# Do bucks smell?



## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Years ago a shop accidentally sexed two mice wrongly and we ended up with male mice for all of a few a days. They were so smelly we figured out that we had the wrong sex almost immediately. 

Can someone tell me if male rats are the same? I love the idea of cuddly big rats, but I can't stand the idea of my house smelling that bad!!


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

How in the world can someone misgender mature rats and mice, I will never know. Their dangly bits are so large and unmissable!

Mice are WAY smellier than rats. Even single female mice are smellier than a group of boys, and rat smell is different than mouse smell. Boy rats do have a little more smell than girls, but usually only if you sniff them close, not just walk into a room. Their pee is a little bit smellier than girls, but again, nowhere near as bad as mice. If you keep the cage cleaned regularly, and don't use a smelly litter like carefresh, they don't smell.

Go ahead and buy your boys! They're great. Not always cuddly though, so be prepared for active little guys jsut in case. They usually get cuddlier when they're older. but I have 3 neutered boys right now. 1 is almost 2 years old, and is VERY active and zippy and running around quickly always. And the other 2 are brothers who will be 3 next month. One is slowed down only because he has Hind End Degeneration and is pretty overweight (he's always been lazier in general, but not cuddly) He likes to be pet more now that he can't run away as easily. But his brother (also almost 3) is still active and doesn't like to stay still and loves to explore, but not for as long anymore. Still, not a fan of cuddling or being pet much!

I'm so jealous of those people who have snuggly rats! Good luck with your future boys


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Neutered makes smell less than intact make rats. Neutered make rats don't urine mark or urine mark much less. Just something to be aware of.


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Thank you both for your help. I'd forgotten about the scent marking boys do. I think I'll stick with girls instead lol


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Argh sorry about typing "k" instead of "l". Males not makes, lol,


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## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

My girls are so much dirtier than my boy... though my boy is neutered. Gizzy throws poop for attention, Spicy holds on to the bars and pees on them. Sugar pushes litter out of the tray, Dash hoards litter in a pile, and Ginger sleeps in the litterbox. 

Guy is a perfect little angel and doesn't stink a bit. HaHa


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

Boys smell more. Girls throw crap everywhere.


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

RatAtat2693 said:


> Boys smell more. Girls throw crap everywhere.


It certainly sounds like it haha


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## Kelsbels (Aug 12, 2015)

RatAtat2693 said:


> Boys smell more. Girls throw crap everywhere.


Hahaha my girls can be so rude! They'll purposely stick their bums off their ledges and pee! Bunch of animals!


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## BlackAce (Apr 18, 2013)

As far as body odor I didn't think my males or females smelled bad at all. I noticed a difference more in their bathroom habits. The girls essentially litter trained themselves and kept their cage neat and tidy. My boys....not so much lol. They never took to litter training and often used the bathroom on their levels and sometimes in their hammocks, then would walk through it and track it everywhere. So the smell was only due to the messes they made, I just spot cleaned as necessary if it wasn't time for a full cleaning and that worked well.


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

My boys don't smell at all. They also have stopped pee marking quite a while ago. But, boys aren't cuddly, just really lazy.


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## Nieve5552 (May 20, 2014)

My males themselves dont smell bad at all.. My first two males smelled like corn chips when they were younger if I smushed my face in their fur XD
My 4 males are all litter trained and hardly ever poop outside the litterbox, apart from occasional one or two they cant be bothered going to the litterbox for haha
They do pee outside the litterbox sometimes though.. I think pee training is much harder. But apart from that, if the cage is regularly cleaned well they dont smell  Ive never had females, but my males are pretty active. They do love sitting on my lap though, during playtime theyd go exploring but once theyre done they'll come to me and hang out with me most of the time instead of going off by themselves. When I get up and walk around theyll follow me and hold onto my ankles and look up at me like theyre going 'pick me up! pick me up!' hahaha


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

That's so cute 😊We were discussing it earlier and I think we're pretty set on girls now. We like the idea of watching them being more active, playing, etc.


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## Tiwohunter (Nov 16, 2015)

I see you've pretty much made up your mind but I have to comment that one of my females scent marks more than any of my males. She dribbles all over me and my stuff but nothing else. Little weirdo. 

Personally I like males better but the girls do have their great points, they are crazy soft compared to my males and they do have a sort of sweet scent. People say it's grape soda-ish and that's not a bad comparison.


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Tiwohunter said:


> I see you've pretty much made up your mind but I have to comment that one of my females scent marks more than any of my males. She dribbles all over me and my stuff but nothing else. Little weirdo.
> 
> Personally I like males better but the girls do have their great points, they are crazy soft compared to my males and they do have a sort of sweet scent. People say it's grape soda-ish and that's not a bad comparison.


I'm sorry to say I have absolutely no idea what grape soda smells like, I'm English, and we don't have it over here. If you had said Snapple I might have stood a chance as I had that when I went to San Francisco years ago. Most of our purple drinks over here are Blackcurrant flavoured.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

RatAtat2693 said:


> Boys smell more. Girls throw crap everywhere.


Yeeep. My boys definitely had a natural musky smell that wasn't exactly offensive, but it was there. My girls were WILD - they threw food, poop, dirty litter... anything they could find, everywhere. Then they'd wrestle and play and romp in it. They smelled so much worse because of the mess they were constantly making


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Thank you. I'm so confused now!


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

How rats smell has also a lot to do with what kind of bedding you are using. If the bedding absorb the ammonia well and get the poops to dry quickly, the rats won't smell bad by stepping in it


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

I've been advised to use this for litter.... http://www.vetuk.co.uk/hamster-rat-...-small-animal-paper-bedding-and-litter-p-5363, Aubiose (hemp) for bedding and dust extracted shavings by a rat breeder in the UK. Can you tell me what you think?


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

I tried three different paper based litters: carefresh, Eco bedding, and FreshNews. None came even close to Aspen. There are different quality of Aspen bedding I'm sure. So far I just tried the drsfostersmith brand and I'm very impressed. If you use a litter for the entire cage, and not just the litter and fleece everywhere else you should be ok. It says it is made out of 99% recycled paper, I wonder what is the remaining 1% made of.


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Could I please see a layout of your cage(s)? I'd like to get an experienced person's perspective and developed ideas.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Both of my double critter nation cages have that same layout now. The green liner is from a 9' by 5' feet indoor/outdoor rug. I have been using the Home Depot mixing tubs for over 1 year now. Before using the sterilite containers for the half shelves, I used the same green liners on them too. The cut rug liners are much better at odor control and absorbing the pee than fleece or fleece with Uhaul pad under itI have been using the sterilite containers for the half shelves for about 2 weeks now, and the difference in smells is noticeable. I had to wash the liners twice a week and do a prewash + sterilize cycle to get ALL the smells out. I tried many laundry detergent and tricks, but it took so much time and in the end won't be as clean as litter. Please let me know if you have more questions


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## Lucozade (Jun 3, 2016)

Thank you  I like the idea of the carpets/rugs, etc, I had thought of that after seeing someone using door mats.

Do you think this sort of mat would be ok? http://www.wilko.com/doormats/wilko-plain-washable-mat-grey-40cmx60cm/invt/0334032 Obviously washable would be extremely handy!

We don't always have the same products available in the UK unfortunately. I'm trying to find a cage at the moment which is chew proof but they all seem to be plastic based or hilariously massive. I used the rat calculator on one I saw and it said up to 8 rats, we only want 2 girlies! I know there are some smaller mesh ones available but they make me cross-eyed :/

I've seen a couple of bird cages I like with plastic bases, but they have a metal section in the bottom, I'm thinking about converting it into a rat cage and covering the base with carpet/fleece or something, obviously Bumblefoot is NOT an option. I was also thinking about "creating" another section out of either baking cooling racks or stainless steel mesh around the edge of the bottom section of plastic so they can't chew any plastic except the corner parts on the edge (which would prob be less than 1cm) and possibly spraying it with Plastikote. Do you think this would work? The last thing I want is rattie escapees! (I do happen to like my furniture intact  )


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