Let this be a lesson...

[Peter Williams]

You know these hagen containers?

Well at my local petstore, thats what they put my feeders in. Today I got one, and I brought it home. I had to go out right away and I didn't have time to feed it. I thought it should be ok in there. So when I get home, I learned the hard way, those can not contain a mouse for very long.

But LUCKILY, just as I was leaving my room, I decided to throw the box into an uninhabited tank I have.

So when I came home, I found this:

This could have been a horrible situation for me. I am glad I had that last little thought to put it in that tank...its scary how close I came to my first escaped feeder.

I'm posting this so people can learn from what I did, I understand I made a mistake so please don't negative rep me.

[ADEE]

i know exactly what your talking about.. i learned that when i worked for a pet store, glad you didnt ahve a loose one

[GirDance]

if it happens again, you can just get a large peice of cardboard with some peanut butter on the very edge.

Put the cardboard on the very edge of a coffee table or other low peice of furniture so that it's just balancing with the peanut butter on the far edge.

Put an empty garbage can or tank directly under the cardboard.

The mouse will go for the peanut butter as long as he can get onto the table, will throw the cardboard off balance and fall into the tank where you've got him secured...

Works every time, and usually within a few hours of the house being completely quiet... Best of all, it shouldn't harm the mouse at all.

[Peter Williams]

wow thanks

[GirDance]

No problem

We had a bit of a mouse problem over the winter, so I got a lot of practice finding the best humane way to catch them!!!

Peanut butter works great and the smell will attract them, but they also seem to like oreos if you feel like giving him a little sugar rush and a treat

[Argentra]

Heh.. lucky break there.

I had something similar happen last night. I brought home two feeders rather than go back out the next day. I put them in a kritter keeper with food and a water bottle, but forgot to secure the bottle in the hole with tape. After feeding off one to Nagini, I was watching TV when I saw a little white thing scurry along the floor. Lucky for me it jumped into a plastic bag of fabric when I tried to grab it and I just grabbed the bag and got it back in the keeper, then secured every hole.

I guess we all have to learn lessons like that now and then.

[AjBalls]

Or you could buy a little "Kritter Keeper" and ask the employee at the pet store to throw the feeder in that.

[rabernet]

One reason why I always bring my own plastic critter keeper to the pet store to pick up feeders.

[frankykeno]

Yep we always do too if we have buy a feeder. One "fun time" of hanging nearly upside down trying to grab a mouse under the front seat of a car was more than enough for me!

[Rakshasi]

Oh, yeah. Never underestimate the power of mice or rats' teeth and jaws! You had to see what a pair of male rats (2 months old, at the time) did to a box I was "holding" them in. This was one of those thick boxes that ice cream bars come in. I thought they'd be fine while I cleaned their real enclosure...um, nope! Their work was very impressive, though, I must say!!