How do you deal with the smell of dead rats in the terrarium?

[Mr. Misha]

So yesterday was my first time feeding pre-killed in my terrarium for two of my snakes. I usually feed live, but since they started eating medium rats, I don't feel comfortable due to the risk of injury to my snakes.

After zombie dancing them, both of my snakes didn't seem interested so I left them over night. This was probably around 8pm. When I took out the uneaten rats out of their enclosure around 7am, (I have a split AP T12 for both of them) the smell was horrid inside the terrarium.

My question is: do you guys air out your enclosure afterward? Also, does the lasting smell affect the snakes?

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[Marissa@MKmorphs]

I would love to know what the replies are to this.

I feed f/t and occasionally have a refusal that gets dragged on to the hot spot.

I usually just wipe out the tub with some F10 and that usually does a decent job.


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[Archimedes]

Yep, take em out and wipe it down. It does stink, you're right. A wipe-down with your preferred cleaner and a thorough rinse will do the trick, make sure you do the lid too.

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[Mr. Misha]

Yep, take em out and wipe it down. It does stink, you're right. A wipe-down with your preferred cleaner and a thorough rinse will do the trick, make sure you do the lid too.

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I'll will definitely wipe down the walls with natural enzyme cleaner. However, it's a 48x24x24 enclosure so taking everything out and cleaning every time they refuse is not an option. I do a thorough cleaning once a month which I actually just did this Sunday.

That's why I want to know what the rest of the BP fam does in this case.

Do you replace the substrate as well?

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[Archimedes]

I'll will definitely wipe down the walls with natural enzyme cleaner. However, it's a 48x24x24 enclosure so taking everything out and cleaning every time they refuse is not an option. I do a thorough cleaning once a month which I actually just did this Sunday.

That's why I want to know what the rest of the BP fam does in this case.

Do you replace the substrate as well?

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What you're smelling is decomposition. I recommend doing a full clean every time because otherwise those bacteria that break down biomaterial are still sitting there with your snake, even though the source is gone. Maybe limit exposure to the prey to just a few hours, not overnight?

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[Mr. Misha]

That makes sense. I'll have to do that then. Thanks for the heads up.

It seems like leaving prey overnight might be a bigger risk than I thought.

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[satomi325]

I would just air out the enclosure and/or disinfect it. You could also just replace the bedding around where the rat was sitting on.


I have never had a freshly killed rat smell. Not the day of death, nor the day after.
I don't feed F/T or P/K stuff to my snakes, but I do feed my ferrets whole prey. I can leave the prey in their cage for 3 days straight before it starts smelling nasty, then I toss it. (some of the ferrets won't eat freshly killed prey and only prefer it if the meat has been sitting for a little bit)
But its also not in an enclosed warm cage and I also have a fan circulating the air so it's just stagnant.

[barbie.dragon]

It's random but why don't you use bioactive substrates? Cleaning is minimal especially for a terrarium that large

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[Mr. Misha]

It's random but why don't you use bioactive substrates? Cleaning is minimal especially for a terrarium that large

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I've never heard of that before. I read up on it a little bit but is there a brand you'd recommend?

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[barbie.dragon]

I've never heard of that before. I read up on it a little bit but is there a brand you'd recommend?

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Well it's not really a brand rather you have a soil that is "alive". You let plants and the bacteria in the soil to get rid of excess nutrients. You can also go get some invertebrates to help the process. There's a book called the art of keeping snakes and check out some dendro boards. They're crazy about stuff like this.

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