Tips to keep the smell down?

[Kyle1989]

Try adding a small fume hood with a fan that goes into a pipe out the window.

[ice#1]

pine is bad for mice it gives them respiratory problems check any site about mice breeding it is almost as bad as ceder. whether or not it is in pellet or shavings

here is what professional mice and rat breeders recommend aspen, pellet bedding(other then pine), unscented for any and all types of bedding. that stuff made from paper or carboard not sure which it is made of. some even listed kitty liter as a substrate (actually recommended most and if nothing else line bottom of cage with the litter

Raptor my mom also has asthma and has issues if the mouse cages stink i use aspen and any time she visits she aint had any issues with the smell and i go a month with-out changing bedding but i do put a Lil bit of kitty litter in bottom of the cages first

[Raptor]

pine is bad for mice it gives them respiratory problems check any site about mice breeding it is almost as bad as ceder. whether or not it is in pellet or shavings

here is what professional mice and rat breeders recommend aspen, pellet bedding(other then pine), unscented for any and all types of bedding. that stuff made from paper or carboard not sure which it is made of. some even listed kitty liter as a substrate (actually recommended most and if nothing else line bottom of cage with the litter

Raptor my mom also has asthma and has issues if the mouse cages stink i use aspen and any time she visits she aint had any issues with the smell and i go a month with-out changing bedding but i do put a Lil bit of kitty litter in bottom of the cages first

Feeder mice aren't going to live long enough to get health issues. So that's not a problem. Aspen shavings are also as bad as pine when it comes to ammonia build up. The paper .stuff you're talking about is the absolute worst. It's very dusty and goes bad very, very quickly. It's also very expensive.

[ericzerka24]

I throw a couple handfulls of pine pellets in my tubs and then wood shavings over the top. A little spot cleaning every other day and a decent plug in air freshener does the trick for my ASF's.

I bought a few mice a couple weeks ago and threw them in an extra tub in my ASF rack and the smell was unbareable after just 2 days. I gotta give it to you mouse breeders, if you can keep their smell down or can put up with it, u have a gift. Lol

[suzuki4life]

kiln dried pine works fine for ALL rodents.

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

I use a softwood bedding from PetCo (this stuff; super cheap and super compressed). I originally used pure pine, which had a super strong pine smell (but I like the smell, so no biggy) and just masked the rodent odor. I switched to the softwood PetCo bedding, and started putting some clay cat litter and baking soda on top of it (because the mice mix it well enough themselves), and the smell stays down well enough that I can go 10 days without cleaning if I go purely on smell.


Now, when I was asking about keeping the smell down over on another website, I was told many times by many people that vanilla extract does not work, and sometimes makes smell worse. Does it REALLY work?

[suzuki4life]

I use a softwood bedding from PetCo (this stuff; super cheap and super compressed). I originally used pure pine, which had a super strong pine smell (but I like the smell, so no biggy) and just masked the rodent odor. I switched to the softwood PetCo bedding, and started putting some clay cat litter and baking soda on top of it (because the mice mix it well enough themselves), and the smell stays down well enough that I can go 10 days without cleaning if I go purely on smell.


Now, when I was asking about keeping the smell down over on another website, I was told many times by many people that vanilla extract does not work, and sometimes makes smell worse. Does it REALLY work?

it does a bit....layering different bedding works absolutely best but most expensive and then you have all sorts of bedding laying around.

I use baking soda then pine. But the best is baking soda them abm Product (larger than equine fresh but similar), then loose pine shavings(not chips)

[ice#1]

Raptor i wasn't recommending any of that stuff that was stuff professional mouse and rat breeders use and recommend I've tried all they recommended and settled on aspen with a lil kitty liter in the bottom only time i get a strong smell like you say is if the water bottle keeps dripping and you don't clean the wet stuff out. tried the paper stuff the mice seem to love it but like you said it stinks really quickly.

one thing nobody has said they tried or used is ground corn cobs as bedding it works really good other then if it gets wet and if it does it molds very quickly 24 hours or less if water tube leaks only place i use this stuff is in with mother and baby cages and only cause i check there cages 4 or 5 times a day if find a spot where it looks white more then likely its mold stating to grow and remove a seizable portion around where it was wet

that paper stuff i throw a handful in for them to use as bedding takes them a week or 2 to get it soft enough or small enough to use as bedding but once they get it that away they seem to like it better then toilet paper or paper towels

but for me a combo of aspen with a Lil kitty liter under works wonders. (wish cedar wasn't bad for the mice and snakes cause that stuff just plain rocks compared to everything else for keeping smell down i use to use it last time i had breeders going close to 20 years ago then i guess while i wasn't breeding my own mice they found out it was bad for mice and snakes

[Raptor]

I've heard ground corn cobs causes smaller litters for whatever reason. To be honest, something that molds easily and is high maintenance isn't something that sounds like a good choice of bedding.

[ice#1]

they are only in the cages a couple days before the moms give birth then a couple days after to make sure she is a good mother but yes it isn't the best bedding but thats why i just use it for a week or less depending how long after i stick the pregnant moms in the cage before she pops I'm usually pretty good at guessing when there about to pop longest has been 3 days just had 2 litter dropped in the cobb that each had 16 babies so hopefully that aint a small litter

after a week the mom and babies get moved into a mother and baby communal tank where new moms and babies are moved in sometimes daily or when others come out depending how many female have babies at once