Uh oh, we have company in the shed...

[primrose]

I cleaned out the piggy shed today and it is clear that we have visiting mice - they've chewed a hole through the food bag, shredded some newspaper and, I guess, had a good old feast. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some bins to put all the food in, but I guess there's not much else I can do, is there? I don't really like the idea of the piggies having to share their quarters...but I live in a really rural area and guess that, if I started using humane traps, I'd be catching several a night...?!

 

[Mizzpigz]

Hi we keep our chicken food outside and we initially bought plastic bins but we now have bought galvanised feed bins and we don't have problems anymore with mice

 

[Wiebke]

Make sure that you also find the hole in the shed the mice come into (it can be very small). please also disinfect the shed.

 

[primrose]

I'll try to find some galvanised bins! Hopefully the country store up the road sells them.
I can't really disinfect the whole shed...disinfecting wood isn't easy and I'd be doing it on a daily basis. Obviously, I thoroughly clean all my bowls and bottles anyway.

 

[Cherpi]

We had our rabbit in the shed (this was a long time ago now) and he was happily living there until one day I walked in and saw a mouse run away, we actually decided to just get rid of the shed and we kept him outside for the rest of his life... But I guess we could have just found and got rid of the hole. What if you put sheets of wood (cheap stuff) on the floor and walls meaning they couldn't get in and if they bit a hole in the new wood it would be easy to find and fill it... Idk just a suggestion if you wanted to get rid of them totally...

EDIT: Just wanted to say it wasn't just the mice as a reason for getting rid of the shed, it was also too big and needed a new roof and we felt it wasn't worth the trouble

 

[Mizzpigz]

Oh we still have mice in our shed but they don't get into the feed bins anymore. We live in a village aswell and it kind of goes with the territory. We have compost bins too which I know probably encourages them aswell. Mind you when I cleared it out recently there were no mice nesting in there so I was quite pleased about that!

 

[KaitRoo]

With our pigs we had when I was younger, rats got into our shed over the winter (we live near a canal) and they peed into the guineas cages onto the food and it killed some of our pigs. This is why even now years later i insist on having my pigs indoors (plus I like the company )