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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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...