Please help ????

by KenzelColony Sat 26 Jun 2021, 8:06 am

I live downstairs at my grandparents house with my 17 mice and 2 female rats, my grandma came downstairs and woke me up in a hissy fit because apparently there is a leak somewhere and she's blaming me for not realizing. I feel like crap and am very emotional because shes also complaining about the smell of my mice. Please help, I need to know the best way to keep the smell under control. My biggest fear is that she will make me sell them all

help me save my colony, please

by SarahAdams Sat 26 Jun 2021, 4:45 pm

Can you supply more information about your setup? Are the mice males/females? What kind of housing do they have? What size groups are living together? Are they reproducing?

by River Sat 26 Jun 2021, 7:58 pm

^ More information would be awesome!!

Some additional questions:

What bedding are we using? Not all beddings are created equal, and all have their own pros and cons.

Over or under cleaning can both result in smellier pets; what's the cleaning schedule like?

by Crabby Mon 28 Jun 2021, 11:12 am

There is not much you can do, if your grandma is a person who is sensible for smell. I'm living in an apartment building and some neighbours also felt harassed by the smell, if my door is opened to the corridor. Also my parents don't like the smell of mice.
I realize it too, but for me its normal, doesn't bother me. I can also work in animal stables where other people say things like “This is hell!” I have no problem with handling cow, pig or chicken droppings.

I remember a visit at the local sewage treatment plant in my elementary school, other children where shocked about my behaviour there. How I could handle the impressive smell so good? They said I must be completely biodegradable! Razz

But back to the topic:

The only thing you can do is cleaning the cages every week.

Housing male mice together makes them getting more territorial, more peeing for marking their territory or impressing/dominating the other males, so if you want to reduce the smell of males, house them alone.
Replace wooden toys for male mice more often, clean plastic toys every week.

Here in Germany aspen bedding is not available, so the only good beddings are paper based (carefresh, back2nature) and all kinds of softwood(pine) beddings.
As for paper beddings i can say they are getting faster smelly then the softwood flakes I am using. I only use paper bedding(safebed) for nesting material.

I cleaned my mice yesterday and yes, if I turn my head to the big cage it smells again, even after just one day.

I never kept rats, but I've heard and read that they are much lesser smelly then mice. Perhaps you could switch to rats-only?

by MerciToujoursMaPetiteBoop Mon 28 Jun 2021, 12:08 pm

When the business I work for moved to a new office in 2016, there was brand new carpet installed throughout. Smelly. Non-opening windows, and no cross-ventilation. So I bought a Bell+Howell Ionic Whisper Air Purifier and set it on a file cabinet inside my office door.

Not only did it take care of that carpet smell within my office, well it seems that there is some sort of air circulation dull spot right outside my office. My co-workers's kitchen experiments they call "lunch" always seem to concentrate their odors right outside my office door. When the smell gets into my office, I turn on the Ionic Whisper and it takes care of even the worst garlic tornado.

My daddy bought some of the same device, only marketed under the Vivitar brand, to help him dissipate the smell of smoke in our house from our chimney-enthusiast neighbor (the prevailing winds blow their smoke directly into our yard and back door), and to de-toxify the air indoors after a drive-by from "Monsieur Le Skunk".

The only drawback I note is that the Ionic Whisper generates an ozone smell. Ozone, a three-oxygen molecule, is an irritant to the respiratory system, but it is also not stable and quickly reacts to form the more stable two-oxygen molecule. Having bad lungs myself, and having to mind the possible effects on my little mouse April, I was (and still am) careful not to leave the Ionic Whisper running for very long. Maybe five minutes, ten minutes until the carpet or lunch smell was subdued, and then turn it off. Everything in moderation, you know. Whether that would be enough to take care of your mousie smell problem, I do not know.

by River Tue 29 Jun 2021, 10:10 pm

Crabby wrote:TBut back to the topic:

The only thing you can do is cleaning the cages every week.

I'd disagree with this. Mice are very smell-based critters -- they mark their territory, and when their scent is constantly removed, they may try to compensate by over marking. It's rather stressful for them, and rather stinky for you!

I spot clean very regularly (cleaning the wheel every few days, their mess corner, so on), but only change a large amount of the bedding every month. And even then, I'll leave about a third of the cleanest bedding in there. My boys only start to smell towards the end of the month (I don't notice it -- my family lets me know when they start to get whifs of them Laughing

)whereas I used to have the same problem as you, so I think my theory is working out! We're currently using a combination of hemp and aspen. Smile

by Sponsored content

Please help ????

Please help ????

Re: Please help ????

Re: Please help ????

Re: Please help ????

Re: Please help ????

Re: Please help ????

Re: Please help ????