Mice droppings in the hedgehog food bowl

[shazski]

Does anybody know how I can stop mice eating my hedgehog food? I currently leave out chicken in jelly cat food, mealworms, whiskas cat biscuits and sunflower hearts.

[Penny]

Hi Shazski,

Do you know which sort of mice they are? Not all mice are pests, we have wood mice which are incredibly cute with very large ears. One of the benefits of this, is that we now have some young tawny owls visiting – not sure that the mice share my enthusiasm though! They don’t really eat a deal and in winter they try and outwit the hogs by hiding the food under piles of leaves.

Wood mouse
https://flic.kr/p/UGT4jd

[Nic]

Hi shazski

Try removing the mealworms and sunflower hearts. They aren’t good for hedgehogs anyway, and are probably the things more likely to attract the mice.

I, too, have mice visiting the hog food, but the one here at the moment has very good manners and eats from the side of the bowl! They eat a comparatively small amount, so I don’t mind and the hogs don’t seem bothered.

Good luck.

[hollydog86]

I think it is wood mice which we see visiting our hedgehog food, they have huge ears! They visit most nights, but do not seem to hang around for long, especially when the neighbours cat is about! but they do seem to like the dry hedgehog food we put out. I do not think they eat much. I think they are very cute with their huge ears and very long tails.

[shazski]

Thank you for your replies. I have not seen any mice, just lots of droppings in the food bowl. I will take out the meal worms and sunflower hearts and see how I go : )

[Allentate]

The mice dropping indicates that there may be a mouse. Better be careful or you can avail pest control facility to get rid of mice.

[Nic]

Mice in a house might be a problem, but mice out of doors are normal and provide food for other species, such as owls, as Penny mentions above. If we tried to remove all the mice out of doors, there would be little wildlife left – they are part of the web of life.

[Author]

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