# My rats stink up their cage as soon as I clean it.



## Abbyuwh (Aug 23, 2016)

Hello,
I have to make rats. Right now I am changing their cage every other day. It is a lot of work to do it that often and as soon as I change it they make it very stinky again. Right now the room they are in smells like rat urine almost all the time. I use flannel in there cage and change the flannel on the main level where they eat and hang out the most every other day. Then I change the flannel on their platforms once a week. I change their litter box about every week or a litter longer. The only probably I have with smell is that is smells like urine. Hope people have some suggestions.
Abby


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Well I wouldn't use flannel. Flannel is not a good bedding to use. It does absolutely nothing for odor control or ammonia. I would switch to actual bedding IMO.

Cleaning too much also is stressful and can cause them to mark MORE so they will pee more and the smell will be worse. 

IMO I would switch to a better bedding. Also make sure to really clean the cage itself, get into all the little corners. And clean around the cage deeply as well.


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## Abbyuwh (Aug 23, 2016)

Thanks for the suggestion! Just wondering, is IMO like a blanket or flannel like material? Or is it like paper bedding? Also, where would you find it?
Abby


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Abbyuwh said:


> Thanks for the suggestion! Just wondering, is IMO like a blanket or flannel like material? Or is it like paper bedding? Also, where would you find it?
> Abby


lol sorry IMO= In My Opinion 

I personally use aspen bedding. I have over 30 rats and breed so I want something that controls odor and is super safe and aspen is really great. Wood has been shown to be some of the best bedding out there at odor control and neutralizing ammonia.

Hemp, flax are both really great but difficult to find. Kiln dried pine is good (but there is debate on if it is safe or not, so if you think u may want to use it research and decide for yourself), sunseed fresh world bedding -alot of people I know tend to like it alot. Most paper bedding doesn't work that well but pellet type seems better.


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## schnebbles (Nov 11, 2015)

My rats stunk too. TO the point I was ready to get rid of them. I had shelves in the cage and cleaned them daily with wipes (found out I should have only been using baby wipes and I was using clorox) - anyhow, I have a hanging ball thing too and I'd put a piece of fleece in it and change it daily and I still had stink. I was so close to re-homing them.
I took out the shelves, quit using the fleece (I was able to put some bedding in the ball thing) - and no more smell! I'm so happy!

I have bedding from PetValu - it's their brand and it's a paper cat litter kind of stuff. A rat rescue recommended this stuff to me and said it would eliminate any odor - I ordered some but it's expensive!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QECV24/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm not sure I'll need the extra odor prevention from it but I'll see how it works. I don't smell rat at all anymore and it's only been a couple days since I changed stuff. 

good luck!


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Here is a recent thread with lots of suggestions you might find helpful:http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?333714-My-rats-stink-up-their-cage-as-soon-as-I-clean-it.


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## Rattielover965 (Apr 26, 2016)

You should not clean the cage"every other day" I know, moonkissed already said that.Do you mean to say fleece?


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Something I noticed, the more you clean, the more your rats scent mark... After a shower, I get peed on by everybody... but after everyone has marked me, even after I've rinsed, but still have some scent, the scent marking stops.

I think our girls scent mark each other... they smell worse than Spot does.


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## Eavraye (Oct 5, 2016)

I would also suggest wiping down the actual bars of the cage as rats will walk through the urine and then climb the bars.


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## rottengirl (Mar 16, 2016)

Eavraye said:


> I would also suggest wiping down the actual bars of the cage as rats will walk through the urine and then climb the bars.


In addition to this I recommend that you also wipe the walls that are close to the cage. Somehow my girls are very skilled at peeing.


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

Same here, I have two boys that pee on the wall behind their cage, but I wipe that every day with a rat safe disinfectant and it's not too bad because my paint is the wipable stuff  I agree with everyone, that cleaning every day makes them scent mark more and so I generally empty the litter box most days or just aerate the pellets I use if there's not too much poops. But a full cage clean only happens once a week where I wipe and disinfect everything.. but I save a little soiled substrate to put in their litter tray and on the bottom plate so it still smells a bit like them after cleaning. I also have one hammock that I tend to leave longer than the others before washing so that still has their scent on too. 

I find that rope toys tend to soak up smells and they are super hard to was hygienically. But I also swapped to aspen recently and haven't smelt my boys for 3 days now. It's a great bedding in my opinion


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Rats use urine as a language. Their pee marking tells lots of stuff like their age, sex, sexual availability, rank in their mischief...so that's why they do it. Neutered or spayed rats do it less or not at all. Regular cleaning, even if pee marking is the result, is very important because fresh pee is not much of a health hazard (respiratory infections) to your rats, but urine that is a couple days old will produce ammonia which is very bad for rats' lung. My female rats pee in their hammocks (argh, but many rats do that ) so I pretty much change them every other day.


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

Forgot to mention that I do a spot clean daily as well as the litter tray clean. And that the hammock I leave in they don't pee in... I don't know why they don't wee in that one, but it's completely pee free. It just smells like they boys themselves, a little musty. Every other hammock they pee in all the time :/ 

Obviously you should clean all the pees and poops, but I meant that not doing a complete disinfect clean daily might help as they won't mark so much. It's stressful I think because it will feel to the rats as if they're moving home every day.


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