Mice Stink!!

So I made an impulse decision at the pet store the other day to 4 pet mice. They were so cute and I just couldn't help myself. I brought them home and set up their cage and it made it super cute.

The problem is....5 hours later, I could already smell them. I cleaned the cage right then. It was only 5 hours worth of dirty. They stink!

I realize I can't clean their cage every 5 hours, but they are smelly and I don't like it!!

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Originally Posted by lasweetswan

So I made an impulse decision at the pet store the other day to 4 pet mice. They were so cute and I just couldn't help myself. I brought them home and set up their cage and it made it super cute.

The problem is....5 hours later, I could already smell them. I cleaned the cage right then. It was only 5 hours worth of dirty. They stink!

I realize I can't clean their cage every 5 hours, but they are smelly and I don't like it!!

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Shoulda gone with rats. :(

I have 1.4 of mice and 4.16 of rats and the mice tank smells 10x worse in a few days than 4 rat tubs do in a week and a half. I can't wait until all mine are converted to rats so I can feed off my mouse colony.

Regards,

B

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simple Man

I have 1.4 of mice and 4.16 of rats and the mice tank smells 10x worse in a few days than 4 rat tubs do in a week and a half. I can't wait until all mine are converted to rats so I can feed off my mouse colony.

Regards,

B

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Yeah, see the thing here is that I didn't get them to use as feeders. They were cute and fuzzy and I was all, "i have a 20 gallon at home that you can live in!" And I am not the type of person to just get rid of an animal...I hate when people buy animals and then dump them on someone else. But shewww-wee, they reek. I'm going to research ways to kill the odor, hopefully with only the 4 of them I'll be able to figure something out.

They're disgusting little animals. I can only tolerate them when they're frozen. :)

Did you get boys?

Males will stink faster due to the constant pissing to scent their territory.

What bedding are you using. I would suggest using pine shavings or pine pellets with shavings. Anything else just makes it smell like ass. Also need to keep in mind that rodents have their own scent that some ppl think is nasty and theres nothing that can be done about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lasweetswan

Yeah, see the thing here is that I didn't get them to use as feeders. They were cute and fuzzy and I was all, "i have a 20 gallon at home that you can live in!" And I am not the type of person to just get rid of an animal...I hate when people buy animals and then dump them on someone else. But shewww-wee, they reek. I'm going to research ways to kill the odor, hopefully with only the 4 of them I'll be able to figure something out.

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In that case you really should have gotten rats. They are awesome pets. Smart, clean, and not much odor... Oh well, guess you can take that lesson to heart for next time ;)

Regards,

B

As was said above, what bedding are you using?

Yes, they tend to smell funky, but not normally after only 5 hours.

A combination of pellets and shavings works the best.

I got four females....had the paper type bedding. Changed that after 5 hours to aspen. After reading a lot, I think I will try the combo of pellets and shavings and see if that helps. :)

Fill up the tank with CO2. The will kill...the odor. :P

Feed em off, and get a couple of gerbils.. they don't stink at all.

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Originally Posted by jasbus

Feed em off, and get a couple of gerbils.. they don't stink at all.

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ABSOLUTELY! Gerbils are about the only rodent I would have anymore. Being desert animals, they don't urinate much. I could go 2 weeks without a litter change with my last gerbils and it only smelled up close.

I will never have mice again. They are the nastiest smelling little things.

Mice are way better pets than gerbils, much more friendly, and less hyper.

As for bedding, if you had carefresh before THAT IS WHY it stank! Carefresh smells like dead fish and amonia as soon as it gets peed on, it's just awful, TERRIBLE stuff!

Aspen will make all your non-stinky mice dreams come true. :D
And if that's not enough odor control, you can put PURE vanilla extract in their water bottle, and baking soda in the bottom (under the litter) of the tank in the corners.

And if THAT'S not enough, switch to pine, and continue with vanilla and baking soda.
:)

Gerbils drink about 1/5 of what a mouse does, so there is almost no smell at all.
They make great pets, and very rarely bite. At first, as with almost all rodents, of course they will, but after just a couple of days of interaction, they make the best pet outside of a rat.

If you want more exotic, try a Degu, they are like a gerbil on steroids, and make great pets also, but need a bigger space, and wire only caging...

I found a way to make the stink go away....

I am rehoming them with my boss :)
Hahhaha, talk about stickin' it to the man!!! :gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lasweetswan

And I am not the type of person to just get rid of an animal...I hate when people buy animals and then dump them on someone else.

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:gj: glad it all worked out..

lol I would have just fed them off or gave to a friend for food, lol.... seems you did what was needed though =P

mice are always going to stink 20 years and still breeding mice and rats:cool:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/.../snakes263.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/.../snakes283.jpg
:gj:

i know what u mean mice will 2 hours after u clean them it takes me 4 hours to clean my colony:cool:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/.../snakes283.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/.../snakes274.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/.../snakes261.jpg:)

I sell tons of mice, and alot of them are to be "pets". You can't tell people somthing they don'[t want to hear. No matter how hard you try to convince them, they want what they want...
probably 90% of these "pets" come back because of the smell....

Nasty little creatures. My mouse barn just stinks, constantly. I get done cleaning, and within half a day, you can't even tell I cleaned. They are just nasty, I've always hated breeding them, but it makes money...

I've been breeding them for 20+ years myself, both on and off commercial level. Made the mistake of putting 25 lab boxes in the stock room of my store, so I didn't have to keep going out back to get pinkies and babies. That lasted all of a month before they went back out in the shed. People would come in the store and just wrinkle up their nose.

Maybe it's all that wine they're drinking ;)

I swear by Sweet PDZ!

I use it for the hamsters and I tell ya, those hamsters stink to high heaven without the PDZ.

I tried Sweet PDZ, I couldn't tell a difference. Of course, I also have thousands of mice, so that may the the problem....
I've done the pine pellets as well, no difference, tried pretty much everything on the market with no difference at all.
I breed hamsters as well, syrians stink worse than mice.