Not really a question, just something that might be fun reading. I have a large plastic trash can in which I keep my hen scratch. It got kind of low and a tiny mouse/rat got in it. I didn't want to turn it loose but didn't have the heart to kill it. After 2/3 days, I put a little bowl in there with some water. When I needed to pour in another 50# bag or grain, I caught it in a jar and after pouring the grain in, put him/her back. Now, only a couple weeks later it is really getting big. I still don't know what to do with it. When I reach in with my scoop to get grain, it doesn't bother it like it did at first. With all the grain to eat, I think I have a Fat Rat. Hope ou enjoyed reading this. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), June 14, 2000

Answers

You old softie you.

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), June 14, 2000.

eagle: Hope your animals don't get sick from grain contaminated by mouse urine and feces! I'll loan you a barn cat! Also, be careful yourself, remember the HANTA virus? (They are cute, tho!) Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), June 14, 2000.

take a drive find a nice feild away from everything and turn it loose, should be able to live off fat tell its use to new area. We did that once took it out to distant cow range[barrel waters] and turned it loose and it tried to follow the truck, it looked like it was saying no dont leave me.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), June 14, 2000.

Hey Eagle! I know! I know! If you cain't kill the dumb thing--take a big old ugly serpent and thow him in the container wiff the mouse. Shut the lid tightly and wait about a minute or a day. When the old ugly serpent has dun and devoured the filthy little disease carrier, remove the snake and "STOMP'M DEAD"! HAHAHA! Actually somebody already had the best idea if you don't wanna kill it---releasing the mouse in the wild. I'd thump'm. I hate mice and snakes -we just "ain't" friends! Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 14, 2000.

We saw some kind of a large African rat at the zoo last week. It was rather cute for a rat - a nice brown, plush fur. About the size of a medium rabbit. I don't mind tame rodents, the kids always have a hamster or two. We HAD rats in the barn when we first moved here. I found a large, black rubber rat at the dollar store and strategically placed it in the barn. The kids had a great time watching their dad trying to kill it with a shovel while yelling at them to stay back!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), June 14, 2000.

I'll be glad to loan you one of my new "friends" from Alabama...saw a five foot Black Racer today....he was more afraid of me than I of him....Seriously, I have never heard of a rodent being celebate, so before he invites his little friends to join him, if you cannot bring yourself to whack him (I could not either,so don't feel badly), then give him a nice ride as sugggested above, preferably leaving him a nice small mound of feed......and as far away from your barn as you can get with gas prices so high!!!!

-- lesley chasko (martchas@gateway.net), June 14, 2000.

Get rid of it as it is a contaminate of your feed. Would you let a "cute" mold grow? And rats look very different from mice. You might need to look at some photos or pictures so you can tell the difference in the future.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), June 14, 2000.

Thanks so much for the responses. I know everyone is right and I guess I'll take it to where it can't get into someone else's plac4e and turn it loose. I really aught to kill it. Both snakes that I killed were probably more innocent than the mouse/rat. I'll take it away though It is probably pretty tired of the barrel anyhow and I guess it really would contaminate the food. Don't want my hens eating rat poop. Thanks again for the responses. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), June 15, 2000.

It is heartening to see that someone else is a sucker for little fuzzy things. Even if they grow up to be super nasty, you have to admit that baby mice are one of the cutest things ever!

I just got two kittens (8 weeks) for the barn and as I was hosing down the stall, a baby mouse came running out and it was really hard for me to let the kittens play with it until they killed it. But that is why I need to have those barn cats....ah, the circle of life.

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), June 15, 2000.

This is what I call an 'adult question' because you have to make hard choices and won't usually like what you choose. Most of us who have animals have gotten caught with these quandries. Feed brings mice but it's one thing to welcome snakes or cats to eat these critters anonymously; it's another to come face to face with the little guys yourself. Wood rats and pack rats are some of the cutest animals - look like Mickey Mouse. I allowed one to stay in my barn because it was so cute. The next summer I had bunches of them and snakes don't seem to keep their populations down like they will regular mice (LOVE my king snake that comes every summer). They got in my car and ate wires to the computer, cost me $2,000. I put out rat poison reluctantly and sure enough, I killed oppossums and only - maybe - one rat. Now I leave my car hood up during fall and winter to prevent them from making nests.

-- Linda Zoldoske (zoldoske@ionet.net), June 19, 2000.

I was walking to my car at Logan airport in Boston the other morning - broad daylight, on a sidewalk. A huge rat trotted past and crossed in front of me, completely unconcerned. My first thought was that it was a chihuahua that had slipped it's leash!!

-- Brad (Rodent@worldpath.net), June 19, 2000.

Hey Brad! Your post reminded me of years ago while I worked at Stateville Prison at Joliet Ill. I walked the firewatch onthe 3 to 11 shift. Had to go into the tunnels at night and check locks etc. Under the General Store was the worst tunnel in the entire complex. Food would be dropped etc and rats were HUGE. I just hated meeting up withthem at night in the tunnel. Big as CATS! Onlyest thing [ as Festus Hagen on Gunsmoke said] I had was a big ring of keys and a flashlight! We came to an understanding though--I wouldn't bother them if they didn't bother me. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 19, 2000.

Good Lord! We now have a plurality of "Brads"! To the other Brad, where are you? Must be pretty close by, since Logan is only a couple of hours away, but a couple of hours you will not find this pilgrim transversing! Come back! (Remember CB?) GL to all!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), June 20, 2000.