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do rats stink

K

kingkong

New member
i,m thinking of getting some breeding rats my question is do rats stink as much as mice someone told me that they dont stink but they are dirty but i know most peaple feed rats to large corn snakes and boas awnsers please
 
I own rats as pets and yes they can be stinky, if you LET them be stinky. In general rats are really clean animals. But their cages/tanks need cleaned regularly.
 
I find that even with mice. If you clean the cage about once per week and you should be fine. Remember to keep your males seperate from each other and seperate them from the females when they start to show because they will either impregnate your female within 24 hours of the birthing (causing weaning to be a bit too early) or may even eat the babies.
Males also smell worse than females. It doesn't seem to matter what rodent species it is. They just do.
What type of snakes are you feeding? If you're feeding boas you should be breeding rats, but rats grow BIG so if you're going to be feeding corns you're better off just going with mice unless you plan on keeping a select few for breeding and freezing them when they get to the right size.
Also, rats (when fed live) are known to fight a little harder than mice and can cause more severe injury to your snake than mice.
 
Oh and keep them somewhere well ventilated and preferably seperate from your house (I use my heated garage) because regardless of cleaning they do produce somewhat of an odor.
 
I hid six rats from my parents in a ferret cage in my closet for over a year. :) So not much.

My mice were always stinky though. :/
 
If you can, find ASF's (African Soft Furred Rats.) They aren't as big as rats, but close and they smell a whole lot less. Not to mention that they can have huge litters. Which is always a plus! ;)

Wayne
 
I find rats are DON'T stink the way mice do. I don't care how clean you keep a mouse cage, mice stink.

Of course if you let a rat cage get too dirty and urine saturated, let food rot in it, leave spilled water in it, etc its going to stink but with reasonable cleaning & bedding changes, rat cages are practically odorless.

I hadn't raised rats until the past few months and was surprised how different rats are from the other pet rodents. Rats are so obviously much more intelligent than other pet rodent species.

I was surprised to find out how clean and odorless rats are, because except for handling a pet rat in school, my experience with rats had been in dealing with living in a farmhouse and trying to keep wild rats out of the house and dog kennels. Wild rats were so dirty! You could tell where they had been running because of the greasy body tracks they left on the ground or walls.

Another species that is odorless and puts out very little urine is the gerbil, because they are a desert rodent. I used to raise many color varieties of gerbils and in a room full of gerbil cages kept adequately cleaned, there was no stink.
 
Spiritwolf said:
I find rats are DON'T stink the way mice do. I don't care how clean you keep a mouse cage, mice stink.

Of course if you let a rat cage get too dirty and urine saturated, let food rot in it, leave spilled water in it, etc its going to stink but with reasonable cleaning & bedding changes, rat cages are practically odorless.

I hadn't raised rats until the past few months and was surprised how different rats are from the other pet rodents. Rats are so obviously much more intelligent than other pet rodent species.

I was surprised to find out how clean and odorless rats are, because except for handling a pet rat in school, my experience with rats had been in dealing with living in a farmhouse and trying to keep wild rats out of the house and dog kennels. Wild rats were so dirty! You could tell where they had been running because of the greasy body tracks they left on the ground or walls.

Another species that is odorless and puts out very little urine is the gerbil, because they are a desert rodent. I used to raise many color varieties of gerbils and in a room full of gerbil cages kept adequately cleaned, there was no stink.
Click to expand...

Why are you typing in bold? That's real odd!

I dunno, I can change my rats tank and the very next day, it will stink. My male urinates all over everything. He's a total stinker!

Wayne
 
thanks for all the awnser and for all of you who wanted to no i am going to breed them mainly for my six month old red tailed boa gandolf.
 
medusacoils said:
Be careful using pine shavings. Read;

The Toxicity of Pine and Cedar Shavings!

Wayne
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Thanks for that information but I think I can pass. In my line of work you could probably imagine the amount of animals I raise. Plus I have a working relationship with many other large breeders here in the south east. We all use pine, and I for one can tell you I have no more problems keeping rodents on pine then aspen.
 
RickersRodents said:
Thanks for that information but I think I can pass. In my line of work you could probably imagine the amount of animals I raise. Plus I have a working relationship with many other large breeders here in the south east. We all use pine, and I for one can tell you I have no more problems keeping rodents on pine then aspen.
Click to expand...

That's fine. I can appreciate when a person has tried a substrate with success. We, on the other hand, haven't been so lucky. A few years back, when $$ got a little tight, we switched to pine in order to save a few $$. Some of the rodents began to develop RI and we lost a few colonies. The problem cleared up when we switched back to carefresh.

When this originally happened, I thought it may have been a coincidence. So we tried to use it again with the same results. :shrugs: We breed a large compliment of different types of rodents and have seen the same results in different species, as well.

It makes me wonder if rodents develop an immunity to the oils or dust in the pine over time. There has to be some reason why pine affects some, but not others. I know people who use it on snakes, with the same results. It works for some but not others. :shrugs:

Some kind of mystery?

Wayne
 
Could have alot to do with other wood types in the bedding. Some companies have no problems putting ceder shavings in as well and we all know the effect of ceder on animals :(

Other cases could be how they prepare the shavings. The company I use is out of the south east and do a great job on kiln drying everthing.
 
RickersRodents said:
Could have alot to do with other wood types in the bedding. Some companies have no problems putting ceder shavings in as well and we all know the effect of ceder on animals :(

Other cases could be how they prepare the shavings. The company I use is out of the south east and do a great job on kiln drying everthing.
Click to expand...

That could be a strong possibility. Just to make sure it doesn't happen again, I think I will stick with the care fresh. No Offense!

I have too much invested, to take another chance.

Stay Thirsty My Friend!

Wayne
 
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