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Problem with mouse smell

RATTIE

New member
I want to start breeding mice after I get my own house but I remember that when I had three female mice before they made my room smell very bad. Is there some thing I can do about the smell? I have rats now and can't smell them unless I don't clean the cage for like a week. I plan on using 2 foot tubs with 1/4 inch wire mesh along the sides at the top of the tubs so I can stack them. Also can they eat what I feed my rats? I feed the rats Blue Buffalo for older dogs with a grain mix added to it.
 
yeh, mice are a little bit stinky lol. So cute tho! All you can really do is keep up on the cage cleaning! And don't have too many!! They will eat the same food as rats. I think when I had mice I was feeding hamster mix and grain cereal or bran flakes and taking out any dye-colored bits in the hamster food. My rats get mostly cheerios and bran flakes.
 
I'm surprised to read that it was your females that smelled so bad. I think male mouse pee is about the worst smelling stuff ever produced.

Be careful with your substrate. Premier Pet brand aspen is horrible when it gets wet. It will smell worse than your mice. Carefree is nice, but does nothing for odor. Get a good quality aspen and clean your tank daily, at least their pee corner.

Mice seem to be able to chew through anything, so keep an eye on the mesh sides! ;)
 
mouse smell

i use aspen sani-chips mixed with a scoop of tidy cat litter-really absorbs ammonia smell! feed harlan 2018 mouse chow-mice need more protein:cheers:
 
Thanks.

Sadly they are illegal in California but if I ever move out of state I'll definitely have to get some.

Aww, that stinks.

In the mean-time you can add vanilla to their drinking water. I'm not sure of the exact ratio, but I've heard that it greatly diminishes their odor.
 
Thanks, I'll look in to the harlan 2018. I would of never thought of adding cat litter to the bedding. I get Dr. Elsey's senior crystals for my cats, rabbit and rats so that should work out good.
 
Reading through the posts above I had a couple of comments. You can't feed breakfast cereal. That is way to low in fat and protein. The Harlan lab blocks would be the best choice. If you can't find them feed a cheap dog food. The dog food will make them smell more however.

The vanilla idea has been floating around for a long time. I tried it about 10 years ago and didn't find any difference. I have all automated drip water on my racks. What that vanilla did was cause a fungus to grow and plug up all the sipper tubes.

Lori is correct that most of the smell comes from the male marking his territory. If you separate the mice by sex the males will mark less when there are no girls around.

Rats smell less than mice and ASF smell the least of all. But other than that the only solution is to change the bedding more often. That is just the nature of the beast.

I keep my mice in my garage. I had to air condition the garage in order to keep it cool enough in the summer. Right now I have at least a thousand mice in my garage. And they smell. I clean them once a week and when it is cleaning time there is no question that it needs to be done. That is just the way it is. Sorry there isn't a better answer.
 
Keep them in the basement!!! :D

Sorry, but that's the best advice I have besides what has already been said. Lol.
 
Thanks, I was hoping to make a rodent room in my house but now I think I might try to build a mini house for them outside like the ones people make for rabbits. I'll have to take a trip down to the shelter to see how they made theirs.
 
I keep my mice in the house, in our boot room. My wife is pretty addament that I keep control of the odour. The best advice I can give is spot clean the pee corner daily and change the bedding every third day. There's no easy solution other than shorter intervals between cleaning days if you are keeping breeders indoors.
As far as vanilla, I have tried it, and find no difference to the odour produced by the males. As suggested by others, I would also switch your mices feed to quality lab blocks for maintaining a balanced diet. I give my mice treats such as black oil seed, peanuts in the shell and hazelnuts in the shell.
I also have a colony of ASF's, and they are almost odourless. Good luck.
 
The vanilla thing does not work. I find when a male is with a group of females it does not make that god awful territory marking smell. When I keep a few extra males back in case the females decide to gang up on one of the breeder males, the males put there scent on everything. I have to wear gloves because if you get it on you it takes a day or two to get rid of the smell on your hands. Just clean the tubs twice a week, that works for me.
 
I kind of agree... they're like dusty plywood pieces. I'm not a rodent and they may love them but personally it doesn't seem very healthy. I'm weird like that though... I don't like feeding my cats kibble because it doesn't seem very healthy either.

As for "better": I feed a mix of lab block, wild bird seed, cockatiel seed, cat food, fruity sun conure pellets, fruity parrot pellets, random things from the fridge, etc. I'd feel bad if all I did was give them the lab blocks. I'm sure they're just fine, but I can't help it :rolleyes: lol
 
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