They -can- do that yes. Whether or not they will choose to, however, is anyone’s guess.
Comment on master manipulators
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
People always say they look cute and yea sure,
But did y’all forget the fact that they can literally get rid of all your mice problems?
I got a cat because for companionship and one month later, all those filthy mice are gone.
Being soft and warm to pet, and the beautiful meows, are just the cherry on top of their lovely companionship.
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 1 day ago
They will have a joyous time with it. And you might find eviscerated mice under your couch one day. But my two dumbass fur balls just thought they were awesome toys.
Never figured out quite when they stopped coming in. The only really humane way to kill em is snap traps. I probably went through a couple dozen of them before they stopped showing up.
I was against using poisoned food traps because the last thing I wanted was my cat consuming a poisoned mouse. But, since our whole neighborhood had a problem with the mice, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a neighbor did it.
AtariDump@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Snap traps in a brown paper bag baited with peanut butter.
When you catch something, curl up the top of the bag and throw it all in the trash.
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 12 hours ago
Ooooh that paper bag idea is nifty.
We actually discovered something that worked far better than peanut butter - Reese’s peanut butter cups. You break off a little piece, squish it into a ball, and place it on the bait lever. Not a single trap misfired once we switched to that.
TheLastHero@hexbear.net 1 day ago
Even if you have a lazy cat, mice have since learned to avoid the smell of cat pheromones. So just having a fat furball laying around will make it more likely the local mice go bother your neighbor instead.
huf@hexbear.net 16 hours ago
eeeeh, it can go the other way. i dont think i would’ve ever had mice in this flat without the cat. but she likes to catch mice, bring them inside totally unharmed and let them go. and then watch them. chase them. sit on top of them. she doesnt eat them because i guess she never had to eat them.
and then i end up catching the mouse since i dont want it loose in the flat at night, and i dont want to find a rotting mouse corpse 2 weeks later (this has happened at least twice).
SanndyTheManndy@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Mine can catch 2 mice at the same time. And also wasps, centipedes, lizards, pigeons, etc.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
I was hoping my cat can get rid of the roaches too but her paws aren’t very effective at that, and theres just wayyy to many. 😕 Welp, at leat my cat has some
roachtoys to squish (or at least, try to).
nesc@lemmy.cafe 1 day ago
They rarely need to in the city, also those that weren’t taught by other cats most of the time won’t kill the mouse just torture it or scare.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Well, whatever my cat did, the mice are gone so… 🤷♂️
I did see a few dead mice around the first 2 months, now no sight of mice.
nesc@lemmy.cafe 1 day ago
You are lucky, in my previous flat there were hoarders-alcoholics that lived on the next floor, one day they brought mice with whatever shit they decided to take. At first they were contained on their floor, but after a while they were everywhere. Cat played with them at first >_< and then got bored. After 10 or so that traps killed (in a month) I moved out.
Zementid@feddit.nl 1 day ago
Your experience made me remember “Tom”, the farmers-cat living in the corn silo on the farm of my great aunt. He hated children but tolerated the adults working there. And he was working there. He killed multiple mice a day (depending on season as it seems), ate only the livers, ad used crippled mice to find the others. Tom was sick man.
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mice and some other pests have evolved an instinctual aversion to the smell of cats, it triggers their fear response. Just having the cats around might have been good enough.
Mellibird@lemm.ee 18 hours ago
I feel like depends on the cat. I found mine as a list kitten that we assumed got outside and then was starving and almost dead. He’s always been N indoor cat. Had never seen a mouse in the 8 years he was alive. I go out of town for a day and night and come back to a decapitated mouse in the apt. Fool took care of shit without even knowing. Then years later, we move into a house and a mouse gets in some how. My cat finds the mouse, kills it, walks around with it, then drops it in the hallway for us to clean up. If he had been taught how to catch mice when he was a kitten, I he wouldn’t have been starving to death. But when a mouse showed up, he knew exactly what to do.