# Tips on keeping rat smell down & cage questions.



## ladymakaveli (Sep 9, 2010)

So I recently got two female rats from a lady & I don't think she kept up on the cage cleaning very much, so the day I got them home I scrubbed down the cage & everything in it. In the past I have had multiple rats & never had any of them smell...really at all. Do you guys have any tips on how to keep the smell down? I got them on Thursday, cleaned it that day & cleaned the cage again today as well. I don't wanna give the rats a bath this early, waiting till they know/bond with more. So in general any tips for keeping the smell down? I guess its probably not really that but, but just overly noticeable to me. 

Also I am not sure if the smell is just inbeded in the cage & accessories...waiting till next weekend to go to storage & pull out a few of my old cages & get them set up in that. 

Oh and also any tips/sites on joining multiple cages into one? Right now there in what looks like a Guinea pig or rabbit cage, plus I also have two wire cages w/ plastic bottoms coming, one is a two level ferret cage & one is a rat cage w/ two levels & built in wheel, and I also have a 20 Gallon aquarium. Hoping to connect at least two of them together to form one larger cage. And then keep one of the others set up to put them in when cleaning the main cage or to just give them a "new" area to explore.

Thanks, Kristy


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## ladymakaveli (Sep 9, 2010)

Well I put a little vanilla in there water bottle to see if that helps, at least until I get the other cages..has any one else tried the vanilla?


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

A bit of eucalyptus in water beside the cage also helps to neutralize the smell. What substrate are you using? I used to exclusively use blankets until I discovered the wonder that is recycled paper pellet cat litter. Keeps the smell down brilliant and reduced my cleaning from once a day to once a week. It can also help if they're new rats to keep them exclusively to a dry food diet for about a week or so while they settle into their new home. I've adopted rats before that stink up the place awful in their first couple of days. Sudden changes of diet, environment, cage mates, etc. can be a lot for them sometimes.


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## ladymakaveli (Sep 9, 2010)

Right now I am using up the Aspen bedding she had left & I also did change there food, she had them on a mixture that didn't look so good. I will stop adding fresh fruits & veggies for the rest of the week to see if that helps as well. I haven't decided on what bedding I am gonna switch them to (gonna look around tomorrow). I will check out the one you mentioned, also was thinking about care fresh, but it is a little spendy. 

Thanks for the response! I will update tomorrow if the vanilla has made any difference & also what bedding I decide on. I am also gonna start trying to litter box train them, they already go in just one corner so it should be easy (fingers crossed).


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

I have heard about care fresh, it's supposed to be good but they don't sell it where I live so it might be worth giving it a try. If not though, the pellet cat litter is great. I swear by it. You're welcome, and good luck. Let us know if it works!


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## Iheartroxyrat (Feb 22, 2012)

i use the aspen bedding, but my female rat doesnt like any other type beside the aspen lol she pushed all the paper type bedding on to the floor! she has a rock litter box too which shes pretty good about using  i love how she smells in the morning when i pull her out of her aspen nest in her hammock! i dab some vanilla on my rats sometimes after a quick bath or a wipe down with aloe baby wipes, which is a nice alterntive to a bath  and like i said Roxy smells so awesome i have to give her more snuggles and kisses lol.


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## HighwayStar (Aug 20, 2010)

I use the carefresh and I don't have any smell problems here. But one of my girls turns out to be allergic to it (or so my vet thinks) so we will be trying aspen this week. I will post if I notice a smell difference.


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## ladymakaveli (Sep 9, 2010)

Well I am off to the store to find some new bedding...wish me luck! Will let you know what I find.


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## ladymakaveli (Sep 9, 2010)

Well I got them paper pellet cat litter & a small bag of aspen bedding, figured will put the pellets down & then a thin layer of aspen since there only used to the aspen. I also didn;t have any luck finding a litter box that the rigth size...either way to big or way to small, so gonna look online & see what I find.


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## Iheartroxyrat (Feb 22, 2012)

my rats litter box is really small, i tried a bigger one and she'd use it as a bed lol eww. her box is actually a rock cut into corner bowl that i used to use for my lizards, but its prefect because rats like to pee on rocks, so i use that and put gravel in there for her, she played with it the first day but now she uses it all the time! now if i could just get my male to potty train too!


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## kamii (Mar 14, 2012)

Another thing worth trying are cage fresh granules that you can put in with the litter. Helped with my boys who wouldn't litter train


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