Selfsufficientish.com

ina wrote:

Thomzo wrote: I came downstairs this morning and decided to use the downstairs loo only to find a drowned mouse in there.

Now how on earth did it get in there! Does your cat normally wash her catch before eating?

ina wrote:When I was in Australia (long time ago - working on a farm), the lady of the house found a dead mouse in the toaster one morning... Fortunately before she'd put the bread in and turned it on!

Yuk. I will be checking the toaster every morning from now on.

Zoe

awww, your cats are trying to teach you how to hunt! awwww cute little furry killers!!!

my aunt's cat Bandit (RIP) once managed to drag a seagull up a pipe, onto a flat roof and then into the top section of her kitchen window. she was 12 at the time bless her little spikey teeth!

My cats have been doing a fab job with catching the rodents around here but theyve now moved on to birds which upsets me more. Couple of days ago I found a robin on my doorstep - the robins all tend to be very tame and sit with me when Im gardening so that was very sad Then yesterday I found 1 of the moorhens from the pond out the back. The remaining partner spent all night crying for the lost mate - shame cats have to do that!

I have a cat called Luther, he is a fab hunter. Most mornings I open the back door and find a present on the door mat. My only complaint is, in summer, when the back door is left open he brings them in live and drops them either at my feet or just in the house.

I live alone and ok, I admit, am petrified of mice!!! I can deal with the dead ones, its the live ones he brings in that drive me insane!! I have even been woken up with him miaowing by the bed with a huge mouse/vole in his mouth!!

I'm getting quite good at catching the mice that my cats bring in. My tip is to pop a margarine tub over the mouse and slide a piece of card underneath. Then you can take the mouse outside and let it go.

If you can't stand getting that close to a mouse then just lock the cat in the room with the mouse overnight. You should come down to a fat cat and a small piece of intestine

Chad - a friend of mine has a special collar for her cat. It makes a sound when the cat jumps. That frightens the bird and distracts the cat so, hopefully, the cat will miss the bird. It doesn't stop them catching mice as they don't tend to need to jump so much to catch a mouse. I have no idea where she got it from though.

Zoe

Skin them and tan them for 'luxury fur goods'?

chadspad wrote:My cats have been doing a fab job with catching the rodents around here but theyve now moved on to birds which upsets me more. Couple of days ago I found a robin on my doorstep - the robins all tend to be very tame and sit with me when Im gardening so that was very sad Then yesterday I found 1 of the moorhens from the pond out the back. The remaining partner spent all night crying for the lost mate - shame cats have to do that!

We found a dead moorhen out the front of our house in May - no idea how it got there and there were no obvious signs of any injuries.

We put it by the pond hoping its mate would see it to know what happened to it. We were really sad thinking about the poor remaining moorhen who'd lost its mate.

Guess what, sneaky moorhen found a new mate who moved in within a WEEK and they successfully raised baby moorhens during the summer!

So I wouldn't worry too much about your moorhen - I'm sure it'll find a mate very soon!

can dead things not be dug a little way down into compost heap?

mrsflibble wrote:can dead things not be dug a little way down into compost heap?

I wasn't sure???

What about pathogens? or are they a fine ingredient to rich compost?

Depends on the temperature of your compost heap - if you're cold composting (an ordinary heap) then pathogens are a possibility, although I personally wouldn't worry about it. Attracting rats is more of a problem. When the Bleedin' Cats actually leave anything substantial (which isn't often) I sling it in the worm bin, which digests it fully within a couple of weeks.