# Diet affects smell, right?



## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

I know it does in rats. I'm assuming that's the same for mice? I'm house-sitting three female mice for a friend and I had them in the living room because I just assumed they wouldn't smell too bad, and they're WORSE than my two guys (who, while they've gotten better, still smell AWFUL). Could it be because she has them eating Kaytee lab blocks? If so, if I started feeding them the diet I'm feeding my boys, how quickly could the smell improve? I don't really want to put them in the den because I have an irrational fear of accidental litters, but good golly my house reeks of rotten dorito mouse stench right now. :/


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

I had my rats on kaytee for a really long time like 8 months. They didn't really smell that bad? I then switched to HT and it's about the same honestly. I adopted two girls from a rescue who fed them mazuri well they had the nastiest doodies ever. I emptied their litter pan daily lol. Since switching to HT they smell better. I really can't say that I noticed any difference switching my girls from kaytee to HT though. Sometimes their cage smells like a swamp but not always.


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## Roxy the Rat (Apr 7, 2013)

Honestly, that's mainly just mice in general. I had mice on and off for years, and they basically all smelled relatively bad. I think I may have had one of two which didn't smell bad, but most of them did. I think it really just depends mainly on the mice themselves, and as far as I know there isn't much that you can do about it.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

Lol might have helped if I read instead of skimmed! I have no clue about mice


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Mice do smell very strongly, just be grateful males are worse. Its quite a distintive smell too, its not that there dirty, thats just there smell. There may be some element of it that there getting too high protien food or similar, but without knowing them it would be hard to tell. I also dont know how good or bad kaytee is for mice. Its not available here and the best miuse dieta im aware of over here are homemade.


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## 3 ratties (Apr 6, 2013)

Mice do smell worse than rats in my opinion, If your friend is okay with you trying them on a new diet, it couldnt hurt


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