went and bought the regular d-con from Wal-Mart and put that out. I put some of the rabbit food in it so it would attract them. What I found is that they would dig past the rabbit food to eat the poison. So I stopped that and just started putting out the poison traps. I have a wire dog cage that I’m not using for anything right now, other than a table when I’m cleaning my rabbit trays, so at night I put that on the porch, put the rat poison in it (so my dogs can’t get to it). I do this every night. I haven’t seen anything on the porch in a while, but I do put it out every evening when I go out for the evening rabbit feeding. I do have to handle it, but so far it has been effective.