I breed rodents, in a VERY small "bedroom" (which is more like a den, but the landlord gets to charge more if it's a bedroom I guess) and I can say that rats STINK. A HELLUVA lot more than ASFs. Way worse. When I had ASFs none of my friends even really knew unless they were over at night and said "hey, what's that clicking sound?" (The ASFs drinking from the bottles). But now that we have actual rats people can smell them in my house. Someone said it perfectly, it's a warm-animally smell, sometimes mixed with "musk" that the males seem to emit. Not sure if it's their poop, or what, but they definitely have a distinct odor. Their pee is a lot more overpowering as well. See ASFs don't really drink a lot of water, therefor they don't pee a lot which REALLY reduces their smell.

But, they produce a lot better for me than ASFs did, so I just get over the smell. It's a lot of work. Lots of cleaning and maintenance, but it saves me lots of money also, so I don't mind. Also, they're so cute! And nothing beats having every size rat you could possibly need on hand at any given time.