I saw a mouse enter my aviary - should I be alarmed?

[QuailMan6666]

I saw a mouse enter my aviary on my night vision cameras - should I be alarmed? I don't know how it could have entered my aviary as I have 1/2" hardware cloth everywhere. I have cockatiels and parakeets inside.

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

Mice have been known to injure or even kill smaller birds. Beware. How did your birds react when the mouse came through? Or did they notice?

 

[QuailMan6666]

Mice have been known to injure or even kill smaller birds. Beware. How did your birds react when the mouse came through? Or did they notice?

I dont think the birds noticed because it was dark outside. The mouse went directly to the bowl with sunflower seeds. I will check on this tomorrow during daylight.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I saw a mouse enter my aviary on my night vision cameras - should I be alarmed? I don't know how it could have entered my aviary as I have 1/2" hardware cloth everywhere. I have cockatiels and parakeets inside.

Yes, I would be alarmed if it were me.

This is the second time I've read this, that mice easily enter the 1/2 inch hardware cloth.. Mice don't appear to be our issue here (rats are) so 1/2 inch has been effective.

But I've bought and used 1/4 inch hardware cloth.. it is less thick.. smaller diameter wire.. so I wasn't sure about overall efficacy.. but it would likely be more effective against smaller mice.. and has has still been effective against raccoon, etc.

 

[SamLockwood]

Yes, mice will urinate and leave droppings in the feeders. This can pass diseases to your birds and you. They will also eat eggs and feathers. I lost most of a clutch of eggs a chicken was brooding on last year before I got wise to the rodent problem. Oddly, the nesting box the guineas took over wasn't touched, but then again I'm not sure broody guineas ever actually sleep and they're mean as hell.

I had good luck with those battery powered electrocution traps, baited with peanut butter (the cheap, sugary crap works the best). I followed some advice on how to bait them differently: don't use the little trap door for the purpose as the mice can get at them from the outside. Tape the door over or butt the trap against a solid barrier and just put the peanut butter on floor of the trap just past the "kill plate."

I trapped a dozen that way over a week and then stopped finding droppings in my feeders.

 

[Debbie292d]

Along with contaminating feed and bringing in diseases, they often carry lice as well.

We have an aviary butted up to a forest (being used as a grow-out pen) and don't have issues but suppose it's due to having cats.

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

. Oddly, the nesting box the guineas took over wasn't touched, but then again I'm not sure broody guineas ever actually sleep and they're mean as hell.

Before winter I hatched my 1st Keets. We have a brooder room that, I keep the chicks, Keets, ducklings, etc.. in until I think they are ready to free range. A mouse fell into their brooder which is a galvanized water trough for cattle about waist high. The Keets were less than a month old and devoured that mouse. They worked together to make sure the mouse didn't make it out alive.