I got one! I got one! I... huh?

[Tazlima]

So I've been having issues with mice around the bird cages, which is, of course, tricky to handle, since you have to be super careful not to put the birds in harm's way.

Luckily, the layout of my house and the fact the birds are shut in their cages at night permits me to safely set traps in the laundry room the mice use as a thoroughfare, and I've slowly been winning the war... which brings me to this morning.

I woke up in the wee morning hours to the now all-too-familiar sound of a trap snapping. SNAP-THUNK I rolled over to go back to sleep, and heard another one go!

I was surprised to get two in one night, as I've got the issue pretty well in hand at this point, but figured maybe the first mouse had a buddy who ventured back. However, when I heard a third and then a forth in quick succession, I had to investigate... because I only set three traps!

Well... as you can probably guess, the traps were all empty. Boo, my African grey, has learned a new sound... and now she's confirmed it's a sound that will bring me running.

In the time it took me to type this, I've "caught a mouse" about fifteen more times. She's even imitating the nighttime silence before and after each snap. If it weren't for the trap sound, I'd think she was still fast asleep.

I don't know whether to be embarrassed that I've had enough mice in here for her to learn the sound, or just plain proud of her skill. She pranked me good!

 

[Yoshi&Raphi]

That’s pretty funny! I think you should be proud of her new way to outsmart the human .

 

[Zara]

Boo got you good!!!

 

[Dona]

OMG that's hilarious.

(Sorry about the mice though. We lived in the country for many years and the mouse situation was a nightmare.)

 

[fashionfobie]

Is there a way to manage your bird feed storage to prevent mice from thriving?

I appreciate that the point of this post was the fact your Grey learned the trap sound... but as an animal lover I feel deeply saddened by the murdered mice. Such a painful and horrid death.

Mice have very high metabolism. They starve in only a few days. A less aggressive mice management option is doing a good clean and locking up all possible food. The mice will leave your place to find greener pastures.


There was a rat who found my chicken feed recently. So I bought a metal storage cage and placed the chicken feed storage container in the cage. The rat left, there is no longer easy to access food. He chewed right through the plastic storage container, but he couldn't make it through the metal.

 

[Snowghost]

Oh no! We get mice in the fall which is right around the fall. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm with you Natalie, I'm an animal lover and can't stand to use traps. My room mate sets them. Paco has learned how to yip like the dog when he wants in, so its up a lot to see if the dog wants in, LOL. I think I would, no I know I would freak hearing a mouse trap go off all of the time. Good luck.

 

[TikkiTembo]

That's amazing!
We had mice so badly in our last house, and we didn't even have birds. We tried every humane trap, and even if they did work, the mice would return. We also ended up killing the poor things, and I felt horrible for it! But we were living a life where our silverware was kept in a plastic baggie to prevent mice in the drawers from touching what goes into our mouth...It was nasty, and we had to make a decision to protect ourselves from illness by killing them. I also felt really embarrassed to have mice, but they're just smart little critters who know where to find the tiniest bits of food, so it could happen to anyone!

Also, I'd never gossip around my birds again if their mimicking was that good...

 

[Tazlima]

I feel bad for the mice, myself. They're so doggone cute, but there really isn't another way to handle them. If they were just getting into the stored food, that would be easy, but they climb into the actual bird cages... and they do it at all hours whether the bird is present or not. They eat any bits of produce the birds fling around, and if there's nothing on the floor of the cage or surrounding areas, they'll go straight to the source and raid the bowls. Finding a mouse turd in the food bowl you filled just twenty minutes earlier is gut wrenching. Remove the food completely and they can still eat the parrot poop and get nutrients from that or, worst case scenario, they could go after the birds themselves. I've heard of poultry losing toes to hungry rodents, and my birds are a lot smaller than a chicken. Or the birds could go after the mice and get bitten that way, or get spooked and hurt themselves trying to escape. There's nothing good that can come from the interaction.

I also live in a densely populated urban area. No matter how clean I keep things, there will always be someplace they can find a meal. The local mice happily live and breed outside, then find their way indoors when the weather turns particularly hot or cold. A new batch pops up at least once a year, and since I don't fancy risking leptospirosis, the options are limited.

Snap traps are a quick death. That's as kind as I can afford to be.