Mice!

[Coral]

Hi guys,

It is the middle of winter here, and it is very dry, and we have had quite a few fires. All the mice that live in the veld are looking for food and water and shelter.

Yesterday I was talking to my budgies, and I noticed a ghastly, black, evil mouse lurking in the bottom of the budgie's cage :mad::mad::eek::eek: He was hiding between the grid and the seed tray, and running right underneath the budgies :mad:

Then an even worse thing happened. In the afternoon, I noticed ANOTHER:eek: black mouse in the budgie's cage. He looked even more evil and cunning than the first mouse.

Anyway, I got rid of both the mice, but I am very worried about the budgies. On top of being very evil and cunning, I have heard that mice carry a variety of virilent diseases that can infect budgies :mad:

I have scrubbed and disinfected the cages, waterbowl, perches and toys, but I am still worried that the budgies could have caught something from the mice. The mice where obviously drinking from the budgies water, and eating their food.

Should I take them all to the vet, or wait a while? Has anyone had a situation where their birds got sick from a mouse?

Thanks :)

[Schnapperxx]

Heya.

Mice with Budgies. Oh dear! :(
Did you rewash the foodbowl as well?
Mice are capable of killing budgies or causing illnesses if they poop/urinate in Budgie's water or food.

I have never dealt with Mice.
So i wouldn't know how to deal with them.
sorry :o

[miss parakeet]

that would be one fight i don't want to witness!
Budgie V Mouse

[Claudia]

What country are you in (lovely flag, but am not sure :S;)) is it South Africa????

We obviously get mice with having an aviary outside but have always managed to get rid of them with "Talon", do they sell that over there?
I put it in a plastic lockable (dog safe!) container, you could try that, put the poison somewhere near the budgies cages........

[ETAHoffman]

Many years back, I used 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch hardware cloth to make all my cages. Had my birds in what I thought was a safe outdoor shed. Kept the hens in one large cage and the cocks in another. One night, mice got into my cage of hens and killed 12 or 15. When I opened the shed door the next morning, I actually saw mice run THROUGH the cages and away. I didn't realize mice were capable of collapsing their skulls and squeezing through a half inch by half inch opening. Needless to say, I replaced all my cages with quarter inch by quarter inch hardware cloth ones.

If you can't get a cage with narrower spacing of the wires, maybe you could suspend the cage so the mice can't get in. Until you get the mouse problem under control, you're sitting on a dynamite keg. Believe me, the mice will kill your birds if given the opportunity. Also, as I'm sure you already know, if mice urinate on bird seed, the seed will kill birds who eat it.

Keep us posted. Good luck.................

[Coral]

Thanks for the advice.

I scrubbed all food and water bowls and everything, no doubt!

Yes Claudia, it is South Africa, and I live in Johannesburg. The winters here are really dry, and if there is anything dropped in the veldt, everything catches alight, and all the horrible little mice come looking for another house. BTW, poison in a lockable plastic container sounds like a solution. Funnily enough, I have no problems with mice in the aviarys, just with the birds in the house.

ETSHoffman, what do you mean by "hardwire cloth"? Sorry for being a total blonde :embarrassed:

Miss Parakeet, it was not "Mouse" vs "Budgie", it was me vs the mouse, and believe me, they came off very much second best.

Should I take all the budgies to the vet for a checkup just incase?

[Kate C]

I'm with Tom on mice or rats. The hardware cloth he refers to is also called bird wire. Well here in Australia it is. And yes mice can easily get through half inch by half inch wire. The quarter inch by quarter inch is called Mouse Proof Wire over here. To mouse prrof outside aviaries, have the aviary on a concrete slab then put sheet metal around the bottom to a height of 18 inches and embed the sheet metal into the ground. This prevents the mice from climbing up the wire and gaining access to the inside of the cage.

With pet cages you have a far bigger problem keeping them out. The wire bars are far too flexible and the mice just run straight through. The mice also climb and can often climb up to a shelf if the cage is put up there. If you can hang the cage from a wall by using a nail or a hook into the wooden stud of the house that is better.

With poisons alot of people are using what are called environmentally safe poisons. These are ones that need multiple feeds before they will kill. So that if a dog, cat or other animal get into it it won't kill them immediately and they would need to eat it over 4 or 5 days for it to be a problem. The problem I have found with these is the mice can build up an immunity to the poison. It comes to the babies through the milk and the offspring that survive need larger doses of poison to eventually kill them. In the earlier centuries it was believed if you ate a tiny amount of poison and gradually increased it over time you would eventually build up a tolerance for the poison so that if someone tried to poison you it would not work. This does happen with mice and rat poisons. Also the little devils get used to a particular colour so you have to change brand to get a different colour so the clever little mice don't associate that colour with a poison.

When I use a poison I get an instant kill one and make sure none of my other animals or birds can get at it. I have recently started going back to an old fashioned bate because the cost of poison is just too much now. I use Plaster of Paris powder. Make sure other animals cannot access the powder. Put a container of water near it. You should get the idea. They eat the powder, have a drink of water and get terminal constipation. Then if another animal eats the body all that happens is they get a bit of calcium in their diet, rather than eating a body that has got poison in it that in turn can affect a dog or cat or other predator that eats the poisoned body. The raw Plaster powder is still dangerous to other animals but not the body of the dead mouse. Works really well and is very cheap. I got 3 kg for $12. Plaster of Paris is modelling plaster you use in rubber moulds to make ornaments that you can then paint. You can mix a small amount of say Custard powder with the raw plaster powder as the mice love the vanilla in it and will eat plenty of it. Just make sure the powder cannot get wet as it will then set before the mice eat it.

Hope this helps.

[peanut.buddie01]

I am so sorry that this has happened! What I would do is just go to the local vet and get them checked up on. Trust me, what would happen if you didn't go and you lost your whole flock to a couple mice. Mabe hang the bird cage from the wall away from shelves so the rats and mice don't climb up the shelves and get inside the cage again. Scrub the cage firmly with dissinfectiont every time you see on in on find traces in the bird cage of a rat or mouse been in the cage. :mad::mad::mad:


Hope you get rid of the rats and mice!


Cya,

Peanut.buddie01:budgie::budgie::budgie::):):):D:D: D

[Cannuck]

How do you feel about lizards? I have heard that geckos are harmless to our birds but will eat and kill any mice trying to get in the cages/aviaries.

[skyky10]

Oh wow! lol

[Coral]

No wonder you are the Member of the Month, KateC.

The plaster of Paris idea is a very good one. None of my other animals can get into my bird room, so I don't have to worry about the cats eating it. One of the reasons I was worried about conventional poison was my cats - they love eating mice and rats.

I took the birds to the vet this morning - he says they all fine, but to watch carefully for anyone looking out of sorts. He also said that the main problem with mice is that they chew the budgie's feet :(

Anyway, lots of plaster of paris for my little mousies!

[Kate C]

Thanks Coral. I went back to using old fashioned things like Plaster of Paris as I cannot afford to buy the poison and I have to worry about my dogs. There used to be a creek under where my house is and they piped it and it runs into the drainage system which runs down to the river. Everytime we get rain the rotten rats come up so they don't drown. These are really big bush rats. It has cost me a small fortune for poison up till now. Rats are a real problem as they are predatory and will reach into a cage and grab a bird, make them bleed till they weaken and then kill them. They will also do this to quite big birds. It gets really hard to keep on top of them. I found the plaster of paris not only effective and cheap but you get a lot more in one baiting than you would with a poison. They don't seem to need an awful lot to give them terminal constipation.

Good luck.

[SpickyDavies]

http://blog.peta.org/archives/Humane%20Mousetrap.jpg

mouse trap

[Coral]

Also a good idea, SpickyDavies. We have those here, but in a very unattractive looking wire form that you can get from farming places.

I must thank KateC, your idea is working quite well...

[Kate C]

Live traps are ok but what do you do with the mice when you catch them. Pointless taking them to a field nearby for release as that is where the mice are coming from in the first place. So then the mice just return to your house or to someone elses and cause damage there.

Mice are incredibly destructive, chewing through walls and also what is more dangerous, electrical wiring. This can cause short circuits and the house can then catch fire. It may seem a nice idea to allow all living creatures to survive but it is not very practical. Mice are vermin. They spread disease the same as rats do. They kill and eat birds and their eggs. If you have ever seen some of the mice plagues we have over here during drought times it is horrifying, there are millions of them and they just over run everything, eating everything in their path.

I am glad the Plaster is working Coral. Sometimes the old fashioned ideas work so much better and safer than the modern things like poisons which can damage the environment. At least the Plaster of Paris won't damage that.

[tstmard]

Last winter I woke up to my birds freaking to uncover them to find a mouse coming out of my one budgies cage.:eek: From then on we moved everything away from the tables that the birds cages were on so the mice couldn't climb up to the cages or jump from the couch to the cage. Coudn't move out of that house fast enough.

We had one of those live traps in our garage once. My hubby would hold the trap up to the tail pipe of his running truck. Which is a pain free death.

[Siobhan]

We had a terrible mouse problem and we're just now getting on top of it. I tried live traps, killing traps, and finally had to resort to poison, put where my dogs can't get at it. I've caught mice in my birds' cages, too, and I know that with budgies especially, the mouse can bite the bird or scare it so that it hurts itself flapping around. I don't want to kill them -- and I have a PET MOUSE! but of course, he doesn't run around loose and get in the cages -- but you have to protect your birds. One solution is to take every bit of food and water out of the birds' cages when they've gone to bed. They won't need it during the night, and if there's no food in the cage, there's no reason for the mice to get in there. Mice are active at night and sleep during the day, so they're far less likely to get in the cage during daylight hours and you can put the food and water back for the birds in the morning. I did that until we got the mice under control.