Does anyone know what mice eat?

Other than cheese, what do mice eat? At school we have a couple of big fat field mice that live in the bushes of our "hidden" smoking section. They are so cute, except for the tail. Everybody is scared of them, except me. I want to feed them. Or is that a bad idea, being that they might start depending on it? Any suggestions?

Mice,especially field mice primarily eat grains,seeds,ants,small bugs,grasses or whatever. They are truly omniverous animals..even cannibalistic if need be. They seldom starve,so I wouldn't worry about feeding them. But I would be very careful about handling them. they are usually quite flea and mite ridden animals in the wild which can transfer nasty diseases...and mice bite. They are cute,but I'd just leave them alone and let them live in peace.

Yeah, mice are cute, but you don't want to touch them. There are several nasty diseases you can catch from wild mice. You can leave out whatever scrapes of food you want, like bread and meat or whatever and they will probably eat it.

Mice eat everything it seems.

Thanks for your replies! No, I would not touch them. They are not scared of us, that's for sure! I probably won't leave food out since they eat anything.

Chloe; When I taught at St. Louis Christian Academy, we came into the school a couple of weeks before classes were to start in Sept.; to clean and decorate our classrooms to welcome new students. One year I was cleaning up around the "activities box" in my kindergarten classroom and I was baffled by the M U L T I C O L O R E D waxy confetti-like oval balls all over the floor. . . . .I soon found boxes of gnawed crayons and came to the conclusion that the "colorful confetti" was mouse droppings!!! Over the summer the mice had been eating CRAYONS. So, yes, Chloe; mice do, as KittyFoot stated; eat just about anything and EVERYTHING!!!!

Darlene

Oh that's too funny!!!...and gross! Thanks for sharing, Darlene, that made me laugh! :laughing: :laughing2 :LOL: :LOL:

They like marshmallows too, that's how we caught one in my office. He'd been chewing through the packages of hot chocolate w/marshmallows. We took him behind the parking lot and let him go.

I've had pet mice in the past, and I always fed them a seed/grain mix. They love about anything, and Darlene, your story of the colored poop was so cute!!! :laughing:

I'd be careful of the field mice and other rodents. Here in Utah and the surrounding areas, there is a warning about handling rodents and their droppings because they can be carriers of the disease hantavirus. About seven years ago, there was an outbreak in arizona(I think) were some people contracted the hantivirus and died. they say that when you sweep or clean something that had rodents passing in them, to moisten the floor with water so that people won't breathe in the dust.

A mouse in the house!! 3 cats and a mouse?? But anyway the mouse got in the kitchen drawer and ate the Ketchup packets from Mcdonald's. When we set traps we put cheesepuffs on them with a bread tie. I have never caught a mouse with just cheese. Peanut butter works better but I like the cheesepuff idea.

Originally posted by threeleggedkat

Chloe; When I taught at St. Louis Christian Academy, we came into the school a couple of weeks before classes were to start in Sept.; to clean and decorate our classrooms to welcome new students. One year I was cleaning up around the "activities box" in my kindergarten classroom and I was baffled by the M U L T I C O L O R E D waxy confetti-like oval balls all over the floor. . . . .I soon found boxes of gnawed crayons and came to the conclusion that the "colorful confetti" was mouse droppings!!! Over the summer the mice had been eating CRAYONS. So, yes, Chloe; mice do, as KittyFoot stated; eat just about anything and EVERYTHING!!!!

Darlene

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My childhood dog ate crayons once. I was about 5 at the time and was just tickled over the colored poop in the backyard! :laughing2

Several years back I hauled out of a food warehouse on the waterfront of St. John. Now this is an old building and the waterfront usually has a wharf rat problem. Wharf rats or Norwegian rats can get real big and mean. To control the rats they spread poison all over the warehouse. Anyways they had a secure,metal cold locker where they kept large cheese wheels for the area grocers. One morning they opened the locker to find white rat tracks all over the cheeses. They had walked thru the poison and then over the cheese. Either they made several trips back to the poison or there had been a hundred rats. Must have figured to get even.

This same place tried 3 watch dogs....the first would let anyone in..except the owner,the second got stolen ,and the third ate 4 pans of rat poison and..uhhhh..died. They gave up after that.

Kittyfoot, I guess the white rats are still there, but did they move the cheese (haha)

Nancy

So how did the second one get stolen???

Nancy...Norwegian Wharf Rats are an extremely hardy and aggressive breed. They're big,black and ugly suckers...definitely not pet material.They don't have mouse-like teeth...more like fangs..and are not shy about using them. The biggest one I've seen weighed 32 pounds...very dead. It was done in by a little Maltese cat less than 1/4 of his weight. But that's another story..also funny.

Debby..the dog was the only thing missing when they discovered one of the doors ripped off it's hinges. Now either someone yanked it off with a tow chain or the dog had to go potty reeeeeeal bad.:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

The cheeses were destroyed and the cheese company found a new storage facility... The white part was the tracks the rats left after walking thru the white poison and back and forth across the cheeses. The cheese would absorb the poison like a sponge. Several thousand dollars worth was disposed of...no insurance for that either.