Cat brings in live mice through the cat door all the time

[AnnieBrooke]

My cat has a new hobby, carrying live mice into the house in the middle of the night.  He rarely seems interested in actually killing them, acting more like he does it for entertainment purposes.  This includes chasing them around (including up the blankets into our bed), stepping on them to see if they will squeak, tucking them under our bed and forgetting they are there until they move around a day later -- evidently he thinks they are unusually animated toys, certainly not dinner.  Has anyone ever trained a cat out of this?  All our farm cats would simply eat the dang things on the porch and line up the stomachs on the mat so we could admire their hunting prowess at a more convenient time, such as when we were awake.  I have caught four mice in a drinking glass or grocery sack between 2 am and 4 am in the last three weeks, and the fun wore off for me the first time.

The cat has a cat door because he digs noisily and constantly on the long window of our bedroom door (to the outside) for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, meowing loudly, several times a night to go in or out, if he does not have a cat flap, waking both of us up.  I was losing an hour's sleep a night, and so thought we had solved a lot of problems getting the cat door, but now this.

[AnnieBrooke]

Cat brought in another mouse last night.  I just got up, opened the front door in my nightshirt and swept the mouse out with a broom.  Doubtless Mr. Musa had many interesting stories to tell his family when he finally made it back to the burrow.  Then I had a discussion with the cat and shut the little jerk into the laundry room where I couldn't hear him meow (thank heavens we have a laundry room off the garage) with a blanket and a cat box.  I hope he thought over this sudden turn of fortune, from throne to dungeon.  Perhaps, if we do this about a hundred more times, he will get the drift that bringing in a new pal means he sleeps alone in the boring old laundry room.

[AnnieBrooke]

I need to be glad raccoons and possums are not coming in, plus the neighbor's dachshund, probably.  And that the cat is not bringing in birds and chipmunks.  Rabbits, especially babies, I could probably handle.  Just hate the inevitable zoom right toward my feet (and up my dangling bedspread) that the mice do.

The last two nights, I've blocked the cat from coming farther into the house through his flap than the sunroom that the flap opens to.  Then he has come back outside and scratched on our bedroom door and I've let him in, and out, and in, and out.  This is not what we call a permanent solution.  lol

[aligator79]

I finally had to shut the cat door at night- to keep the raccoons out.  We had a mama and babies who liked to come in.  Before we did the monsters enjoyed bringing in baby rabbits...    We had 3 in one night.  One dead in the hallway and two squealing running around the livingroom and under the couch.  Just imagine two people trying to catch a baby rabbit who was just a bit bigger than your hand while trying to keep 3 cats away.  

[CML2014]

AH Yes, the YOUTHFULL days.! The things we do when we are young. I know Mice were on the top of my list, LOL!

[AnnieBrooke]

I'm hoping my cat is just going through a youthful phase.  The farm cats got so used to the ready availability of mice that they stopped showing off, after a while.

[Kermit the Hermit]

cats think of us as cats and there parent or moron who cant hunt one of the two read somewhere

my exwifes moms tiger loved chipmunks

but a catch that bloody cat brought live chipmunks you know how fast and hard those are to catch lmao

[CML2014]

AWWWWWWW! He WUVES YOU!!!!

I know you would rather have jewelry, but mice are a lot easier to find outside.

Perhaps that cat flap should flap NO MORE.
I know it is hard when they Meow and make a racket, but they are furry children. You may have to put ear plugs in for a couple of weeks, but he will get the message that his antics are not going to work.

I had to do this with one of my cats who did that to be fed and  let in to our bedroom at 4 in the morning. He also used to spin all of the toilette tissue off the roll, because it was next to our bedroom wall and just made a terrible racket . Let's face it they are training us,,,,and they are really good at it.

Good luck
CML

[AnnieBrooke]

And last night, it was two mice.  The first one, he did kill by the time we saw him with it.  The second one, he brought right in after we cleaned up the blood from the first one (a dot of blood was about a foot up the wall.  How did they do THAT?)  The second one, I just opened the back door and shoved it out with a newspaper as it ran by.  The cat went with it, and I hope he did kill it or the mouse might get ideas.

[AnnieBrooke]

Some love, we can do without.  :)  The up-the-blanket into the bed was too much.

Last night, I shut the room that the cat-flap goes into, and put a towel under the door into the rest of the house, thinking he would bring his new pals into there and could just sleep in there too.  Nah, didn't work.  He went back out the cat flap and to the door to our room... Dig, dig, meow, meow, at 4 am ("Mom, I can't get into the house!  Someone shut the inner door!  Can you come fix it?")  So I finally dragged in a cat box and his food and shut him into the bedroom with us. This is not going to be a long-term solution, though ... I said to my husband, "he brings them in because this is his home, too," and my husband said, "Not for long, if he keeps it up."  This means a catbox and a food bowl in our bedroom will not be a popular option on my husband's side of things.

[opus88]

OMG....annie....I know I'd be nailing shut that old cat door pretty darn quickly if this was me.

he isn't using the mice as food, like barn cats would...he's seeing them as toys and bringing them inside to share with you b/c he loves you....yeah thanks eh..