Does anyone keep their rodents in the house?

I dont know if I'd keep 51 tubs worth of rats in the house... But I currently keep 1 rack of 7 tubs and 1.3 groups in each tub in my snake room. I change bedding 1-2 times a week and so far it hasn't been bad. My snake room hold venomous animals, so the room is sealed off pretty well, so that might have something to do with it too. But staying on top of cleaning the is key I think. Very manageable with 7 tubs... 51 possibly not so much...

Got about 500 ASFs in the garage at the moment and the smell isn't too bad at all. I only have to clean every week or so, alternating between spot cleaning with the shop vac and total bedding replacement.

I did use to keep 2 small racks in the laundry room but the smell was horrible. It would travel down the hallway to the bedroom and I'd smell it while trying to sleep.

I built a room in the basement, 20 mice tubs and 30 rat tubs, I get about a week out of a pine pellet/shaving mix. I have to run a dehumidifier, bout it.

I keep a colony of around 50 breeders in my attic right now. There's a window box fan that I use during the summer. In the winter I just crack the window a bit. Cages are changes every other day. I hate the smell and I have a generous brother/employee that I have do the fun stuff Like that. Although when it was just me I spot cleaned daily with my shop vac. if you walked into that attic and didn't go around the corner to that area you would never smell them.

I've tried the pine pellets, I didn't like them at all. Felt like I was wasting them when I cleaned, and I didn't find a difference at all in keeping the odor down. I tried straight pellets, and a mix of pellet and shavings, and just didn't care for it.
I hear ya on the smell and heat from rodents in Florida.... I'm from Orlando, and my rodent smell is about half of what it was down in the humidity of Florida. I'll never go back!

The more rats in a tub the faster the wood will soil. Think of 4 or 5 humans living in a bathroom. Keep 1.2 or 1.3 in a tub. Kiln dried cedar is the best for odor, I can change it at most 3 wks and it still does not stink but is really yellow. My breeders live 2-3 yrs on cedar and i switched from pine 4 yrs ago. Rats would die in a yr from resperatory problems on pine, plus you have to change it every week if not sooner. Its a waste you use more and waste money. I have 2 freedom breeder racks one with 15 adult tubs the other has 18 small rat tubs all in an upstairs bedroom. Like the other guy no one knows i have 100s of rats in my house until i show them. ARS snake racks also in the same room. Usually change every 2 wks, momma tubs and weiner tubs can go longer. The people who complain about cedar have never used it. Check the bags and get kiln dried only. Snakes eat the rat not the wood, if they do its the aspen in there own tub. I have never had a snake die or get sick from eating rats on kiln dried cedar.

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Originally Posted by mmateo

The more rats in a tub the faster the wood will soil. Think of 4 or 5 humans living in a bathroom. Keep 1.2 or 1.3 in a tub. Kiln dried cedar is the best for odor, I can change it at most 3 wks and it still does not stink but is really yellow. My breeders live 2-3 yrs on cedar and i switched from pine 4 yrs ago. Rats would die in a yr from resperatory problems on pine, plus you have to change it every week if not sooner. Its a waste you use more and waste money. I have 2 freedom breeder racks one with 15 adult tubs the other has 18 small rat tubs all in an upstairs bedroom. Like the other guy no one knows i have 100s of rats in my house until i show them. ARS snake racks also in the same room. Usually change every 2 wks, momma tubs and weiner tubs can go longer. The people who complain about cedar have never used it. Check the bags and get kiln dried only. Snakes eat the rat not the wood, if they do its the aspen in there own tub. I have never had a snake die or get sick from eating rats on kiln dried cedar.

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Wait, you'd have respiratory infections using kiln dried pine, but not with kiln dried cedar?

Pine is not going to cause problems more than if using cedar. Ive seen too many animals drop dead when kept on cedar its not funny.

Pine emits ammonia in days cedar takes weeks, breathing the ammonia kills the rats. Cedar holds more and doesnt soil as fast as the pine. Look at the chips its an obvious difference. If pine chips were as big as cedar chips it would work better. Read and believe what you want like i said you obviously have not used it. Oh yea never feed a snake a live rat it will kill your snake...5 yrs of rat breeding is proof enough for me unless yoiu like wasting pine and money cleaning every other day

the amonia of their piss is one thing but the phenol oils emitted off cedar is off the charts and causes respiratory problems in almost all mammals including rodents.

Ive used it back in the old days before i seen the effects it does to animals. Ive seen dogs drop dead in their kennels whhen cedar is laid out. And i been breeding rodents for good 7 years now and always use pine.

theres guys on here been breeding longer than me with thousands of rats on pine. I pay about 3$ for a 5cu ft bag of pine that expands to 8cu ft. How is that wasting money when that will clean a good 50 cages.

Lets see some pictures of your so called healthy rodents and them kept on cedar. Better yet lets see video and see if we hear any sniffles or sneezes coming from them..