What bait to use for a mouse trap.

We used to bait the traps with maltesers, seems the northern mice have a very sweet tooth.

Ours often brings fieldmice in, alive, and lets them go. Last week, he brought one in and let it go in the bedroom, which we are decorating. Next day, I picked up a dustsheet from the floor, the mouse legged into a corner and four babies dropped out of the dust sheet!! I made them a nest in a tissue box with a hole in the side for Mum to get access, we baited a humane trap with peanut butter, and waited, and waited. I expected the pups to be dead the next day, but no, she must have been feeding them. It took FIVE days before she had eaten enough peanut butter to make her trip the trap. She and the babies were then reunited in a suitable spot outdoors, with a piece of wood over the nest" to make sure they didn't get wet! Happy ending!

My cat was sitting outside the sunroom with a live mouse in his mouth about an hour ago but I am not opening the glass door any more these days without inspecting his mouth -
I've been caught out too many times before - if it's a tiny mouse you can only just see the end of the tail drooping out of the side of his mouth - then he bounds indoors and sets it free to 'play' with. I put expensive continental chocolates in the trap - only because that's what I often get as presents so they are handy in my room at night ?
I won't get too cross with him though because this week he killed a small rat down in the reeds by the mere at the end of the garden ?

We hadn`t had mice since we decided to become cat people again 6 years ago, then one day Mia brought one in and let it go, took me about 2 hours to get hold of it and take it out to the river bank. I`ve rescued no end from her in the yard, she tends to follow them for a bit before striking, so I try to get in first. The last one repaid me by weeing on my hand!

polyester57 not true at all. Cats can if they wish carry things about in their mouths and love to bring something with them to play with. Mine brought all sorts in and we tried desperately to take them away from her. She was I'm afraid a great hunter who enjoyed playing with her captive. I found out through her that frogs can squeal when cornered.
Oh and peanut butter or chocolate digestives, or both.

The mice here eat soap—green soap in my under the sink kitchen cabinet. I guess they were hungry and there's edible oil in soap.

Mimiro they're useless hunters, aren't they, Russian Blues? Ours are so affectionate, though, gorgeous boys.

One of my dd's friends has two Maine Coons. She looked out of her window one day, only to see the pair of them returning homewards, lugging a gigantic duck (dead!) behind them!

Ours like bacon, and also soft mints. I know because I had some in the car (mints) and they got in and nibbled them!

I have always believed (must have been told by someone) that a cat´s first strike is deadly. The mouse may move or even appear to run away but its fate is sealed. Maybe you should move the furniture/appliances and look for a dead mouse.

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By the way, I use peanut butter.

youtube.com/watch?v=0K8lrVjT6fM

I hope the trap is cat-proof, could do a nasty injury! I have a couple in special boxes along the skirting boards behind furniture. Fortunately the days of trying to catch baby bunnies in the middle of the night seem to be over, but voles and shrews are regular 'presents'.

Yesterday I was watching a family of 8 blue tits on my bird feeder, when my lazy old Bugsie shot out and caught one baby as it flew onto the fence, killing it outright. I was so sad!

sue none of my russian blues were hunters.had to import a mainecoon cat to take care of mice from ndn chicken farm.

peanut butter yes and it takes work for them to get it.
long time ago in a 100 year old- old west mining town.we were rebuilding the place and living in the hotel,angora cat cleaned the place out for us.after about a month we were mice and bat free.
then cat got bored, and we would catch her carefully bringing mice in and letting them loose in the kitchen.playstation for cats was all we could figure.

Peanut butter or a wee piece of Mars bar work here. Mice usually come in, if they're going to, in the autumn. I spend the rest of the year thinking up ingenious ways to use up peanut butter. Latest is putting a dollop in the bread machine when making bread.

Peanut butter cookies were a great hit with Minibaggs's Spanish exchange partner.

We are catching voles at the moment with peanut butter.

Definitely chocolate, Lidl dark chocolate works a treat, we caught 13 of the little blighters over a couple of months!

My grandfather swore by chocolate.

My granny however swears by hitting them with a hammer....?!!

One year, we found that something had been nibbling the chocolate ornaments on the Christmas tree. Evidence showed that it was a mouse, so we knew what to use as bait. And it worked.

Aww. I love elderly cats.

Fortunately the old lady we have now rarely ventures outside. She's scared of her own shadow, bless her, let alone another living creature.

Maggiemaybe. Our cats don't go outside so we don't get any little treats from them. Thank goodness.

Neither of them is very bright and I don't think they'd have the nous to catch anything. They're Russian Blues (rescue cats) but I don't think they'd last five minutes on the Russian Steppes!

We adopted our cats because a couple of field mice made their way into the house. We were sadly ignorant of the ways of cats and failed to realise that they'd bring in many, many more, and that they'd have no interest at all in catching them again once they'd got them in and let them go. Plus birds, a bat, a snake, long dead unidentifiable things crawling with fleas, and someone else's pegbag.

We have had them on a boot camp regime, Lemon but the biggest one lost almost nothing while the littler one got quite thin. Weirdly, it's the smaller one that eats the most.

Those cats will have to get fit SueD put them on a one meal a day regime and see if their hunting improves.

We always bait a trap with chocolate Kitty but I imagine they also love peanut butter or chocolate spread.