Quote Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow View Post
My advice is to invest heavily in air fresheners. I have a rat colony going, which isn't bad, an ASF starting which barely smells at all, and just went mouse-free. Honestly, the mice stank so bad I could barely stand it. If you keep them on kiln dried pine shavings that tends to keep the odor down. In my experience the paper bedding is quickly saturated and reeks to high heavens. Plus it's pricier than good kiln dried pine.
Must agree with this! I started out with my snakes eating mice and tried breeding them for a bit. They definitely smell quite a bit. Once my last litters were born I couldn't wait to switch to rats. I currently have about 13 rats ranging from weanlings to fully grown(not counting the new born pups), and they don't smell nearly as much as a few mice even with regular cleaning. Also rats are so much better parents than my mice were. Good luck with them though.

Just read your post again, and gotta say you only want one male with your females at a time. I've had feeders get into some nasty fights when I put them into the holding tank before feeding them out.