Breeding rats in bedroom.

[Wretched5705]

hey everyone, over the past couple days I have been looking into breeding my own feeder rats after I realized I am spending alot of money each year on feeders for my 3 ball pythons and my blood python. I have been reading all the information that I can on the subject but nothing ever really goes into detail about the smell and whether or not it will drive me out of my room since the only available space is in my bedroom. The general consensus from what I have read is if you clean the tubs at least once a week the smell should be fine but would that be enough to make my room not smell? I have also heard of the baking powder in the bottom of the tub trick as well as the vanilla extract in the water one. I just want to save some money and produce some good feeders for my snakes but not get sick from awful stink. thanks in advance everyone.

[infernalis]

we have rat colonies in 4 rooms of our house, and as long as I clean out the cages once a week, there is no real smell to bother anyone.

[Wretched5705]

Thats good to know. I only plan on having a small colony, probably 1.3 or 1.4, and the girlfriend will probably loose her noodle if it smells bad. Thank you though for the post.

[mykee]

No matter how small or clean you keep them, rodents will smell.

[Wretched5705]

Anything you could suggest to keep the smell down aside from cage cleaning?

[mykee]

Rodents smell. There is nothing you can do. You can clean every day but live animals smell. Not bad, not good, just animal-y.

[Gungirl]

As Mykee stated they will smell no matter what but you can cut the smell down by feeding them a better quality food.

[exwizard]

You can help control it by regular cleaning and baking soda underneath th shavings but you eont eliminate the odor.

[insignia100]

I wouldn't ever consider breeding rats if my bedroom was the only option. You'd be better off buying frozen rodents online and maybe buying a small chest freezer. That's just my opinion, of course. ;)

[infernalis]

Our first ever colony was in a chest at the foot of our bed, it was not bad at all.

[Snakefood]

I had one female and her litter in my bedroom and I got them out ASAP, although, in my case it was because hubby's allergies were aggravated by them being in the house

[Wretched5705]

Luckily I do not have allergies to rats so i think I'll just give it a shot and if worse comes to worse just feed off all the rats, not to bad of a deal.

[mykee]

I found that the good quality foods (Mazuri 6F and Purina 5021) were the biggest stinkers of all; they both smell like a barn.

[exwizard]

Kent rat chow w/19% protein or less works well for us in that regard.

[Gungirl]

I found that the good quality foods (Mazuri 6F and Purina 5021) were the biggest stinkers of all; they both smell like a barn.

Really? Ok then ignore my advice. I know with most pets ( ferrets, dogs, cats) the higher quality food you give them the less smell you get out of them. I guess that fails to be true with rodents...

[Wretched5705]

Do i keep the male and females in a big community tub together or just throw a female in with the male whenever I want one to get pregnant?

[mykee]

Kat, rodents eat a diet very high in fibre, and their food smells "barny".

[Wretched5705]

Do you mean barny as in like a barn? Or did i completely miss that?

[insignia100]

I found that the good quality foods (Mazuri 6F and Purina 5021) were the biggest stinkers of all; they both smell like a barn.

Some of us actually enjoy the smell of a barn. ;) (Well, a clean one, that is.)

[hellosugaree]

Do i keep the male and females in a big community tub together or just throw a female in with the male whenever I want one to get pregnant?

There is a pretty good sticky on here that talks about breeding rats. Definitely check that out if you haven't. I think exwizard breeds rats on a big scale so if he hasn't given input here make sure you talk to him. One thing though: rodents are very social. They shouldn't be housed singly except moms for birth and nursing. Males will fight if you introduce two adults that have never seen each other. Littermates that have spent time together are usually fine. There are plenty of ways to do it though depending on your needs and preferences. Good luck!

[hellosugaree]

Oh and to get at the original question aabout smell... rodents stink. If you clean the cages regularly and don't have too many, you can keep in manageable. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. Try to find someone locally that has them (try posting a Craigslist ad) and see if you can visit their colony. That might give you some idea.

[mykee]

Yup, barny. Lol...

[Wretched5705]

I found a store nearby that is able to deliver woody pet but it is the horse bedding, has anyone used this over the rodent bedding?

[mykee]

I used it for about six months a few years ago. It is really heavy, super dusty and stinks like rodent piss almost immmediately.

[Wretched5705]

Really? Man and they were saying it was odor absorbing....would the rodent bedding be any different or is it all just the same?

[hellosugaree]

Really? Man and they were saying it was odor absorbing....would the rodent bedding be any different or is it all just the same?

No bedding will alter the fact that you have to change them frequently if you don't want an olfactory symphony going on.

[Wretched5705]

Well i understand that, I just dont want my room to smell absolutely repulsive between weekly cleanings

[Gungirl]

Yup, barny. Lol...

Well... I'm a redneck so barny is ok with me. Although I would not keep them in my bedroom. :rolleyes:

[hellosugaree]

Well i understand that, I just dont want my room to smell absolutely repulsive between weekly cleanings

Understandable. Would you still consider breeding if it required cleaning twice a week, or are you set on only doing one change a week?

If you are rich or like to build stuff, you could buy or build (respectively) a ventilation setup. In large rodent colonies used in labs or commercial facilities they exhaust their cage air outside which cuts down on the stink quite a bit, but not completely.

Honestly though, if you are only doing a few rats and you stay on top of cleaning, I think you will be just fine. People keep pet rats and it doesn't drive them out of the house unless they don't clean the enclosure regularly.

How many rats are you thinking?

[exwizard]

Understandable. Would you still consider breeding if it required cleaning twice a week, or are you set on only doing one change a week?

If you are rich or like to build stuff, you could buy or build (respectively) a ventilation setup. In large rodent colonies used in labs or commercial facilities they exhaust their cage air outside which cuts down on the stink quite a bit, but not completely.

Honestly though, if you are only doing a few rats and you stay on top of cleaning, I think you will be just fine. People keep pet rats and it doesn't drive them out of the house unless they don't clean the enclosure regularly.

How many rats are you thinking?

Twice a week would work and for a small setup, it wont take that much time.

Our rat colony totals 460+, not including the mice. Idk if that qualiufies as large but for some people that not large at all. However, we use a commercial size portable fan blowing the air right up the stairs and out the back door. No odor in the house at all. If youre that concerned about odor, set up a window fan to blow in exhaust mode.

I agree with this statement completely. I used to keep pet rats right in my bedroom. As long as I cleaned the cage regularly, the odor was almost nonexistant.

In addition to all that, a successful breeding colony of any size should have a male to female ratio of 1.6. This way you could have half the females nursing while still having a 1.3 group in each tub or cage.

[hellosugaree]

Our rat colony totals 460+, not including the mice. Idk if that qualiufies as large but for some people that not large at all.



I'd say that qualifies in the world of snake food for non distributors :) Maybe compared to the frozen rodent giants or research facilities/universities it might be considered small, but I'm happy to call it large here.

[exwizard]

I'd say that qualifies in the world of snake food for non distributors :) Maybe compared to the frozen rodent giants or research facilities/universities it might be considered small, but I'm happy to call it large here.

Thank you for your kind words. In the beginning we wanted to make sure we had enough to produce what we needed for our collection but its become so much more than that now.

I do want to reiterate, 1.6. Thats the ratio that works best for us. This way you have nursers and 1.3 breeders at the same time and if you only keep one male and 6 females, then the odor is not that hard to control, especially if you have some kind of exhaust fan.

[mykee]

I'll second the exhaust fan; it's mandatory. I bred rats for a decade, and only over the last few years have I added an exhaust fan, and it made a huge improvement.

[Wretched5705]

1.6 and an exhaust fan, thank you for this wealth of info everyone