Q about feeding mice. **Those against killing mice DO NOT CLICK***

[cometchicky]

I have to many mice and other rodents around my house. So, today I set some mouse traps to see if I could get rid of some. I have a question though:

Is it ok to give the dead mice to the chicken to eat? Will it hurt them? Thanks!
- Clucky

P.S. > I caught 2 tonight!! Only a few hours after the traps were set.

My hens love the mice we catch. They will catch mice themselves now that they’ve developed a taste for mouse!

 

[Kris5902]

I have yet to be able to convince my cats or my chickens to catch/eat mice. My cats will occasionally take an interest, but the chickens showed none in the pre killed (snap trap) or live (running through their barn) rodents. Several of my girls have gotten very good at taking care of spiders for me though. I’ve even let them eat a black widow. Venomous not poisonous. I will pick one gal up and lift her to within snacking distance of pesky spiders building webs at human head level around our home. She snaps them up happily. I like to think of them as extra spicy spider snacks for the hens.

 

[schmedlap]

how about using peanut butter and plaster of Paris? it's supposed to kill mice & rats. shouldn't harm other critters that eat the dead. not sure about chickens. I use it outside of their "yard", and haven't seen anything bad yet.

 

[Goosebaby]

The best mouse trap I’ve seen is my brother’s mini Aussie Betsy. She cleared out an entire basement full of Norway rats in a day. Needless to say there is no longer an issue with rodents.

 

[Spiritsmeadow]

I have to many mice and other rodents around my house. So, today I set some mouse traps to see if I could get rid of some. I have a question though:

Is it ok to give the dead mice to the chicken to eat? Will it hurt them? Thanks!
- Clucky

P.S. > I caught 2 tonight!! Only a few hours after the traps were set.

Hi ~ since you don't know what the mice have been eating, if they have worms, or some other horrible parasite, my vote is NOT to feed the dead to the chickens. Mine hunt and kill their own, play "keep away" and then who knows what happens to the carcasses, but like with deer...never feed it to your dogs, they're infested with worms.

 

[goatgirl72]

My hens love to eat dead mice and frogs... never lost a hen to them..

 

[1 Farm Girl]

I have to many mice and other rodents around my house. So, today I set some mouse traps to see if I could get rid of some. I have a question though:

Is it ok to give the dead mice to the chicken to eat? Will it hurt them? Thanks!
- Clucky

P.S. > I caught 2 tonight!! Only a few hours after the traps were set.

Not at all, they love mice! My girls use to catch them all the time and it’s so funny to watch them run away from the others because they all want it. Hens love lizards, mice, dirt babies & anything like that they can catch.

 

[Ancient]

We used to have a rodent problem, then we got the farm cats. Seems to be a good system. The cats play with the rodents to death them the chickens snatch them up and eat them

 

[Nebraska islander]

Instead of any type of poison, I have turkey pens, multiple gamebird pens and chicken pens for 60 plus chickens. Mice were a huge issue in every pen and coop. I have 20 plus farm cats and they love mice but can't keep up. I just found recipe for one part plaster of Paris and one part corn meal or flour mix 1:1 together and put into containers (I use plastic gelato containers with a half inch hole drilled in sides so meeces can enter at will.
I started at first week of January and I have 30 minimum mouse traps I check every day on feeding rounds and I haven't found a caught mouse in over 2 weeks from catching 20 a day to none in a month so I'd say it's effective.
Recipe makes mice thirsty and theory is they leave to find water and concoction hardens in gravel sized stomach over vermin and they perish quickly. Don't think I'd use in house but is very effective in outside pens.
I have been trapping mice for 10 plus years and when you can see the powder has been walked thru or eaten. It seems irresistible to vermin from mice to rats. The lump in stomach is not going to hurt cats to chickens if they are found dead.
When you have so many birds these vermin bring fleas and other diseases so I hope I will be breaking the flea cycle that is terrible in its self and the dog and cat topical or oral treatments just don't work with so many around. So I'm happy to say Buh- bye vermin and their friends they bring too!

 

[NJL]

Mine have eaten mice, frogs, songbirds, and attempted to eat a rat (I took that away! They were mad). As said above, as long as they are freshly killed and have not ingested poison then it should be fine.

TAKE THE DEAD MOUSE AWAY
!!!!!!!!!