When to breed my own rats?

[chilliscale]

To be honest, if you're caring for them properly you shouldn't really have an issue with smell. Most animals have a smell, and you are going to smell them, but it shouldn't be overwhelming and soaking into the walls so that you have to replace them if you choose to move... if you cramp torn a bin and don't clean them often enough, then maybe you would have that problem, otherwise they really shouldn't 'stink'.

You could always keep them in a pet-type setup, however that will likely make breeding your own rats pointless since I doubt you'll save much money doing so. Maybe it would since you don't need a LOT of rats, but I wouldn't know. It would definitely be a lot larger initial cost though, with buying a good cage and accessories, making bin cages for nursing, etc.

When kept clean though, I find they actually have a nice smell if you grab one and sniff 'em. Lol

If you have hundreds of rats in a room for years, or even a few dozen, no matter how clean you keep it there will be smell. I recently moved and after having rats in a room for only 7 years, the smell was still noticed by others viewing the house a couple months later. Just in one room