Tips to keep the smell down?

[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

[Raptor]

Communal tanks make it very hard to know who's being a good mother and who's not..As well as which mother produces what pups.

[ice#1]

not realy with the mice i get and the way they end up only 1 of each color gets moved into tank at once color usually favors the mother or at least they seem to in mine i got a bright orangeish colored one 4th liter and all her babies are same or very similar color got a few tiger stripes out of her males only keep what is needed to breed all other are feeders it's got to cage restriction size I've feed a pregnant mother or 3 off to my blood python to keep from majorily over crowding but that wont be a problem after not this next week but the fallowing wont be an issue get to go duck out a med growers shed for 1500 bucks he buys what he wants i set it all up electrical wise hard wired to his local electric code and alarm system too so going to be switching to tubs and building at least 1 mouse rack

the females at some times depending how many females i got that are ready to pop some have no choice but be a good mother deli cup with holes for air and bigger hole for water tube to go in this size i usually use for first time mothers then only 3 days at most then she and babies go in group mother tank most i keep is 4 moms in tank at all times. i've found by giving mothers a daily live treat of a meal-worm keeps all the mothers from eating others babies i got some now that was in tank with 4 mothers only 12 babies thus suckers look more like rat pup first week now got hair and starting to move around this Friday will be 2 week old literally 4 of them are close to same size as 3 week old mice only major difference these babies are fat big cause mothers fought at first and killed close to 30 babies would of been all but i got home and saw dead babies so threw a few meal-worms in to the moms and they been fine ever since.(the fighting went on while i was out of town for week-end side job) meal-worms are high in protein and for some reason it keeps females less likely to eat there young most babies i ever lost to a new mother was 1 if i see her eating the first one cause give a meal worm they gobble it down go clean themselves then off to feed the babies can almost set a clock buy it

Raptor in my communal mother tank all the females take turns feeding the babies the Dom female in my tanks usually moves all the babies into one nest as she finds the babies in bigger tanks she will move babies to other nests as she sees fit in 10 gallon tank with 7 liters she has the babies split up into 3 nests 2 on 1 end and other on other end in a big cardboard tube i gave them her litter is in there at least when she catches them all cause there not quite weanling if rember right Tuesday her and her babies will be coming out the tank and her back in with male and babies either set in new tank or frozen probably frozen. I'll admit it I'm by no means humane i stick the babies in deli cup no holes and throw them in the freezer next day dump them in a big zip-lock baggy

[wendhend]

All my rodents live in the garage.... and then nobody really cares if they get a bit smelly. I keep aspen bedding in their cages and change it out every one to two weeks, and they actually don't smell that bad.

[mykee]

I clean them often enough so that they don't stink.
I think it's very funny that after what?....3 pages not ONE person mentioned CLEANING to keep the odour down.....