Aussie Finch Forum

Jayburd, you've got mice unfortunately, dont use a claypot as finchbreeder said the finches can get stuck due to their inquisitive nature, get one of the all metal mouse traps can get from bunnings for around $25, get some mice feed. Put into your aviary the birds wont go in, and you'll catch a few. You can leave in there all the time doesnt affect anyone. However make sure when you have caught some dont let them die in the trap, the mice can smell death and wont go in no matter how often you wash the trap.

they are actually in cages at the moment, so it doesn't really matter where I put it.
I would have been fairly sure they would have gone for the big seed bins in the shed - there's a little spilt seed there, I would imagine even though I do tidy. We also have good amounts of mouse bait around, plus a mouse-hunting beagle.

Plus no droppings.

I don't think it's a mouse, purely because they wouldn't have eaten the ruddies head, and so where is it? I couldn't find it, and it wasn't on the floor or in the cage.
so I don't know, and we seem to have every precaution against mice.
also i don't think a mouse could have gotten between the bars on this cage. I have seen wild mice.

Hi Jayburd,
Sorry to hear about your ruddy.
I actually work in a lab looking after and breeding mice and have studied everything there is to know about mice.
How wide are the bars because mice can get through gaps that are 1cm in width they can also chew
through a birds skull with no problems sorry to say. A good way of mouse proofing your box style cages
is to get perspex and cover all sides (back,top,sides) except the front of the cage. Only cover up to the doors of the cage
so you can still access the cage with ease. Mice cant grip onto clear perspex so can't get in to hurt the little ones.

Jayburd wrote:they are actually in cages at the moment, so it doesn't really matter where I put it.
I would have been fairly sure they would have gone for the big seed bins in the shed - there's a little spilt seed there, I would imagine even though I do tidy. We also have good amounts of mouse bait around, plus a mouse-hunting beagle.

Plus no droppings.

I don't think it's a mouse, purely because they wouldn't have eaten the ruddies head, and so where is it? I couldn't find it, and it wasn't on the floor or in the cage.
so I don't know, and we seem to have every precaution against mice.
also i don't think a mouse could have gotten between the bars on this cage. I have seen wild mice.

Its a mystery for sure , one would think that the ruddys head would be too big to drag through the cage bars and a single mouse would take more than a few hours to eat a birds head ..
I had an emblema disappear from a breeding cage once , the only evidence of other birds attacking it were the couple of small items that I had put on top of the cage were on the ground and whatever took the emblema had also emptied its crop of various berries and insects on the ground near the cage. there were no feathers laying around or in the cage , the breeding box was an ex budgie box so the bars were fractionally wider but still it would have taken effort to drag the emblema through the bars . I guess what I'm saying is whatever killed the ruddy was cunning and chances are it will be back.

shox wrote:Jayburd, you've got mice unfortunately, dont use a claypot as finchbreeder said the finches can get stuck due to their inquisitive nature, get one of the all metal mouse traps can get from bunnings for around $25, get some mice feed. Put into your aviary the birds wont go in, and you'll catch a few. You can leave in there all the time doesnt affect anyone. However make sure when you have caught some dont let them die in the trap, the mice can smell death and wont go in no matter how often you wash the trap.

used mine for years and never had a problem. i also check it a couple of times a day. did you have the cage on its side or with the entrance at the top? cos i cant myself imagine a bird going head first down into something... just isn't natural for a finch. not saying it didn't happen or anything, just know that i've put mine on its side before to see if it had any more success at catching sneaky mice and am curious as to whether or not that was the orientation when something went wrong...