Any suggestions on keeping rat smell down?

Question

I have two female rats. I house them in a cockatiel cage. I used Carefresh bedding, as that worked well with my gerbils, but one of my rats couldn't handle the dust and continually sneezed from it. I changed over to Yesterday's news and the sneezing stopped immediately. I clean the cage out every other day due to the smell. It's terrible. It was terrible even with the Carefresh bedding. The rats get bathed every other week and I clean the cage with bleach (completely scrubbing and rinsing so as not to harm them). I am finding that urine is seeping underneath the pull-out tray and forming a puddle until I take it out and scrub it down. I don't know how the urine is getting there but it smells simply horrible. Anyone else have this problem? I know they shouldn't smell, but my housemate is getting to the point where he wants to bring them to an individual that takes in unwanted rats. I love my rats. I need to find a way to keep down the smell. I also use Bio-odor in their water.

Answer 1

I've never used paper-based, but from what I have heard, it has numerous problems. I don't know if odor is one of them though? I use aspen shavings, anf the odor is very minimal with all of my rats. Unlike pine or cedar, aspen produces no toxic fumes and is totally safe for animals. I reccommend you try it for a couple weeks to see if the smell decreases.

Please do not spray chemical air fresheners as someone else suggested. They are not safe to ingest, most especially for smaller animals! If even the slightest particles were to land on the cage, there is a chance the rat may eat it. Products that are 'pet friendly' like Febreeze, only actually make this claim about cats and dogs and similar sized animals. Rats are much smaller and more vulnerable. Certainly a little will probably have hardly an effect, but doing this long-term will caue the chemicals to build up in the rats' system, and this isn't what you want if they are toxic. I'm not sure about candles, but if you try that, be possitive that the company can back up their product as saf for pets.

It is quite strange that even after every other day of cleaning, they smell. It certainly is very unlike rats. If after you try the aspen, you find the odor is still there, it may be from the rats. Perhaps an internal parasite. I would not worry as of now, but if you get suspicious, do take them to a vet to make sure they are their healthiest. A vet might also be able to reccommend ways of reducing the odor safely.

Answer 2

I always noticed that smell with my rats too, especially the one time I had a male rat. I think that males of any species tend to have more of a smell (sorry guys!!!). I think that cleaning the cage everyday is probably the best way to go. Have you considered trying some of the pine or wheat cat litter instead of bedding for the whole cage and then just offer bedding in a "nest box" kind of thing. My rats usually did a good job of keeping their bedding in their box. Maybe having litter as the bottom stuff might help, and it's easier to clean out. I'm not sure if the pine pellets would hurt their cute little feet though. I use it for my ferrets and they seem okay. Though, rats are a bit smaller than ferrets. The litter made from wheat might be small enough that it wouldn't hurt their feet. Check it out on the Petco website. Good luck!!

Answer 3

Rat Keeping

Answer 4

When I raised rats we used wood burning pellets for bedding. The pellets turn to a sawdust type material and that is when you change it. We did not have a problem with smell and we had a lot of rats. You can put newspaper on the bottom of the cage and put the wood pellets on top of that to keep wetness under control but usually the pellets do a great job. They also loved to sleep and play in cardboard boxes and most of the urine would soak into those which made clean up even easier.

Answer 5

you will need to put something in the slide-out pan to absorb the urine. Because they are not in the pan or touching it, you could use that silica cat litter. You will still need to either empty it daily or stir it to distribute the liquid for equal absorption. If they are peeing in their hammocks, try lining it with cloth and changing daily. I use restaurant napkins (the cloth kind).

It sounds like you are doing everything you can to keep the smell down but if it continues to smell bad there are several things you might want to consider:

a cage that is made for rats so that you can have litter pans and they have more room.
If they are in a small confined space, the smell will be worse.
You and your roommate might be hyper sensitive to smell. All animals have some odor, you can't get rid of it all.

Answer 6

don't use febreeze. try putting something in the pull out tray to absorb the odor, paper towels and baking soda maybe?
you could also try to litter train them. 3 of mine seem to do very well on it, the 4th is nuts and doesnt understand anything for some reason.

search for 'the dapper rat' for ideas on litter training.

my rattys stink occasionally, but i havent pinned it down to any certain food item or thing like that, although i've noticed that after we moved (which was recently) they started peeing everywhere again and only pooping in the litter box. the house we live in has cats and dogs (which they're never exposed to) but i think the smell makes them mark. I'd focus on the tray, it seems like that could be the main issue of the odor, buy odor eliminating pet cleanser thats safe for pets at the pet store, it'll work better than bleach in most cases.

Answer 7

Can you put some clumping kitty litter underneath the cage? Or can you get a new cage that does not have a pullout tray in the bottom? Just a smooth bottom that the rat bedding can go on? You could clean that out every couple of days, and then it won't smell.

Good luck!

Answer 8

I use a woodbased cat litter in the bottom of the cage. it soaks up the rat pee and doesnt smell so much

Answer 9

you need to make sure you clean them out once a week

Answer 10

Clean more frequently.