Vanilla extract

I was wondering who use's the vanilla extract to kill some of the urine odor with your colonies? And how efective it really is?

I use it. For the females there is so change really, I think its because they don't have strong urine smells. As for the males, it does help a little. Not saying it will make the smell go away but it does help some.

Anybody else got any ideas? I'm going to have to try pine again I remember it held the smell a little better. I just have to make sure there's plenty of ventilation.

They shouldn't smell regardless of what bedding they are on. If you are feeding them a good diet supplemented with high quality lab blocks, and have plenty of fresh water in water bottles, then they shouldn't have a smell.

Make sure they aren't crowded and have plenty of room to move about. Ventilation is key but don't have it drafty.

Boys may have a musky odor, but females don't smell like anything to me(bedding maybe, and fried chicken occassionally). Have you taken some of their feces to a vet to have it checked for parasites? That can make their feces have a bad odor and be runny.

We did several tests... put them on vanilla.... take them off vanilla, put them on vanilla, take them off vanilla...

We had over 1500 rats IN our house at one point, so we could make note of differences fairly easily.. vanilla definitely helped...

We use pine bedding, the smaller/more absorbant kind helpds better.

Then finally we would put a handful of baking soda down under the pine.... at one point I thought it was causing some deaths but after additional trials we didnt lose any babies or adults, and it seems like it was a freak coincidence.... it is dusty so you want to make sure you put a good amount of bedding on top, and hope they dont kick it around much, but it helps a lot.

Their poop is always solid I feed them carrots and dog food I have not used the lab blocks I'm definitely going to try now. I also give them fruits and leftovers once in a awhile. Becky where can I get these lab blocks? And again thank you guy's.

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Originally Posted by emilio

Their poop is always solid I feed them carrots and dog food I have not used the lab blocks I'm definitely going to try now. I also give them fruits and leftovers once in a awhile. Becky where can I get these lab blocks? And again thank you guy's.

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I feed my rats lab blocks and plenty of water, and Im not sure how they wouldn't smell to some extent.... If I could change bedding every 3 days it would probably be pretty good, but not really possible for me :(


Dog food, what percent protein is in it? You want to aim for below 20%

It's right at 20% when I first started I was useing one with 16% they use to leave alot of it. I'm thinking it's cause it was a whole bunch of different color's. Do you have a link to somewhere I can see or buy the lab blocks?

Nope. Local feed/pet stores should have it... I dont know of any place where it is affordable to buy it online, heavy stuff to ship.


Do you have any kind of feed/bigger pet store nearby? Not like petco or the like...

Yeah I think I know where to go thanks again. I'll let everyone know if things get better.