Will indoor cats kill mice?

Cats generally do a great job of keeping mice away in major areas of the house. However, this does not mean that the mice are gone forever and will usually require professional extermination of rodents. So, “Will Getting a Cat Kill Mice? The answer, apparently, is yes. And it turns out that this is true whether your cat is a particularly skilled hunter or not.

A distant demigod or a cuddly stuffed cake, your cat is descended from countless generations of ferocious predators. Under the right circumstances, almost any cat will kill a mouse. However, some cats seem to live to hunt, while others prefer to wait for the occasional mouse to stumble directly into their feeders. Although they are natural enemies, cats are not always willing to hunt and eat mice.

A wild cat is much more aggressive than domestic cats when chasing mice because it is their source of food. Since domestic cats are given pet food regularly, they won't be much interested in hunting the small rodents. However, this does not mean that the mice are gone forever and will usually require professional extermination. They usually nest in hidden areas of the house that cats don't have access to, such as basements, attics, or inside walls.

Once they realize that there is a cat nearby, they can easily stay hidden and travel through walls. As long as it has a reliable source of food and water, your cat could scare away mice from your area, but with a little luck it won't leave you a damn mess for you to clean up. Your cat cannot enter the same spaces as mice: mice can sneak into the basement, attic and small holes in the walls. In other words, studies have shown that just the smell of cats on your property, even if they stay indoors all year round, could be enough to despise mice forever.

So now she's inside and if she catches a mouse - and we have them, for sure - she just thinks it's a play date. While the only evidence of my own cat's hunt is the occasional glimpse of her throwing herself under the house with a mouse in her mouth, my co-worker's cat is less discreet, and often finds small corpses in his bathtub. Cats that hunt are susceptible to even more bacteria and parasites, which can lead to life-altering consequences for their owners. Mice fear the smell of cats: If you have mice nearby and you have a cat as a pet, it is likely that mice can smell its presence.

Live catch traps are the most humane and safe type to set up when you have pets in homes. It is also recommended to avoid using these types of poisons outside the home in places where your dog or cat (or neighborhood pets) may come into contact with them. But some cat enthusiasts love their felines for different reasons and one in particular is as old as time. The amount of poison a mouse needs to ingest to be fatal is very small in terms of what a cat would need to ingest to have the same effect.

That said, keeping a cat as a pet isn't a safe way to keep your home completely pest-free, not all cats are natural hunters and mice reproduce quickly, so if a rogue mouse enters your home without your cat realizing it, it's likely to become a problem.

Blanche Hochstine
Blanche Hochstine

Extreme internet ninja. Total baconaholic. Subtly charming zombie advocate. Hipster-friendly coffee evangelist. Professional pop culture fanatic.