How to Keep Mice Away From Dog Food: 3 Vet-Verified Expert Tips & Tricks
Mice are rarely a welcome guest in your home. Not only are they destructive beyond belief, but also they’re highly tenacious. Once you have a mouse infestation, you’ll have quite a time trying to get rid of it.
Here are some tips and tricks for keeping these little scavengers out of your dog’s food.
How to Keep Mice Away From Dog Food
1. Keep Your Dog’s Food in a Sealed Container
Perhaps the most essential tip anyone can give regarding keeping mice out of your dog food or any belongings, really, is to keep those belongings in a sealed container. Metal containers are the best option for people with a mouse problem. Plastic is okay, but metal is the best since mice can chew through plastic easily.
Keeping food in the original cardboard boxes or paper bags will do nothing to deter the mice from shredding the container and getting to the tasty treats stored within. If you have a mouse problem, you absolutely must invest in an airtight bin for your pet food.
Once mice have found a reliable food source, they’ll return for more. So, securing your dog’s food will be imperative to quelling the infestation. Make sure you replace any food raided by mice, including dog food. Mice often carry diseases and pathogens that can be passed to you or your dog.
2. Don’t Leave Food Out Overnight
Leaving any kind of food out overnight is pretty much a surefire way to get mice, regardless of whose food is being left out.
No matter how much your dog begs and whines, you must pack up all the food when it’s time for bed. Mice are most active at night, and they will climb right into your dog’s bowl to bask in the spoils of war if you leave food out overnight.
If your mouse problem is on the extreme end of the spectrum, you may even see mice during the daytime. When an infestation gets particularly bad, the mice will become more aggressive in their search for food because there are too many tiny mouths to feed.
3. Only Provide Wet Food at Scheduled Mealtimes
Wet food is especially attractive to mice. Mice are opportunistic omnivores, meaning that when presented with animal proteins convenient to get a hold of, mice will take advantage of the opportunity and eat them.
Wet dog food doesn’t just turn on that meat drive in mice. It’s also moist and smelly, which makes it very easy to find for creatures with strong senses of smell like mice.
Providing your dog wet food on a schedule will ensure that they’re a member of the Clean Plate Club. So they won’t leave any food lying around for pests to get into.
Final Thoughts
Mice can quickly become an impossible force to be reckoned with. So, it’s best to control the situation as soon as possible. Using these methods, you should be able to stem the mouse problem, or at least keep your dog’s food safe!
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Featured Image Credit: MainelyPhotos, Shutterstock
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I’m a freelance writer with a passion for animal science and technology. I love to share the world of animal science with people to help them make informed decisions for themselves and their pets. I’ve worked in professional pet care for over six years and realised I could help change the world of pet care by bringing the information people needed to them in terms they could understand. Knowledge is power and I love to help everyone become the most informed they can be.
