Mice!!!

Hoji · Post by **Hoji** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:52 pm

I have heard that, too. That is what most play is, don't you think? Learning and practicing.

The plexiglass is also a good idea, I had considered it just to help with the seed hulls. Mice jump really well, 18" is high enough?

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:28 pm

L in Ontario wrote:If you list your location (in your Profile) you may get more appropriate answers specific to your area.

Do you know how the mice are getting in to your house? Can you seal that area off. How are they getting into the flight? If it's from the bottom - can your line the bottom foot or 18" with plexi-glass which they should not be able to climb.

If you feel 18" is not enough then go to 24" or 30". Better safe than sorry. Better yet - google how high mice can jump.

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:18 am

And unless I was protecting myself from being bitten, a mouse has as much right to live as I do. If I don't intend to eat it, why would I kill it, just for being a mouse?

Franny you're so right. I will not kill a mouse just because it is a mouse. I only do if they do something really bad to my birds! Usually I have 2-3 little mice running around my house at night finding food, since I dont have a cat, Im ok with it, as long as I dont see one of my finch be eaten by them.

*Talking about birds, one of my Gouldian "dissapeared" this morning, all left was 2 tail feathers on the floor, no blood, no signs

. Still dont know what or who caused that, but I never find its body in the bush, so I guess I must pay more attention to this aviary at night.

Post by **Sally** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:27 am

Snakes are one predator that won't leave any sign behind. They can squeeze thru very small spaces.

Hoji · Post by **Hoji** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:31 am

Snakes?

I'll take mice anyday.

mike · Post by **mike** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:37 am

Sally wrote:Snakes are one predator that won't leave any sign behind. They can squeeze thru very small spaces.

True, but once it eats the bird, it will have a tough time getting back out again ;)

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:53 am

Sally wrote:Snakes are one predator that won't leave any sign behind. They can squeeze thru very small spaces.

I think so, I dont like snake

, wondering why a snake can get in the aviary in 2nd floor.

True, but once it eats the bird, it will have a tough time getting back out again Wink

mike, you really scare me =.=', the snake stay in my aviary? Cant even imagine that

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:02 pm

Well look at the bright side, if it is a snake then the snake will get rid of the mice

Post by **Sally** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:09 pm

I had a big problem with a snake one time--I had my juvie Stars in one of those 30x18x36 economy cages. Those bars are fairly easy to push and bend. I was cleaning cages when I saw this snake inside the cage. It was curled up in a plastic plant. It had eaten 3 juvie Stars, then apparently couldn't get back out of the cage, so it curled up in the plant to sleep it off. It was quite big, but I managed to kill it. Ugh!

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:34 pm

Yeah, I found a large rat in one of those same type economy cages.... I don't know if it went through the bars or just lifted the slide up door but 2 canaries were reduced to a few feathers....... I had many others in holding cages for quarintine that were spared. Thank God I decided to check on the birds in that room that night or many more may have subcombed to the nasty varmit. I set traps, put out poison, set live traps out side along the wall, and glue traps in any crawl space, put moth balls in the attic and plugged in sonic devices.
This was at the location of my boarding and grooming facility. The neighboring business was a carpet wholesale company and cabinet shop. They had 3 giant warehouse buildings....... good supply of rats

They would smell the dog food that I feed the boarders I guess and thought hey.....free meal. I probably caught 100 rats within 6 months

After that I always had the place rigged..... no rats allowed

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:49 pm

Hi everybody, it's me from Vietnam.
I finally found out what happen with the last Gouldian, cuz I have just lost one, AGAIN

As Sally said below, I removed that horor picture. i know none of our birdkeepers want to wake up in the morning and see our bird lying in the floor, or worse, tearing a part and lying in the floor, literally, but I am so angry/upset/surprise/terrified right now in the morning when I saw my bird like that *__*. Two Gould in 3 days; this is uncacceptable, and I'll make those mice pay for that...

I love that Yellow gouldian so much...what a painful way to start a day

Post by **Sally** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:58 pm

Oh, Hoang, please remove the picture--it is too graphic and will bother some people. Actually, I just realized I can remove the picture myself. I hate to be a censor, but I also think the picture was upsetting. If you want to post a link to the photo, that would be OK.

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I know you waited quite some time to get these Gouldians and were so excited about them, it is just awful that you are losing them. I would guess that rats might be at work, as I don't think mice are that destructive--unless you have other predators in Vietnam that we don't have here in the U.S. What size is your mesh? You may have to go to a smaller size mesh to keep them out. Have you found an entry hole, or are they squeezing thru the mesh? Can you move your birds into cages and into the house until you figure out how to keep them safe? Please keep us posted.

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:39 pm

For anyone who is curious about what heppened with my Gould(but I dont suggest you to see it):
http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img8356v.jpg

Sally, it's very hard for me to not only see the picture, I saw the whole scene, and I must clean it up. Just imagine how other birds feel when they see that, just was so upsetted

.
I used to have five Gouldians, now it downed to three

and the whole thing made me feel like I am the one who did it all wrong and let my birds died like that

I still think that was mice, cause by saying "rats", you meanted the big mouse, right? The net is 1x1cm, but there's a blank place for setting up plants and pulling out the sand-ground, I bet that was the way they get in(and out). All of my small cages have birds inside, I dont have more room inhouse for those birds in aviary but the quarantine cage(too small for all of them), but if things get worse, I'll go buy some new cages.
I will go to market and buy some glue traps right now!

It's still a very painful feeling.

HoangQuan · Post by **HoangQuan** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:53 pm

Hello everyone, it's me again. It's 5.25 in the morning and the upcoming heavy rain woke me up. I've been working up late last night so I went to bed at nearly 3.30AM. Now Im go to the aviary and I see another bird missing. +__+. Even though I use bricks and cement to build a kind of fence on the ground and covered every holes biger than 1x1cm that can be an entry hole for predators, I guess it's all useless now. Cant believe it keeps happenning to me, I did everything I could, checked the aviary, set the traps, leave the light on at night...and I go for sleep in less than 2 hours, but after I wake up, it still happens.

...I thought it were wild mice, but were it? what kind of predator kept coming back every 2 days and take a bird away? and if there were mice, why I never got any stucked in my traps? maybe a snake really stayed somewhere in the aviary? I dont know. Do you guy have any ideas?this is what left:

some feathers, no blood..

the whole scene

something digs to the soil, right in the place I found body of the previous victim.

Despite I am at a young age 23, I have been keeping and breeding birds like budgies, societies and zebras for more than 9 years now. I am not inexperience. I have dealed with some serious problems, but this is way too strange to handle. Usually, when there're mice, I set the trap in a week, and catch a lot of them, and then they gone away, yes I lost some birds, but that's all. My situation now is not like that. The predator is too calm and its behaviour really scares me. And one more thing, why victims always be Gouldians?!

Since I have no clue about what happen and what I should do, I'll catch all my birds and move them to a smaller cage and take them indoor. I will not realease them back in the aviary unless I catch that predator and terminate it.
Guess my bad luck aint over yet.

Post by **Sally** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:46 pm

Hoang, I hope you can get some cages and move your aviary birds inside till you figure out what is wrong. Whatever is doing it has figured out it has easy pickings, so will keep coming back. That place on the aviary floor with the dirt exposed--is the aviary floor wire, or did I ask you that already. I'm told many predators can dig underneath the walls of an aviary, come up inside, and then pick off whatever they want.

I'm so sorry for all this bad luck, and I hope you figure it out soon. When I had mice, they were pretty smart about avoiding the traps for a while, and I think rats are supposed to be even smarter.