Smelly RATS... Any tips?

[Shad0w]

Good Day all...

Got a RAT question

2 weeks ago I decided to start a breeding colony... 4 females and a single male... Everything is fine, they have been doing their business but here is my problem... THE SMELL!!!!

Maybe I have a sensitive sense of smell...

Ive tried carefresh as a substrate and that did nothing... to me after 4 days the stuff smelled like urine soaked paper... uggg...

So today Ive switched over to aspen...
Will see how this goes....

BTW, They are in a large multi level cage, 4 to be exact.

Ive read some stuff on the net about putting a bit of vinegar in their water.... do you guys have any tricks? Any food maybe that helps keep the smell down?

I just cant stand the smell of them after 4 days... Uggg...
SO How do you guys control the smell?

[beardiefan]

If they smell too much after 4 day, clean em out every 3 days lol I clean mine out every 3 days, and my wife still complains. Maybe you are extra sensitive to the smell? I also read that vanilla helps. I hope you can figure it out, because you can save money breeding your own.

[Shad0w]

vanilla in the water????

[dave68]

cleaning more frequently will obviously help but another product to try is called Uni-Rock you just buy it in a little box and would place it bye the cage!!!!This stuff works wonders and you can re activate it by putting it out in the sunshine for a bit...not sure how it works but it does absorb bad odors somehow.....Good Luck.....Allison

[CamHanna]

More substrate means less smell. I use pine. Perhaps an air-freshener would help.

[Dragonhood]

what are you feeding them? some people feed them animal mix, that has corn in it and it's the corn that makes the stink. let me know. john

[Shad0w]

So far I find the aspen to be a WORLD of difference over the carefresh...

Dragonhood, what diet do you find best to minimize the smell?
The mix I use right now does in fact have corn Should I just use rodent block and nothing else?

[mykee]

My trick is that I clean all 8 of my colonies every 3 days. The only "trick" that I've had work is keeping them immaculately clean.

[wiseman001]

RATS eat and DRINK NOT STOP... if u'r feeding that muzi block stuff.. that **** stinks.. it .. i have been breeding for many yrs... i prefer to feed my rats ( 65+ ) lil fresh vegi..not ALOT.. i give the HAGEN hamster seed... in the morning and at night... I take out the food during the day and fresh water 3-4 times a day.. i leave the water dish in for 20 mins..

Remember more u give them to drink the more they pee... now if u have aLOT of rats NOW u got CUP FULL's or PEE.. it all adds up.. and QUICK !!!so thats Y i limit there food.. i give them cereals more of the Dry foods.. I keep 2-3 females to 2 males in 10 gal tanks..and I have tanks ALL over..also 20's 40's list.. anyways..

Foods... amount of water...and cleaning.. i clean all the tanks.. weekly .. takes about an hr to clean them all O PINE chips/ shavings are great..stay away from dry dog/cat fods.. hamster seed is best....

[Shad0w]

Hmmm getting good advice thus far

Well so far so good.. the ASPEN still smells amazing....
Gotta love REN's... HUGE bag of shredded aspen for $11

Im tossing the rest of my carefresh.. that stuff is just garbage

[Dragonhood]

I'd just feed them rabbit pellets. and it's cheap go and get it from a feed mill or you can get it at stores like (tsc) its around10-12 $ for a 50-60 pound bag.

[Shad0w]

Rabbit feed huh??? Rens has that aplenty!!!

[Dragonhood]

they also love vegs and fruits.

[Paleosuchus]

I use aspen shavings, clean the cage out every 4 days and put vanilla in the water. .....Little smell, if not any smell to some extent. Vanilla works wonders imo

[CamHanna]

Do you use real or artificial vanilla extract? Is there a difference?