Your pets and mice

by MouseLover Thu 30 Jun 2016, 10:18 am

For those of you who have other pets (particularly cats and dogs), how do you find they react to your mice?
Do you keep them fully separated, or do they like to watch your mice? Are they indifferent to your mice? Do your mice seem to notice them? What are your experiences?

My dog Rosie (well, technically my parent's dog, but I'm living with them right now) is a black Labrador and is the sweetest, softest dog in the world. She literally wouldn't hurt a fly (she won't kill spiders when I've encouraged her to, lol). She's good with babies, children, puppies, everything. She sometimes likes to sit and watch the mice in their cage - the mice aren't afraid of her at all, they come over to the bars and sniff Rosie, who sniffs them back. They meet nose to nose, it's cute to watch. Mostly she ignores them, but whenever I bring home new mice she seems to know that they are new (smells different probably) and sits watching them. She also likes to watch them after a cage clean, not sure why. She just sits quietly, watching them go about their business, and occasionally sniffs them. It's cute. She seems to have an inbuilt sense to be gentle with little things - she never tries to paw at them or touch them when I have them on me. She really is such a good girl.

One time, I had three mice on the sofa with me, and I took my eyes off one of them for a second and couldn't find her (a particularly fast mouse). I put the other two mice away, and was searching for the mouse, who I couldn't find anywhere on the sofa. I looked a few feet away, at Rosie, who was sleeping in her dog bed - and to my absolute HORROR the mouse was walking across her back. I kinda froze for a second. Rosie lifted her head slightly, sniffed the mouse, and lay back down, going back to sleep Laughing

Needless to say I am more careful with sofa time now, but I'll never forget that. Rosie is the most docile, lovely dog.

Anyway, I am interested to hear any of your experiences Smile

Disclaimer: Please do not let your mice play with your dog (or cat)... My incident was an accident that nearly gave me a heart attack, and I was lucky that it ended well.

by scaredymouse Thu 30 Jun 2016, 10:43 am

I have two cats. My 10 years old girl couldn't care less about the mice. She does get jealous when I'm playing with the mice, though, because I'm not paying attention to her. My boy cat is very interested in the critters. Most of the time, he just likes to sit and watch. The only time he gets a little frisky is with Goose. But I'm pretty sure Goose is playing with him. And even still, Kevin just bats at the glass, he never tries to get into the tank. Goose will even go up the hammock and go nose to nose with Kevin. Goose isn't scared of him at all. I keep the door to the critter room closed, not everyone likes a cat in their face. Goose is the only critter that isn't in the critter room, he lives near the couch in the living room because he needs attention, but with screen clips, I feel safe with him around the cats. Kev never sits on the screen.

When I'm holding the critters, Kevin keeps his distance. But I'm certain that if I turned my back... Kevin would go for it. The good news is that Kevin is pretty gentle, I really think that if a mouse every got away from me, that they would have a decent chance of survival! And Maya isn't interested in them. Half the time she is snuggled up next to me, minding her own business, while I'm handling them

The mice don't seem to mind when the cats are nearby. And like I said, I'm pretty sure Goose likes the play with Kevin through the glass.

by CinnamonPearl Thu 30 Jun 2016, 10:47 am

When I had my dog Ace, he never once minded a mouse even with a history of a bit of aggression towards other animals. The first day I had my girls, he came up, sniffed Little Cow, and then decided she was boring and went back to sleep. My first three girls grew up in a place with a few dogs, so they never minded his barking, and they taught Egg and Lilith to not mind.

Now with Felix, I'm being much more careful. The doors to my room are always closed. My room is partitioned into three parts: a purple hangout area, a bathroom in between, and a yellow room where I sleep (and also where the girls live). If I'm in the yellow room supervising, I'll still let him play in there, but if we're in the purple room, the doors are shut. Once when I was playing with him in the yellow room, he noticed Egg getting a drink and I decided to hang back to see what he would do. He watched for a while. He tried to paw at her gently but found he couldn't, so he watched more and then climbed on top of the tank. I wasn't sure how much weight my top would hold, so I pulled him down. He seems to have since forgotten the incident, since he's gotten into my yellow room a couple of times and hasn't even gone near the mouse tank. So I know he won't outright try to maul them, but I'm being very careful anyway. It's the reason I should probably switch to metal screen tops.

by MesaMouse Thu 30 Jun 2016, 11:04 am

My dog, Arwen the Boo, is half-dachshund. Doxies were originally bred as badger hunters, long and low to follow the badgers down into their holes, and thus regard all rodents as potential prey (I once tried having rats and she went absolutely ballistic, trying to chew through the door into the room they were in -- needless to say, they were sent back to the foster home I adopted them from in a matter of days). The BooDog is much calmer with mice but still "wants" them but their tank is on too high a table for her to do more than stand on her hind legs to get a peek. On deep clean days the girls were always transferred to a large bin with a screen lid; for ease on my arthritic joints, the bin would sit in a deep arm chair a few feet from their tank. As each mouse was moved over, I'd tell the Boo what I was doing ("Here comes mousie Buffy"); when all of the girls were moved over, I'd tell her to "take care of the mousies while Mommy cleans." She'd usually just sit a foot or two away from the bin, making little whines and small barks, but she'd periodically dash to the bin and bang her nose against it when any of the mice were visible at the front. None of the girls paid the least bit of attention to her, though, much to her chagrin Giggle

.

by MouseLover Thu 30 Jun 2016, 12:02 pm

MesaMouse - my friend had to hamster sit for her sister, and her terrier went absolutely NUTS. Terriers were bred as ratters though. I guess some dogs have that instinct in them, depending on the breed.

Labradors are retrievers and water dogs - the instincts Rosie seems to have are (1) an adoration of water (she absolutely LOVES to swim, and will run off at the first sign of water) and (2) the instinct to retrieve - in her case, balls. Rosie often disappears on off-lead walks in the woods, and emerges 5 minutes later with a ball she found. Her record is 5 balls in one walk. It's quite amazing that nose of hers.

(I love that dog. I picked her myself when my Mum went to view puppies. I could talk about her all day, she is the most amazing dog ever Love

)

by CallaLily Thu 30 Jun 2016, 12:27 pm

I have a Min Pin with a fairly high prey drive, even though he's an old man now. Min Pins were originally bred as ratters. He is very interested in small things - mice, hamsters, birds - and will go after them. I'm very careful with him, keeping those types of pets in a closed room or up high. He's good with cats though.

Two of the cats are very interested in small animals too. Even taking interest in the snake. The other two used to be but due to their health problems, their interest and climbing abilities have declined. I keep them away but as you've probably seen from my recent post, cats are sneaky and quick so there have been times I've caught them near the mouse tank. Watching. Laying on the lid. The mice usually hide. The snake watches the cats back with interest (she is at the opposite end of the house from the mice, so no worries there). Lizard Ninja and the crabs seem oblivious.

So yes, small animals such as mice are kept separate to the best of my ability. Secure lids and tanks are a must.

by MouseLover Thu 30 Jun 2016, 1:51 pm

CallaLily can I ask what type of snake and lizard you have? I love snakes, I think they're beautiful. Never had a pet reptile though.

by CallaLily Thu 30 Jun 2016, 2:27 pm

Sylvie is a corn snake. One of my husband's coworkers couldn't keep her anymore so we took her in. She's a little over 3 years old, if the info they gave me is correct. My husband is her main caretaker. I really only help clean her tank.

Lizard Ninja is a leopard gecko. We adopted him when he was about 1.5 years old so he's coming up on around 7 years old now. He's my youngest son's pet.

by River Thu 30 Jun 2016, 3:31 pm

My dogs have never met my current mice, but I had mice in 2013, right around the time my dog had a litter of puppies. She was very gentle with the mice - never touched them, and kept her pups away from them. She loved to watch them when she could though! Now I tend to keep predators and prey away from each other, just so I don't risk a frightening event.

by MouseLover Thu 30 Jun 2016, 6:28 pm

Sounds wise ThePetekeyPrep Thumbs Up

by Brynne Sat 02 Jul 2016, 4:53 pm

My only non-mouse is my guinea pig, Oonagh. She never visibly reacts to anything that the mice do. What's quite funny sometimes is that I will inadvertently say something to one of the mice that reminds Oonagh of food. She will suddenly startle me with her loud, "WHEEEEEEET! WHEEEEEEEET!" from across the room.

by GabbiLuvsMice Sat 02 Jul 2016, 4:59 pm

What a creative topic, my grandma has two dogs, one ignores them the other is OBSESSED. Pico is a terrier so he had been bred to chase rats I think, so no wonder he is so obsessed. He doesn't seem to want to hurt them, but he is definitely very obsessed.

by CallaLily Sat 02 Jul 2016, 5:35 pm

Brynne wrote: "WHEEEEEEET! WHEEEEEEEET!" from across the room.

I do miss that. It's just the cutest thing. Can't help but smile when you see/hear their excitement. Now I get my piggie fix by watching Cari's Little Piggies.

by AnonymousMouseOwner Sat 02 Jul 2016, 6:14 pm

I have a little dog named Rosie, and she just completely ignores my mice lol. I don't have any problems with her and other animals, she's a good dog. She doesn't even chase cats unless they are like homeless cats that shouldn't be on our property. She doesn't even care if I put a mouse in one of those balls that they can roll around in, and the mouse bumps her, she'll just look at it and not care at all. That's funny, your dog's name is Rosie too!

by MouseLover Sat 02 Jul 2016, 6:51 pm

AnonymousMouseOwner - we have two pet names the same then, Violet and Rosie hahaha.

My Rosie doesn't chase cats... but she got attacked my a cat once Laughing

she's too soft.

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