stall dry for rodents tubs -- keeps down the stink!

i was at the feed store today picking up litter and food for my rats and they asked me if i used a product called stall dry. well no, i'd never heard of it. so they brought out a bottle of ammonia which they had me stick my finger in. stink! then they opened a container of stall dry and had me stick my finger in that. the smell was gone! totally gone, like there had never been ammonia on my finger at all. i was convinced and bought a bag--40lbs for $18 (which should last a considerable amount of time).

so what you do is put about an inch of the stall dry into your rodent tubs under the regular litter. the stall dry absorbs the urine and ammonia smell, keeping your litter cleaner and less smelly, which should cut down on cleaning quite a bit. i am going to start using the stall dry tonight and will report back with my findings after a week or so. it can also be used in kitty litter pans, for any rodents, and of course in horse stalls (which is what it was originally made for).

info for the company that makes stall dry:
www.wicp.com
800-667-0336

What a wonderful product. I will look forward to your reviews after you have used it for awhile. It would be wonderful it is that effective inside the cage. Nice find!! :gj:

Hm.. I had heard of this for horses but never thought of it for rodents.. looking forward to your results!

I'm curious too..with 11 cats in the house, anything that helps with litterbox maintenance would be much appreciated!

yes, i will most definitely be trying it out in my litter boxes, so i will report back on that also. :)

Does it reduce the efficacy at all if/when the rats start into the digging and burrowing and it's no longer in a nice layer on the bottom?



Definitely looking forward to hearing how it works out for you!

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Originally Posted by Smulkin

Does it reduce the efficacy at all if/when the rats start into the digging and burrowing and it's no longer in a nice layer on the bottom?

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i'm not really sure--will be part of the test. :) i would think that it will still absorb the urine and ammonia smell to some extent even if it gets mixed up with the litter, but we shall see. i'm thinking that once dug through and mixed around it may get sifted through the bedding back to the bottom of the enclosure since it is kind of the consistency of sand (slightly larger granules though) so perhaps it will end back up where it is supposed to be.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

it is kind of the consistency of sand (slightly larger granules though) so perhaps it will end back up where it is supposed to be.

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Sweet - keep us posted!

My friend used that for her horses for awhile, but she stopped because it was getting too expensive, as they started baling their own straw for bedding and was cheaper. But I saw it in use ofer a period of a few weeks and it seemed to work great! Except it didn't seem to offer any kind of cushy bedding qualities for the horses like straw does; then again, when they eat all of their bedding, there's not much left to lay on, heh.. but I think you're supposed to wet it and turn it into sawdust before use...?

Gin I think you're thinking of the compressed wood pellet beddings.. those you wet slightly and they decompress into fluffy little wood chip type things that aren't dusty and are very absorbent. Stall dry is different from those.

I'm thinking this might be the answer to my aversion to breeding mice. My rats have little to no smell but a few mice in the rodent room and I'm literally gagging from the stench of the lil boogers! Can't wait to hear back Em.

I might have to try it too, even though my mice rarely smell(one male mouse smells worse than a cage of 10 females...). I'll check out some feed stores nearby. Think TSC would have it?

i have one mouse that i keep for the purpose of creating dirty mouse bedding to scent rats with for a few of the snakes, and dang! stinky! but since that is why i have miss mouse i guess i can't complain too much. :) my rats are pretty stinky right now too though--i think the room i have them in is just too small and doesn't have good enough ventillation. they never smelled this strong where i had them before but it was a kind of open kitchen/living/dining room area that was a lot bigger. that is soon to change though--my awesome father-in-law is building me rat racks based on wild bill's racks he used to sell. :gj: when those are finished the rats will be moved into them and out into the garage. and i will have space to expand my colony some so i can hopefully produce all the rats i need.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I'm thinking this might be the answer to my aversion to breeding mice. My rats have little to no smell but a few mice in the rodent room and I'm literally gagging from the stench of the lil boogers! Can't wait to hear back Em.

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I thought I was the only one! lol I noticed a BIG diffrence when I got a few mice.........


Just spotted this thread...
Any update on the stall-dry??? Did it seem to help any?

well i just put it in the tubs last night so we'll have to wait several days before i really know. so far so good though, and it seems to be staying on the bottom of the enclosures despite digging, nesting, rearranging, etc. :)

Thanks for the review. I'm curious, though... I checked out their website and the active ingredients are diatomaceous earth and clay in granular form with a little pine scent added. Isn't that the same as most kitty litter? Has anyone tried using plain kitty litter in their rat cages?

No.. diatomaceous earth is an important ingredient. It's got a lot of surface area from which the absorbed urine can be dispersed from.. plus that if any pest/parasite walks across it, they die since diatomaceous earth is actually the skeletons of tiny organisms which happen to be very sharp.. not harmful to a mammal, but a parasite will be sliced open and the juices sucked right out of it because it's so absorbent.

DE is actually fed to some animals as a wormer.. some people even use it with their dogs. It's pretty common with keepers of poultry.

So are you saying that don't use DE in some cat litter (in addition to clay)? I thought it was. :confused:

I never knew they did, perhaps they do. I thought the majority were just clay and scent.

I know of a small rodent breeder as well that uses it. He just uses a thin layer in the tubs for his mice, rats, gerbils, and guinea pigs. The oder control is amazing. I have never found a supplier of it but I may call around now that I know its out there somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

No.. diatomaceous earth is an important ingredient. It's got a lot of surface area from which the absorbed urine can be dispersed from.. plus that if any pest/parasite walks across it, they die since diatomaceous earth is actually the skeletons of tiny organisms which happen to be very sharp.. not harmful to a mammal, but a parasite will be sliced open and the juices sucked right out of it because it's so absorbent.

DE is actually fed to some animals as a wormer.. some people even use it with their dogs. It's pretty common with keepers of poultry.

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DE sounds futuristic and scary!

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

DE sounds futuristic and scary!

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Not at all ... It's delicious on pasta with a little olive oil and helps keep you very regular ... I like to sprinkle it on my pizza!! :carrot:

-adam

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

DE sounds futuristic and scary!

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Except that it's really old. :-P

The silica skeletons of microscopic algae (or plankton? I forget)...they are fabulously gorgeous...look up some pics sometimes.

It also combines with nitroglycerin to make dynamite. :-D

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Not at all ... It's delicious on pasta with a little olive oil and helps keep you very regular ... I like to sprinkle it on my pizza!! :carrot:

-adam

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Be careful what you say, it might become the next diet craze.


So if i inhale this stuff do my blood cells get cut up :* scary ?:*(

LOL.. DE.. the skeletons of diatoms to be precise.. tiny plants.

No, not harmful if you eat it even. :P

I think alot of litter uses it. I know that in one of the fish keeping boards im on they suggest it for a base in tanks with alot of live plants.

Edit! I had it confused with something else.. sorry. I thought of the wood-pellet type stuff; this product seems like something different though.

well after a week in use i give the stall dry a positive report. no smell! before using the stall dry the room housing the rats would get stinky if the door was left closed for the day. i left the door closed for three days, and on and off other days, which previously would have been fatal, but no big deal now. i had my husband come smell the room last night, because he always says it stinks, even if i just cleaned every cage in the room. he reported that it smelled like wood and popcorn. good enough for me!

after a week of no cleaning i do feel that some spot cleaning is necessary, but for a change it isn't because it stinks, it's just because i like to keep things clean. the stall dry has also remained at the bottom of the cages with no problem at all. so far so good. :)

next test: kitty litter box. :meow!:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Hmm I wonder as well if this stuff would be a natural aide in making sure your rodents don't have any little buggie friends on board. We used to by a DE based natural powder for our one Lab to keep her flea free, She had been bred in the Canadian Yukon where dog fleas do not exist so had no natural ability to handle fleas and would go nuts if even one got on her and was allergic to most flea treatments. The DE stuff really worked quite well.

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This post has been moved to the proper Thread

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Originally Posted by mlededee

well after a week in use i give the stall dry a positive report. no smell! before using the stall dry the room housing the rats would get stinky if the door was left closed for the day. i left the door closed for three days, and on and off other days, which previously would have been fatal, but no big deal now. i had my husband come smell the room last night, because he always says it stinks, even if i just cleaned every cage in the room. he reported that it smelled like wood and popcorn. good enough for me!

after a week of no cleaning i do feel that some spot cleaning is necessary, but for a change it isn't because it stinks, it's just because i like to keep things clean. the stall dry has also remained at the bottom of the cages with no problem at all. so far so good. :)

next test: kitty litter box. :meow!:

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Hrm, interesting. how much did you put in each tub?

i put about an inch of it in the bottom of each tub, but did put a little more in the tub that holds males that aren't in with females since they are a bit stinkier.

I picked up soemthing callled Stall Fresh. I put a small layer of it on the bootom of my mosue trays and also the rat trays. My wife will tell me if it is working or not. Todd

Now that it's been a month Emily, any updates on the Stall Dry in the litter box???


Do U have problems w/the rats burying their lab blocks in the stall dry/bedding or are you feeding thru a mesh lid/screen/feeder????

I'm REAAAAAAALLY curious how it works for you w/the litterbox. Between the 4 house cats/2 boxes, and the 3 garage cats/3 boxes, I'd like to get something to help w/the odor and the freshening so if I don't have time to change it every 3-4 days, I can wait w/o the smell problem. :rolleye2:


RuLyn

i LOVE stall dry. i can go sooo much longer between cleanings now it's unreal. after about a week i scoop out the "pee corner" and sift around for any other spots and i'm good to go for about another week before i need to do a full cleaning depending on how many rats are being housed in the particular tub. and i now clean because the cage is dirty, not because the cage smells but isn't really very dirty yet.

the stall dry is so fine that there isn't any trouble with the rats burying anything in it. when they dig through it and the bedding it just sifts back down to the bottom of the enclosure.

i actually haven't tried it in my litter box yet. the smell there isn't too much of a problem because i clean it almost every other day, so i decided it's not really necessary. that is with 2 cats though so i can see how with more cats it would be a lot different--i'd definitely give a try in your case. as well as it works for the rats i'd imagine it would do wonders for the ammonia smell in a litter box as well.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

i LOVE stall dry. i can go sooo much longer between cleanings now it's unreal. after about a week i scoop out the "pee corner" and sift around for any other spots and i'm good to go for about another week before i need to do a full cleaning depending on how many rats are being housed in the particular tub. and i now clean because the cage is dirty, not because the cage smells but isn't really very dirty yet.

the stall dry is so fine that there isn't any trouble with the rats burying anything in it. when they dig through it and the bedding it just sifts back down to the bottom of the enclosure.

i actually haven't tried it in my litter box yet. the smell there isn't too much of a problem because i clean it almost every other day, so i decided it's not really necessary. that is with 2 cats though so i can see how with more cats it would be a lot different--i'd definitely give a try in your case. as well as it works for the rats i'd imagine it would do wonders for the ammonia smell in a litter box as well.

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Did you ever try a little Kittly litter?

no. it's not as fine and more expensive so i'm sticking with the stall dry. :) stall dry supposedly is a good additive to kitty litter to reduce the ammonia smell, so i figure if it's better and cheaper than kitty litter it's a winner on my list.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

no. it's not as fine and more expensive so i'm sticking with the stall dry. :) stall dry supposedly is a good additive to kitty litter to reduce the ammonia smell, so i figure if it's better and cheaper than kitty litter it's a winner on my list.

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Do you just mix it up with regular bedding?

i put about a half inch or so of it in the enclosure and then put aspen bedding on top. you don't mix it--it sits on the bottom and absorbs the urine.

Is it really ok to let rodent bedding go for more than a week even if it appears/smells clean? I don't think it would be healthy personally. Even with my African rats who are very clean rodents and pee in very specific areas I clean every week with a complete bedding change and tub scrub.

If I missed the time was extended for experiment purposes I apologize for missing it. Cool to hear that it does make an improvement though!