Do Cats really keep mice away ??

[sassybates]

Mice do not seem to have the cleverest of brains...............sigh

I agree I have found that a mouse decided to come into the cattery !!! (one of the outside runs) during the day  needless to say all that was left to prove it had visited was its head!!

 
omg thats just too funny how stupid of the mouse 

[Jiskefet]

Mice tend to stay away if they smell cats, but if you really want to be free of them, buy a ferret!!!!
My brothe-in-law had one in his student digs, and his room, the adjacent rooms, even the kitchen (he always took Polly when he went there to cook or wash up) and the fusion (common lounge) were free of mice. The place was an old monastry and it was riddled with mice, but not where Polly roamed.

They had a cat, one floor below, and they had their relatively mice-free zone as well, but the cat wast not nearly as efficient in scaring them away as Polly the ferret.

But if you have good hunters, it will help. Jiskefet even cleared the riverbank near our house of rats. No rat to be found for the 2 years he reigned over teh area. Within 2 months after his death, there were rats once again.
And we never had to worry about moles in our garden when we had Tuppence and Jiskefet, either. They were both mole hunters. Just killed them for sport, they didn't eat them.

[Bren22]

 :rofl:I don't have any probs with mice since my neighbour demolished an old garage - there had always been a nest of mice under it.  However, we once had a cat called Zeko (aka Psycho) who was a fantastic mouse catcher, only trouble was he'd bring them into the house via the bathroom window (upstairs!) and meow as he came through it, we knew when he had one as his mouth was full and the meow was odd.  Then my husband would dive out of bed, chase the cat downstairs, yell at him to put the **** thing down, chuck both cat and mouse out in the garden and retreat back to bed.  Meanwhile, I had to hurriedly close the bathroom window as Zeko would re-catch the mouse, jump up on the extension roof and hurl himself at the window again - a bit like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  Zeko was a real character but unfortunately died from leukaemia aged 11.  There'll never be another quite like him.

[Helen M]

Mice do not seem to have the cleverest of brains...............sigh

I agree I have found that a mouse decided to come into the cattery !!! (one of the outside runs) during the day  needless to say all that was left to prove it had visited was its head!!

[mervyn7451]

I recently had a mouse that I bought home in a bag of flour from the C0-Op..Daisy was as much use as a chocolate fireguard as a mouser! I in the end caught the mouse as Daisy was sitting on the sofa looking up at the mouse sitting on the window latch!

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

My experience has been, especially with indoor cats, that the mouse population finds the path of least resistance and danger. I never had a mouse problem with an indoor cat. My neighbours however, in the same building, one floor down, in an old Edwardian property, had problems. They then adopted a couple of kittens from a local rescue and within 6 months they had no mice. So I guess the benefit is that they do keep them away, unless they have outdoor access, at which point, they bring them in.

[blackcat]

There's a very healthy rodent population around here. The cats do their best to keep them down and regularly slaughter 10 a day, but they keep coming back. The spare room, when I cleared it out, was deep in mouse poo. And the cats were in there regularly. Mothballs are useful as a deterrent if you can stand the smell.

[Guest]

In my last place we had a real problem with mice, at one point there were four in the house and we were going on holiay, we never had anotherafter we got Ella and Effie

[sassybates]

  awwww my girl i had was indoor so we never had any present brought home to us  thank goodness as id not cope with that  the cat we are adopting as always been indoor too so we will proberly keep her that way 

[Feline Costumier]

Not sure about keeping them away scent wise but two of my three are hunters and on day a few weeks ago I rescued 4 mice from Little Miss!

Now if only I could train them to catch ants and vacuum.................

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I think having a cat helps...........afraid mine are hunter killers but they brought their prey in the house.

Never a mark on them and they were just toys b ut dies of shock mostly.

If one feigned death then they would leave it alone and if it then woke up they was chaos!

Mice do not seem to have the cleverest of brains...............sigh

[sassybates]

Ive had cats all my life till 6months ago when we had to let ours go 
and so has all my family got cats and always have done ,never have we had a problem with mice until 4 weeks ago 
ive read various things and heard various things that just the smell of a cat and its littler tray will make sure a mouse never enters your house ,  i dont like or believe in the idea of cats being kept purley to keep mice away and kill them etc as i dont think its healthy for the cat , what does everyone think ?