Raising Rats, Mice, and African Soft Fur Rats...

[cchardwick]

OK, so I just started into the ball python breeding hobby and started out with frozen thawed, then got a snake that refused to eat F/T so I bought a bunch of mice, regular rats, and African soft fur rats. Just had them a few weeks to see which ones I like the best, none have bred yet. I have them in glass critter cages, they are like aquariums with sliding locking screen tops. On the top of the critter cages I've been using carbon filter pads to keep the smell down to zero. All except the ASFs have the carbon filter, I found that the African soft fur rats have zero smell at all. And my seven juvenile rats (just weaned) have almost no smell, just a hint of a smell after several days with new bedding, but nothing crazy. Then there's the mice, YIKES! When I slide off the screen and carbon filter pad the smell just about knocks me over, it's even bad in a tank with just one male mouse in a 20 gallon tank just several days after fresh aspen bedding. The smell is so bad with mice I'm considering feeding them all in the next couple weeks and sticking with regular rats and ASFs. Has anyone else tried all of these rodents and had a preference of one over the other? I'm almost thinking of going with all ASFs just because they don't have any smell at all.