Mouse or young rat?

All the other creepy crawlies and animals that interact with your garden and the countryside
trooper
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:52 pm

Mouse or young rat?

Post by trooper » Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:02 pm

Mouse-Rat.JPG

Hi all,

Newbie here. I am at a loss to identify the critter shown. Our next door neighbour has the odd rat in their garden, we think from some minor excavations behind their property. This was caught in the trap, please identify. The last thing we want to do is to trap cute field mice.

Many thanks.

Willpar
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Joined: Sat May 31, 2014 5:24 pm

Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Willpar » Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:44 pm

Hi trooper and welcome. Too small for a rat, but a quick look around leads me to believe that it is a wood mouse. I have them where I live, the night camera pick them up now and again.

Jacksparrow
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Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Jacksparrow » Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:35 pm

I agree with Willpar a mouse. A proper rat trap may not snare a mouse as they are too light to trigger them usually.

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Kev
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Location: Oxford

Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Kev » Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:58 pm

Welcome

Yeah I agree it's a mouse. Rats have a longer face and smaller ears.

trooper
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:52 pm

Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by trooper » Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:40 pm

Hi all, thanks for your input. The trap is now in storage & very happy the rats prefer next doors garden to mine. :clap:

Willpar
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Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Willpar » Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:56 pm

Hi trooper, as a train of thought, if you do get a rat in your garden, you may want to think of investing in a non lethal trap. I say this because I am sure you don't want to kill animals that are garden friendly, especially hedgehogs. If you use a non lethal trap can take them a couple of miles away and release. Or despatch them in the cage.

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Placido
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Location: west West-Midlands

Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Placido » Wed Jan 16, 2019 9:37 pm

Willpar, will you pop along and deal with my rat, please ?? :eek: :eek: :eek:

trooper
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Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by trooper » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:09 am

Good thinking batman, but the dispatched rats, mice, as it turned out, were put to good use. Their carcasses were left on the lawn & soon snapped up by, I presume, birds, during the day. When I had big problems with grey squirrels, I'd trap & dispatch them & did likewise, overnight. Our urban fox did the rest! :(

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Placido
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Location: west West-Midlands

Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by Placido » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:33 am

I simply couldn't do this: it's the "dispatch" thing I have trouble with.
S'pose it's mainly a Man thing :shrug:. But I just lurve mice :nod:.

trooper
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Re: Mouse or young rat?

Post by trooper » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:32 pm

I read somewhere a while back that someone had taken an injured grey squirrel to a "rescue" centre, who nursed it back to health & released it. As they are vermin, I thought that that was illegal?

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