Help with stnky mice

[Jeromerules]

I was just wondering if there was beddingfor mice which make the cage or tank stink less? I have mice and I use newspaper and they absolutely reek. I Gag everytime I open the tank.If I can't get rid of the smell then I will probably freeze them
They are soo raunchy and it's bothering me. I migh actually give them to my buddyso he can feed them to hs ball. Hopefully Someone knows. Does aspen suck up the smell? I need to know because my males musk and piss and **** is way too much for me. Thanks
jerome

[snakedude_03]

pine or aspen shavings would be better then newspaper i think and if you clean more often.. that would help too

[Edwin]

I remember seeing a post by Kahane of Generasian Exotics about an air filter/purifier of some kind... perhaps you could PM him about it.

I had a small mice colony before, but got rid of thm in favour of rats when my snakes were big enough to eat them. Rats smell too, but nowhere as bad as mice.

Switching to pine or aspen shavings will help a bit, but don't expect miracles.

Hope this helps.

[snakemann87]

i dont think theres anyway, unless you clean the cage twice a day maybe, but still, it will probably always stink.

[vanderkm]

Shavings definately better than newspaper to reduce the smell, and pine is better than aspen for smell in my experience. They will still smell though, male mice do a lot of scent marking, and cleaning the cage more often just leaves them without the places they had marked, so they will try harder to make it smell familiar. Restricting them to one male per cage may help, so males are not competing with each other. We have tried various air purifiers and none work very well to reduce the odor, even with cleaning shavings weekly. It is helpful to add lots of shavings, not just a thin layer on the cage bottom - and clean corners a couple times a week. Best solution is to move them out of the house into a separate building. I have heard that adding a small amount of vanilla extract to the water will reduce the smell of urine but have not tried it. Overall, easier to buy frozen - nothing prevents the odor.

mary v.

[tai_pan1]

When you clean the cage, leave the area where your mice sleep. I have found that that has helped reduce the odor. I've left the "nest" that is in there now for well over a month, and the smell is much less than it use to be. I just clean out the rest of the cage.

Mike

[sara]

You have them in a tank?
No wonder they smell so bad. Do yourself a favour and get them in a ventilated enclosure, it'll be much better.
I've been playing around with dust-free, odour-free kitty litter as a substrate, I think it might just work. (This brand is totally safe for the mice and snakes)

Sigh... mice suck...

[Weather1]

I read somewhere that adding Vanilla extract to there water helps reduce the smell of urine.

[andrea88]

I use the vanilla in the water. (1/2 tsp in each bottle.)
It does work IMHO, but Ive noticed that when I get new mice it will take up to 3 weeks for the vanilla to get through their system and reduce the smell.

You have to clean the water bottles really well though, vanilla will leave a brown scum all over everything and jam up the balls in the nozzle.

I've also done a lot of experimenting. (The mice are in our living room, so we had to) Ventilation IS THE KEY!!!
I use shallow 12 gallon tupperwear bins and replaced the lids with wire window screen.
I use 2-3 inches of pine and clean every 7-10 days. You can't notice any smell until the last day or so...
Another tip: Learn how to sex them and kill the males off first, or as young as possible.
You can keep a bin with 10-20 females and have no problems with smell, but if you do that with males, they will STINK after only a few hours.

[Lizzy001]

i have also heard about the vinilla thing....

[Linds]

Like Mary said, you can't escape the smell factor with these guys, there will always be a little odour, and the more you clean the more the males will scent their home which in turn scents your home :rolleyes: So far the best economical substrate I have found for mice is pine shavings. IMOE the Tru-Air wall mounted air filter works quite well at eliminating animal odours. It is very affordable as well at only $30 CDN and the replacement filters run around $6.

[Them and Us]

the fact is animals smell haha. so do people. but we try thing like cologne,perfume,,shower, body spray,deoderant and whatever else to hide it haha. i found that scouping out the corners of my cages helps reduce the smell . i clean every two weeks.