I seem to have an unwanted visitor in the kitchen

My immediate thought reading this was one or more rats.

They can make very long underground tunnels, so the lack of droppings in your kitchen are not conclusive proof that it is not rats.

Mice certainly cannot move a trainer.

It could also be a weasel or some member of the weasel's extended family.

Whatever it is, you don't want it in or near your kitchen, so do get the nearest pest control person in.

Much as I love animals, I have little compunction when it comes to rats!

My money's on it being rats. It's amazing the very small spaces they can get through and the large objects they can move around. Most winter's we hear them moving between the walls and behind the boiler, a nice cosy place. They don't venture into the rooms and we don't do anything about them, they leave in the Spring. Though we do check the wiring in the loft every year as one year they destroyed some of it. Occasionally I see one scuttle across the patio and disappear under the barbecue. For the most part I can accept rats and mice as part and parcel of living in the country.

Borrowers. Most homes have them...

I have two 19 week old kittens, there’s not even a moth left - they’ve taken and eaten flies, spiders etc. Just suggesting…

Please don’t use any kind of bait/poison. It’s quite inhumane and the dead rodents could be eaten by other animals.

Ampersand

I would think it's either squirrels or mice. I had a similar problem and called in pest control.

They told me the best thing to do is fill every gap with wire wool as rodents hate it - problem solved - never returned

Hope this solves the problem

wire wool is a cheaper option but if there is the slightest amount of damp, it will rust through quite quickly. A better option would be to use stainless steel pan scrubbers or stainless steel fine wire mesh (it looks like knitted wire) which I bought on Amazon when I needed to block holes in my shed.

I hate to say this, but when I lived in an old cottage, I found the fruit bowl was being raided overnight. There were no droppings. But then we discovered that a rat had somehow got in through the eaves, and the Council came and laid poison. The fruit never disappeared again.

A similar thing happened to us. I had left a pair of leggings on the bathroom floor, and when I tried to pick them up I felt them being pulled back. A tug-of-war left me with leggings that had been ripped and chewed.
Later, my daughter was having a shower (over the bath) and heard a scraping sound under the bath.
I thought it might be mice, as we get field mice indoors occasionally, so we called in Pest Control .
When he took the bath panel off, he said "That's no mouse!" We found all sorts of things, all chewed. He said the rat was building a nest, and we were lucky to have found it in time before there was a family of rats.
We have no idea how it got in. Luckily it wasn't possible (I think) for it to get into the house.
Call Pest Control!

The most likely culprit is a rat. My daughter had a pet rat and she occasionally allowed it to run around freely (I know ….)
It used its freedom to collect things, some of them quite big and cumbersome, some shiny objects like coins, and stow them in a little cavity it made in the back of the sofa. Never any sign of droppings.

I think it’s a rat. We had them in a cavity wall. They actually started to gnaw through breeze block to try to get in. Brought pest control never saw one all sorted. Decking can be a hiding place as well for them.

Years ago we had a similar situation. Items going missing or being moved in the kitchen and ending up near the boxed in pipework in the corner of the room. No droppings anywhere and no smells. It went on for weeks until the day I came home and found a half eaten Mars bar with the wrapper removed on the breakfast bar and a nibbled apple in the fruit bowl. Called in pest control who set traps for rats, but they too were puzzled by lack of droppings. Next day the culprit was caught and turned out to be a grey squirrel who was nesting in next door's attic and coming down the pipe for his snacks.

I would think it's either squirrels or mice. I had a similar problem and called in pest control.

They told me the best thing to do is fill every gap with wire wool as rodents hate it - problem solved - never returned

Hope this solves the problem

Rats don't scatter droppings everywhere. It's mice that do that. Rats normally have a distinct latrine area - and they're not at all smelly.
I tend to agree that it's more likely to be a squirrel, but whatever it is, it must surely be getting in from outside. You can mend the baseboard securely, but if it were me I would want to find out where it is actually getting into the wall.

I would say this is a rat or rats. I had them come in and get under the kitchen units, lots of damage done.

Does sound like a squirrel or rat, definitely get it sealed up, before they move their family in .

It does sound as if the OP’s visitor is a rat(s) but the lack of droppings and smell is strange. Worth getting the pest people in to check, at least they will discuss what to do and remove any bodies afterwards. Dead rats smell like open sewers!
My friend’s son is a very imaginative primary school teacher, so she managed to make 4 togas from a sheet - who knew - as he wanted to do a Roman feast, so a length of chicken on a skewer became ‘roasted dormouse’. The kids loved it!

I’m going with rat too. My DD keeps fancy rats as pets and this is typical behaviour. Please call pest control for peace of mind.

I'd have thought, if it were rats, then things would be chewed. And there would be droppings. Are you sure the dog isn't doing it when he's bored or left alone?

Call your local council pest control is an awful lot cheaper through them and they come back 4 or 5 times.
I had to call them in two years ago it cost £50. Recently my friends son who lives beside me called them in he heard a scraping noise in between his wall and the next door neighbour.
Also some of the items under his kitchen cupboard had been moved and the lid off his carton of cleaner had been removed and chewed. So it wasn’t a mouse because the container was actually about 4 inches wide. Also the smell was horrible.
Please call in pest control if you can afford to. Otherwise Amazon sell boxes with bait too you could try first.

While you have the boards off, look underneath the cabinets to see if there are any holes where “it” could be getting in. Plumbers often leave gaps around waste pipes or there could be a broken air brick. Clean it all out and sprinkle talc or similar powder round- lean the boards back in position for a few days then check for paw prints!

Dont think id fancy eating any kind of dormouse! Urgh.!🤮

It’s a European edible dormouse Nannan9. Much bigger than the cute native British dormouse.

Obviously - The Borrowers

A glis glis? Is that the dormouse then?

oh I do hope that supernanal comes back and tells us what it is or was