feeding mice to birds

[gbird15]

Looking at feeding my bird some mice we trapped out of our barn. She is a passage RT and I was planning on giving them to her whole. Was wondering what the general opinion was as to feeding mice whole or chopping them up so the hawk "doesn't know" that they are mice.

[jake34705]

i put gutted mice or small rats on the lure sometimes. i also cut them up and use them as tidbits. i think if they've ever had a whole mouse, then they know if its mouse even if you cut it up. but remember a mouse is a big tidbit. i would say if its lure, go whole *gutted if you want*. but tidbits i would cut them up a little bit.

[Falcon Boy]

Be careful with wild caught mice/rats as a lot of people poison them.

[Migisi]

Dec 2, 2008 21:06:54 GMT -5 gbird15 said:

Was wondering what the general opinion was as to feeding mice whole or chopping them up so the hawk "doesn't know" that they are mice.

Your hawk's parents brought whole mice to the nest, and then tore them up in front of her to feed. She's known what a chopped up mouse was since she first opened her eyes. There's no fooling her.

FB has a point. No poisoning going on in or around your barn or house, right?

[gbird15]

Dec 3, 2008 9:51:48 GMT -5 Migisi said:

Dec 2, 2008 21:06:54 GMT -5 gbird15 said:

Was wondering what the general opinion was as to feeding mice whole or chopping them up so the hawk "doesn't know" that they are mice.

Your hawk's parents brought whole mice to the nest, and then tore them up in front of her to feed. She's known what a chopped up mouse was since she first opened her eyes. There's no fooling her.

Hence the " ". I thought about it. Plus, the birds have got to know the taste of yummy mice.

FB has a point. No poisoning going on in or around your barn or house, right?

No poison at our house! We haven't used mice poison for nearly 5 years. Our barn cats have always kept the population of our "barn mice" down. However, those darn coyotes put our cat population in the dump. Then our last cat got hit by a car and now we have NO cats and LOTS of mice. perfect-

From 3 days of trapping, I got 6 mice.

[falco]

What i do with wild trapped mice is put them in a large garbage bin with vent holes drilled in it all over the top. I put like 4 inches of pine in the bottom with dog food and waterers. If the make it threw a week without dieing they can be dispatched and fed.

[Migisi]

Dec 9, 2008 22:33:43 GMT -5 falco said:

What i do with wild trapped mice is put them in a large garbage bin with vent holes drilled in it all over the top. ..

I used a plastic tote - until they chewed a hole in a bottom corner (under the bedding) and escaped in my garage! I went back to using glass aquariums with screen lids (or I made hardware cloth covers). Savenged them from the curbside on trash day - cracked, but not broken. Gotta have covers cuz those wild mice can really jump. Note: wear gloves when handling (they bite hard!) - especially if they're deer mice (Hantavirus).