Avoiding mice?

[tigernin]

Firstly hello, I'm new to the forum!

Secondly, I've just set up my hutch in the garage so it's out of the elements for the winter but on clearing the garage out it is clear we have had uninvited mice to stay so I am paranoid they will take up residence in my hutch.

Are there any ways to avoid mice in the hutch, or are mice a little scared of piggies? Or is it just a case of making sure the hutch is a busy place and not the sort of place a mouse can hide without being disturbed? Or is it inevitable?

Thanks in advance for any hints, tips or advice!

 

[WDMMBT]

I don't think they would take up recidence. Mice like dark corners to hide in and surely your guinea-pigs will be wandering around a lot of the time. Plus if they were to take up recidence you would desroy their nest each time you came to cleaning out so I don't think they would.

But thats just my opinion *shrugs*

 

[tigernin]

I hadn't thought about the nests - of course they would't get chance to build one We found a nest at the bottom of our old camping trailer - but that hadn't been emptied for 4 years so it had been undisturbed.

I'm probably just being paranoid!

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Given a chance yes mice will camp in your shed. They need very little space and can crawl into the smallest areas.

They will stay away from your furries but at night will roam.

Best advice:-

seal all access points
Store food and hay in closed containers.
Keep it really clean and watch for mouse droppings.

I regularly have mice in my house loft and 1st floor, garage (to be expected) and the blighters even scaled an electric cable to get into the garage loft where it was much warmer and ate my Xmas decorations.grrrr

But I do live in the countryside and have to have a purge now and then.:0

 

[SophRuss5]

Get some small netting and cover the wire section of your hutch? Also put all your food and hay etc into sealed storage boxes, old bin etc so they don't get a free lunch!

 

[CharlieH]

When I had piggies a few years back in our summer house, I once caught a mouse in the pig food bowl, it froze and stared at me before running back out

I don't think they're much of a problem and if the guineas are fairly active, then the mice shouldn't hang about!

 

[asdash]

We had mice in the garage a couple of years ago - they were attracted by the bird food, I now store it in sealed containers and they have never been back

Andrea

 

[Pandora]

i wish it was only mice around here!

don't mind them so much, but i once found a massive rat in my shed.

well i say i found it in my shed, i was scraping hay off an open bale into a bin to take out to the hutches when i heard a THUD.

i'd unknowingly pulled the rat off the shelf along with the hay into the bin, next thing i knew there was some rustling in the bin, i looked down into it to see the bugger was jumping up, trying to escape!

i slammed a lid on to the bin and legged it into the house screaming my head off! :...

horrible.
we were going to take it out onto the country to let it go the next day, but it died in the night unfortunately, scary stuff though.
got a new shed not long after. spent the next month severely beating my bales with a broom before even touching them!

if you have a wire front on your cage though, get some 5mm (or smaller) cage & aviary wire to cover the existing mesh and mice shouldn't be able to get into the piggies at all
and keep food secure in a sealed bin etc. so they don;t have a food source,

they don't do much harm don't mice anyway, but i've heard a couple of tales of rats attacking and killing piggies in the past