I need a good mouser...kitty GN or other cat experts?

[tawnya]

I have never had mice in my house until this past year, when my kitty of 16 years passed away. She was just some kind of "mutt" of a cat, and I never saw any "remains", but I never had a mouse, so maybe Harley was taking care of them?

I have two rat terriers ( that aren't doing their job, LOL ), but I've had it with the traps. Now that it is getting colder inside, they ( the mice ) are coming in again.

I need a good mouser cat, but it needs to be able to get along with the dogs. The dogs are 6 and 4 years old. Should I get a kitten, a farm cat, or what? What kind? Could I just get a cat from a shelter, or from someone that has kittens? How old does the cat need to be to be able to get the mice?

Sorry if this hurts anyone's feelings about mice, but I've had it. If you want them, come and get them!

Thanks for any input.

tawnya

 

[Shari]

I wish you were closer. I have a mouser that lives with 3 dogs that needs a home!!!!

 

[AnnieO]

Mutt cats are awesome, in my opinion.

I would say visit a shelter. I have 3 cats, all of which I just sort of acquired. They'd never seen a mouse till this house. And two of them (the other is 16 y/o) are awesome mousers!

Tabbies seem to be the best... The 16 y/o is part Siamese... But she's old, too.

 

[donna723]

Not all cats know what to do with a mouse. When we used to have inside cats (pre-dog) it seemed that the best mousers came from litters where the mama cat was a good mouser. The mother would actually teach them. It's kind of pitiful but we had cats that would catch and disable a mouse but not kill it, then they would let their kittens play with and eventually kill the mouse. It really brought out that prey instinct in their kittens.

 

[Shari]

My experience is same as Donna's. Not all cats (a LOT of cats) arent mousers.

You might contact some riding stables in your area and ask them if they have any to part with or know where to get one. Then again...sometimes just the presence of a cat will deter the mice (tho since you didn't see ANY, I'd guess your other cat moused. At least some.) We live in an ancient house, too. A cat is a requirement. Unfortunately, the one we have now is kinda dumb.

 

[KTMom91]

Only one of our cats is any good on the mouser scale, one of the seniors. The panther boys' only purpose so far seems to be ornamental.

 

[Shari]

The panther boys' only purpose so far seems to be ornamental.

hahaha Ornamental cats....that cracks me up.

 

[gcvmom]

Both our cats we got as hand-me-downs One came from a shelter as a kitten, the other as a 4month old from a family that couldn't keep him. The first one was kinda clueless about mice until the other one, whose instincts are more intact, came along and showed him what to do. Now they both catch mice in our garage. Sometimes, though, they don't dispatch the mouse quickly and that can cause more problems, especially when the come in the cat door and bring their new "toy" with them!

 

[flutterby]

You can kind of gauge by their desire to play with things that move - not just the feather-like cat toys. 3 of my cats love the cheap toy mice that you throw and they go after. They'll carry them around in their mouths, show them to me, then go for the kill. The others don't seem to know what to do with them.

This isn't foolproof, but might give you an inkling as to how interested the cat is.

 

[HaoZi]

Good mousers are bred and taught, I think the average is 1 in 20 for overall population is good at it.

 

[GoingNorth]

I raised Maine Coon Cats for many years. The breed was developed for rodent control in canneries and on farms. Many of them are good mousers and usually too heavy to do a lot of damage to the bird population.

That said, the best mousers are recreational mousers, I prefer a well-fed spayed female for this. Females have a stronger hunting drive due to being genetically designed to hunt for their kittens.

That said, the best mouser I ever had was a PERSIAN cat of all things.

My current guy is a tremendous mouser, but spent the first half of his life as a feral cat where he had to hunt in order to eat.

 

[susiestar]

From what various vet students have told me over the years, cats learn to hunt when they are kittens. If they don't get it then, or they are not in a position where they are starving and have to hunt for food, they won't learn to hunt. Most learn it by about 8 weeks old. Of course they have to be big enough to be able to hunt, so an older kitten or young adult cat is a good choice. We have had excellent mousers and awful mousers and then we had Sammy.

Sammy could hunt. But he wasn't very bright when it came to it. He once lost a mouse behind a small soccer ball. He kept walking around the ball and just could NOT find the mouse. It sat there very still in the shadow on one side of the ball. Of course we finally started laughing at Sammy so he came over to see if we had food. He was all hungry after all that work!

 

[Shari]

Susie, Wee's cat is kinda like Sammy. We keep him cause we let Wee get him when he was 8 weeks old, but he's more than a few bricks short of a load. (Oh, who am I kidding...the cat is downright impaired. He is afraid of the deer heads that hang on our WALL...same ones that have been here as long as he has...He's also afraid of the dvd player.) So we have also kept one of the kittens we've had that shows potential (her mama is the mouser we need to rehome). Mama is a GREAT cat and a great mouser, but needs to be an only cat. She doesn't do well with the others.

 

[tawnya]

So, it sounds like it is the luck of the draw? I have some kitties that are about 8 weeks old that are mine if I want them. I just don't know if they can be good mousers at that age?

When husband still lived at his old farmhouse, his oldest daughter brought two cats home. They weren't that old, but they weren't kittens. They took care of the mice and rats, and when they were gone, the cats left. LOL. It always cracked me up that their names were Smokey and Bandit. They sure cleaned the place up. I wish I had them right now.

Thanks for the input.

tawnya