this is not a journal title

I live in an old house, and I've seen evidence of mice in the past (poop under the sink and around the kitchen trash, where there's big holes in the walls for the pipes), but tonight I saw one for the first time - and three feet from the birdcage. I change cage papers around 5 times a week (I aim for daily but occasionally forget), any leftover fresh veggies get dumped in the kitchen twice a day. There's a trash with a lid can next to the cage that I used to dump pellets into but now will not. I'm keeping it away from the cage for a few days, but after that I'll probably return it and use it only for the cage papers and not for the pellets. I Roomba around the cage at least once a week.

So I have two questions. (1) Are they actually a threat to Kappa in any manner? I mean, I know they can be a disease vector, is that really a big deal? Any chance they're rabid? And (2) any ideas you may have to safely keep them away from Kappa (and perhaps the entire house)? Keeping the place clean is of course #1, but I keep the area around the cage cleaner than anywhere else in the house, and the kitchen is two rooms away (and I just cleaned it anyway just in case).

X-posted to parrots101 and parrot_lovers