so one of my kitties killed a mouse today...

we bought this house out in the country exactly a year ago and i've never seen any sign of mice. the other day i saw some droppings in a drawer in my kitchen but that's it. well today i was walking past my bedroom and there was a mouse lying in the doorway. my 5 cats have alot of toy mice but this one looked a bit different and then i realized it was real---EEKKKK!!. tucker my 9 month old boy was lying near it but there were no injuries whatsoever on this mouse, it just looked like it was asleep. this may be a dumb question but how did my cat (or cats) kill it? suffocation?? maybe the little guy had a heart attack when he saw 5 cats looking at him? don't they normally eat the mouse? (i'm really glad they didn't!). i texted my husband and told him we have to get more cats, lol!

We have three hunter kitties.  Sometimes they eat what they catch, sometimes they don't.  I've often found rodents that look intact but are dead. Those rodents are pretty small--I'm sure it doesn't take much to fatally puncture an internal organ or to shake them around enough to kill them.

Cat's have powerful jaws! As MTGAL said, the cat will shake the mouse but, more likely, (as I have witnessed) they will clamp down on their neck and snap it - then they shake them just for good measure.

When I got my two boys, I lived in a house where there were mice. Cute as they are, I didn't want to live with them and my landlord wouldn't do anything about them. I did as much as I could to get rid of them but, as cooler weather approached, the mice became more evident in number. Keeker, my DSH, was all about hunting and bringing me prey! I would come home to a gift every evening. After about a week, I decided to move to a healthier environment. Ironically, Kricket (my Maine Coon) wasn't interested in them at all.

I suppose Kricket is just a 'more conventional' mouser? LOL  You can imagine my delight when he woke me before the crack of dawn one morning (in our new apartment) and gifted me with .... a MOUSE!  He was so excited and thrilled with his catch he couldn't stop pouncing on me and tossing it around on my bed! 

After seeing what he had actually brought me, I sighed, gave him a big hug and thanked him, then rolled over and went back to sleep. He still plays with his dead mouse and stores it in his basket under the end table when he is finished with it!

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MTGAL said:

Of-course you can't see, but I'm laughing hysterically! We have a farm and mice are just a fact of life. We have bait stations around the foundation and in the basement, but this time of year the mice are all about trying to find a nice warm place for the winter. My 3 indoor cats are strange about mice - sometimes they run away when they see a mouse and other times they kill them. I've come down in the morning to find dead mice in the kitchen and the mice rarely have any sign of injury. Cats will pick up small mice and just shake them by the neck. The mouse dies, but there is no outward sign of injury. One disturbing fact to know: if you see even the tiniest sign of a mouse...such as droppings in one place, you can safely assume there are many more mice inside your house somewhere. Sorry!  If you live in a colder climate, one solution may be a bait station. There are two types" a large one that is a metal box into which you place bait (poison). The mice go into the box, eat the bait and die inside the box. Most stations can hold at least a dozen mice. Then there are smaller ones, typically made of heavy plastic. Again, the mouse goes into the box, eats the bait and cannot escape so dies within the box. You can then toss the box without having to see or touch the mouse. I prefer using the bait stations instead of other traps because even if one of the dogs or cats gets the station, they cannot reach the poison. I only use open bait in areas where the animals cannot get to the box. 

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I've only ever used a mouse ytrap and released the mouse outside away from my block of apartments.

Mice multiply like rabbits!

One female produces 5-10 litters a year consisting of 5-6 young per litter. Those young can begin reproducing at 30 days of age. They live approximately one year. 

Do the math and think about it! 

MTGAL said:

 
You do know the mice probably beat you back home and probably bring their buddies along with them?! I tried the humane traps a few years ago. Even though I released the mice miles from home, I kept finding new mice in the house. My conclusion: like us, mice have Internet travel review sites. There they post directions to the better "motels" and explain the amenities. Our farm is now a ***** five star property. Mice come and go, but new ones come all the time because of our great reviews. 

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