Mice in my shed

Whispered

I went up to the shed this morning to get the new bag of dog food, and despite a sealed shed, 2 cats and 2 dogs, it appears we have mice. The side of the bag has a hole in it and over the last 4 weeks the little feckers have taken enough to feed a family for a year. :rolleyes:

I am unsure about the dangers to my dogs if I was to feed them the food the mice had access to. They're downstairs now grumbling about their brekkie and I'm not sure what to do.

Any advice?

Jackasaurus rex

no such thing as a sealed shed with mice. Little ****s get anywhere they want. Best solution is to get bins with lids for the food.

volvick

Whispered wrote: »

I went up to the shed this morning to get the new bag of dog food, and despite a sealed shed, 2 cats and 2 dogs, it appears we have mice. The side of the bag has a hole in it and over the last 4 weeks the little feckers have taken enough to feed a family for a year. :rolleyes:

I am unsure about the dangers to my dogs if I was to feed them the food the mice had access to. They're downstairs now grumbling about their brekkie and I'm not sure what to do.

Any advice?

Some places have offers on a storage container for dog food or go into discount store and get a box for €5 and store the food in there. I am sure feeding then the food would be ok BUT I wouldn't give it to my dog, because I don't like mice Not that I think anything would be wrong with the food. Ring a vets office to see?

Whispered

Thanks for replies!

I wasn't going to feed it to them, then the little guy came down just a min ago and practically handed me the mouse two cats and it takes a staffie to sort the little fecker out.

So I think I'll feed it. If he's going to catch anything, it will be off the mouse itself right? The food in the bag is worth €70 and we're really tight on cash so it would be a disaster if I had to bin it tbh. I can't make up my mind.

We do have containers, but I bought an extra bag last month as I had a bit of spare money. Won't be doing that again!

volvick

Unless your dog ate the mouse I am sure he/she will be fine. And I would defo buy extra food when you have money just make sure its in a container! I didn't have the problem yet and never want to with mice - good on the lil dog for doing a cat's job

ppink

I would be calling my vet before I would bin €70 worth of food, they should know for sure?

I hate to tell you but "the fecker" is probably +10 . You may wake those cats up and tell them what their jobs are:D

Whispered

Living the good life for too long now I think. The same cats who used to climb the curtains after a fly, now sit and look in disgust at a fly if it comes too close. :rolleyes:

Have an appointment in the vet tomorrow so will ask then.

wolfpawnat

We had the same problem, we got in a trap and I swear, every mouse in a 5 mile radius seemed to have been left our shed in the will of the one who died the day before! A good container will keep them at bay.

On the health issue, just checked with the housemate (vet student) your pets will be fine if they get in contact with the food, only thing he said is since the mice were nibbling at the end of the bag, the kibble near there will probably be stale and not too appealing to the pet!

BengaLover

Get someone to lend ye a few ferrets!

Whispered

BengaLover wrote: »

Get someone to lend ye a few ferrets!

Ah no I have no problem with them going in and out so long as they stay out of the pet food. A few more boxes I think so if I have surplus food again I can store it properly.

Actually I'm saying "I" can store it properly. I actually thought the bag was under the stairs until I went looking for it this morning and was told by my husband it was up in the shed. So HE can go and buy some containers.

ISDW

volvick wrote: »

Unless your dog ate the mouse I am sure he/she will be fine. And I would defo buy extra food when you have money just make sure its in a container! I didn't have the problem yet and never want to with mice - good on the lil dog for doing a cat's job

Why would you be worried about the dog eating the mouse? My dogs have caught a few mice, and disposed of them:rolleyes:

kylith

The animals will be fine if they eat food that mice have nibbled, mine eat mice and rats when they can catch them. Get a good strong bin for the food, and set some decent traps where your pets can't get at them (fresh buttered toast is the best bait) and you'll be sorted.

TooManyDogs

ISDW wrote: »

Why would you be worried about the dog eating the mouse? My dogs have caught a few mice, and disposed of them:rolleyes:

Yep, mine have dispatched and consumed a few too

mymo

I don't buy the 15kg bags myself but my friend does, a few at a time, she uses a selection of large plastic toy boxes(really big ones I think she said homebase have them) and a dustbin, clean and bought just for the food storage. She said she got them all on offer so they were cheap, never had rats or mice get in yet.
I saw the food containers in woddies recently and they were great, but they were also about €50 for the 15kg size, €25 for the 4ish kg size.

Whispered

We use a pedal bin too, but it only fits one bag of food in. I must go buy more next time I'm in a relevant shop.

The mice will not be killed (by me), I hope if I keep food out of their way and continue to allow the dogs and cats out and about in the back garden they shouldn't cause too much trouble right?

I really really don't want to trap them, is it a case of if I leave them alone they'll leave me alone? The dogs beds are in the kitchen, the cats spend time in the kitchen. Am I hoping for too much here that they wont make their way down the garden from the cosy shed to my cosier house?

ppink

Ah Now!!!!! If the mice move into the house with 2 cats and 2 dogs you may as well just give up lol!

I inadvertantly brought a couple of mice into my house one day..they were ina bucket i carried in from outside:rolleyes:. Anyway the right hand girl spotted/sniffed them immediately so I managed to turf out the bucket. unfortunately they jumped out!......and ran back in the door:eek:

I am not afraid of mice, in fact they are kinda cute, however when they are running full pelt they scare the bejaysus out of me:eek:

so one ran in under the sweeping brush in the corner and "right hand girl" was told to watch it while i got myself a stool to direct operations from:o

poised upon the stool I readied "herself" and lifted the brush. the mouse was very gently seized and I opened the door and screached at the dog to take him out.
outside the mouse began to stuggle and I think he was tickeling her tongue as she dropped him.......and off he went:D

I wont say what happened the other mousey but suffice to say the repatriation efforts were not as smooth:(

ISDW

Sorry ppink, at the moment we have 14 dogs and 2 cats in the house - and we have mice:rolleyes:

Weathers getting warmer now, so they should be leaving soon - when we moved in here our farmer neighbour told me that if you live in the country and you ever open a door or window, you will have mice, so we just put up with it. Although we did have one on the kitchen counter once, he went and hid behind a big pot, I brought one of the cats in, put her on the counter, moved the pot, the cat just sat there. The mouse made a dash for freedom, the minutes its little paws hit the ground, one of the huskies had it and it died immediately.

I obviously need to buy more than one bag of food at a time, I have tried keeping it in the van, but the mice got at it in there as well. So now I only buy 2/3 bags at a time and keep it in the house, which is very annoying, cluttering up the hallway. I've tried containers from all sorts of places, but the little buggers always manage to get in them somehow. I feed the dogs in the kennel block, and I have to put the dogs in, then come back to the house, get a bag of food, go up, feed them, then bring it back to the house - very annoying.

ppink

did you ever try an old deep freeze for the dog food? we had an old one for the horse oats and nothing ever managed to get into it. A chest freezer I think its called.

i could always put my girl on the train up to you so she can teach your guys how its done:D;)