smell-reducing techniques

tell me, how can i make my rats less stinky...thanks!

When they start to smell I clean the tub. :D
Every week.

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Originally Posted by Danegerous

tell me, how can i make my rats less stinky...thanks!

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Buy Frozen thawed. Other than that, they stink. Not much you can do about it besides clean often and have good ventilation.

Using wood pellet such as Equine fresh

No over-crowding

Using vanilla extract

Good ventilation

Cleaning the enclosure on a regular basis

i hate every one of those ideas...i like to clean about once a quarter. bah...joking.

It will smell better or worse depending on what type of bedding your using. What do you use? Some of the strong odor comes the amonia in the urine, you can add a tiny bit of vanilla extract to their water and that will reduce that smell.

Forget rats and mice and breed ASF instead. I usually clean the tanks monthly and they dont even smell enough to remind me to clean them that often... The females seriously have no odor and the males have a very slight smell, but its not a bad smell like pee or anything...
For my rats, I have used some kinda odor absorbing thing from petco... It works pretty well...

teeeeny tiiiny pooter plugs for rats

cork them babies up

Funny but I can't say my rats really smell much unless I'm lax on cleaning their bins weekly. Basically it's good ventilation (I like my side ventilated bins for that), no overcrowding, full change once weekly and if it is a pretty full bin I do a couple of big handfuls of clean bedding mid-week just to freshen it up a bit. If I give them some kitchen leftovers as a treat I just check the next day and remove anything uneaten so it doesn't go nasty if they hide it in the bedding.

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Originally Posted by Corrupter

Forget rats and mice and breed ASF instead. I usually clean the tanks monthly and they dont even smell enough to remind me to clean them that often... The females seriously have no odor and the males have a very slight smell, but its not a bad smell like pee or anything...
For my rats, I have used some kinda odor absorbing thing from petco... It works pretty well...

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the thing is is finding ASF's in your area, here in GA they are impossible to find. Not that id use them anyways. Lets say you breed balls and use asfs to feed the babys, i know I couldnt buy a asf addicted snake from you because I cant feed them that;) I wish I could, but until more are availible other choices are the best choices IMO

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Not that id use them anyways. Lets say you breed balls and use asfs to feed the babys, i know I couldnt buy a asf addicted snake from you because I cant feed them that;)

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First, let me say that it has been documented here on ball-pythons forums... that nobobdy from this site feeding ASF's has ever had any problems in time switching back to normal rats.



That said, I found the two biggest things that lowered odor when I had rats was the equine fresh substrate (this is also the most cost effective) and a small fan blowing towards the tanks 100% of the time.

In my opinion the fan made the biggest difference... It was not on them in a way where the rodents would be blown away... I set it just right so there was a constant flow of air over the top of all the tanks.

Bottom line though is that rats stink. GO ASF!

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Originally Posted by wilomn

teeeeny tiiiny pooter plugs for rats

cork them babies up

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LOL!!! But they walk funny when they got those!

Rats and mice will have an odor. It's completely up to you how you want to reduce the smell.

Summer is coming, soon the windows will be open, a fan will be mounted in the room for ventilation. That alone does wonders for me.

Second, I have an automatic air freshener that sprays lemon scent every 15 minutes.

Third, I use equine fresh. A big source of smell is from my nursing mothers. Having a litter of 15 rats in one bin starts to smell after 3 days. I try to stay on top and don't give her too much aspen, and as soon as they are running around I give them just pellets. Usually around 2 weeks of age. There is a huge difference in smell when using the pellets compared to shavings.

Lastly, I change their bedding every Saturday. Every 7 days it all gets changed no matter what.

Also helps to have them in the laundry room. It smells clean in there all the time. ;)

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Originally Posted by mcavana

First, let me say that it has been documented here on ball-pythons forums... that nobobdy from this site feeding ASF's has ever had any problems in time switching back to normal rats.

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Reason why I said addicted on asfs;)

I keep mine out in our dog barn, so no smell problems here.

I keep my breeding rodents in a wardrobe closet like this: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56988
And use activated carbon can filters like this http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=55074 to output fresh air. Also cleaning weekly and using compressed aspen pellets helps keep my bedroom from smelling like discusting rodents.

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

Also cleaning weekly and using compressed aspen pellets helps keep my bedroom from smelling like discusting rodents.

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Compressed aspen pellets? I didn't know there was such a thing. Is it like the pine pellets (equine fresh, woody pet, etc)? Where do you get it, how much does it cost?

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Originally Posted by kc261

Compressed aspen pellets? I didn't know there was such a thing. Is it like the pine pellets (equine fresh, woody pet, etc)? Where do you get it, how much does it cost?

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I think I get it at Petco. It's called Aspen Supreme pellets - Organic aspen litter. Pine pellets are cheaper, but this stuff seems more compressed, plus it's aspen.

I found that just placing them in a different location made a huge difference. Most homes have a natural airflow. Cooler air tends to come in near windows and doors and then flow down the walls and across the floor. If you light an incense and hold it near your walls you can watch where the smoke goes and figure out the airflow. If you're lucky you can find a good spot in your home. I went from a standing rack to the floor and haven't smelled them since.

I usually clean every 4 days now, its really not bad at all. Pine is $4 a bale, I can afford to clean more often.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Reason why I said addicted on asfs;)

I keep mine out in our dog barn, so no smell problems here.

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Same here I keep my rats and mice over in the dog kennel. We have three rooms plus the kennel part. One is used for the office one for my incubator and roaches. Then one for the rodents. Works great.


To keep the smell down I clean every 7 days too. But that doesnt really seem to keep the smell down. I guess when it gets to be to much change it. When I had rats and mice in the house. I was changing every 3 or 4 days. Even then there was some stink.