Ideas on smellyness

[CrazyCorn]

Has anyone found anything that stops the odor mice give off, I had mice before and they were very stinky so I had to get rid of them, BUT with many hatchlings on the way I think I will need to breed them again. Any ideas to get rid of that odor for atleast 5 days? Thanks.

[Bekah]

I think you're going to get a "mousy" odor no matter what, but what kind of bedding are you using? Cedar is supposed to be best at controlling odor (I used to have a pet rat and that's what I used). That's the only recommendation I can make besides cleaning mousy mess up as often as possible.

:shrugs:

[Amanda E]

Well, I've had the same problem...if the mice smelled too bad, my husband warned me he would kick them out of the house. So... I switched to alfalfa pellets as bedding. Other people have used it with good success and so far the only thing I smell is alfalfa. I guess some people have complained that the mice eat some of the pellets along with the designated food, but as far as I'm concerned, that's okay by me as long as they keep breeding and the smell is kept down.

[Krenna]

I have seen posted to add vanilla extra to the water 1 teaspoon to 1 liter of water. To help reduce the smell, but it did not seem to work for us.

Also your local pet store has an odor control that they sell for rodents you put a few squirts in the water or over the food. It cost about 14$ it's called BI-Oder. We just purchased it and started using. I had heard from a friend that it works pretty well. Its worth a try just my 2 cents.

[Taceas]

Unless they genetically engineer smell-less mice, I don't think you can theoretically get rid of ALL of the mousy odor. Thats what mice use as communication a lot of the time in the wild. So it's built in. Most animals are that way..we just have the peculiar trait of being offended by smells for some reason. Eau de Roadkill? I still can't figure out why my dog hunts for cat "treats" in the yard. Yuck! :-puke01:

I second the Marshall Ferret Bi-Odor product. It works great in every animal I've tested it on. Rodents, ferrets, cats..haven't tried it on my husband yet. =P

The chlorophyll liquid does help a little bit. It cuts the ammonia smell down quite a bit, but I can still smell it if the air conditions are right. Vanilla didn't work worth a hoot for me. All it did was waste money and my precious cookie ingredient.

I tried alfalfa pellets and didn't like them much. The humidity around here is such that I had to change the cages about every 2-3 days because the pellets would start to mold once they got mouse waste on them. They might work better in a drier environment however.

[magick-bears]

I have posted this many times on many forums. Everyone that has taken my advice has been at the least very impressed. We breed our mice in 6 and 12 quart Steriliti tubs (the same style we use for the snakes. The tubs have air holes all around the sides and in the lid. We then have a hole in the top to put the water bottle.

http://home-marketing-center.com/Mice/RE_Coco_Escape.jpg

That is the bottle hole she is coming out of. Anyway, we keep 2 to 4 females per colony (with one male) in the 12qt tubs. We also keep up to 12 weaned mice per 12qt until they are set up for breeding or are frozen. In the small tubs we keep our single males that are not currently being used for breeding or are growing up. We do this because we also show our mice and sell them for pets. They are not just feeders.

All of our mice are kept in our living room. We have visitors come over who are absolutely shocked when they realize they are sitting next to mice as there is no odor at all. Mind you we are not talking about only one or two mice either. In fact our stud currently consists of close to 50 adult mice. The only thing we do for odor control is the bedding we use. We use Aspen Supreme Pellet made by Green Pet. We buy them at PetCo in a 20 pound bag for $11. Our non breeding mice get cleaned every 7 to 10 days. Our mice colonies with babies get cleaned every 5 to 7 days. I have actually had people open one of our solo male tubs (6qt) stick there nose right in it and ask me if I had just cleaned him because they can't smell anything (let alone an adult breeder male mouse). You should see the look on their face when I tell them he has not been cleaned in over 7 days now. With the Aspen the mice are not as apt to eat the pellets as they are with Alfalfa. After all mice don't naturally eat trees :crazy02: They also work great in areas of high humidity as Aspen is naturally mold resistant, Therefore they don't grow mold like Alfalfa does.

Hope this helps
Jeff C.

[Taceas]

I've looked several times for this Aspen Supreme Pellet at our local Petsmart...no can do. I can find pine pellets by different brands however.

So until I can find it locally, I'll just have to keep using my shavings mix that works pretty good. I don't want to have to pay for shipping on a 20lb bag of litter. =P

[magick-bears]

I've looked several times for this Aspen Supreme Pellet at our local Petsmart...no can do. I can find pine pellets by different brands however.

So until I can find it locally, I'll just have to keep using my shavings mix that works pretty good. I don't want to have to pay for shipping on a 20lb bag of litter. =P

Yeh Misty I hear that LOL. You might want to try at PetCo if you have one. I know that you are out there in the midle of nowhere :grin01: Though I don't know why you couldn't ask the PetsMart to start carying it. I know PetCo will special order anything on their web site. Unfortunatly, PetsMart is not as buyer friendly.

:-offtopic Is you computer back up and running now Misty? I just wanted to check if you got our e-mail about the heat wave we are having here.

Jeff C.

[Taceas]

The next time I'm at Petsmart I'll ask the manager if he can special order it. They've got a ton of alternative cat litters, so why not an alternative small animal bedding? ;)

And yes, ole puter is all back up and running much better now. After a second reformat (don't ask) and getting put in a brand new, roomier case with a bigger power supply everything is running as it was meant to. =D

Who knew the ol' hubby could go from a working knowledge of installing minor things to completely redoing it. ;)

Check it out:

Front view:
http://www.mainecoon.net/~rain/FamilyPics/ThisAndThat/P7210004.JPG

Side view:
http://www.mainecoon.net/~rain/FamilyPics/ThisAndThat/P7210005.JPG

Gotta have some color, eh? Why not a blue LED Antec fan?
http://www.mainecoon.net/~rain/FamilyPics/ThisAndThat/P7210003.JPG

[Bekah]

So CrazyCorn - have you tried any suggestions or found anything that works for you to lessen the smelliness?

[CrazyCorn]

Sorry to get to this late, been busy, I haven't tried anything yet, but I do have rabbit pellets that are like the alfalfa pellets and can serve as food hehe :D but I do have other food for them, I am going to try my dogs special diet for sesetive stomachs and see if that helps at all, if not I am going to try and find some other beddings and the "bio weapons" they use for small animals to control odor.

[mrweaw]

Cedar smells great but can be harmful to your animals. It can cause serious respiratory infections in rodents and the aromatic oils can build up on them and harm your snakes when ingested. I would think twice, I know the smell is bad and I hate it too, but it really isn't healthy for critters.

[pcar]

here is a question for you people that keep multiple mommy female mice together. How are you keeping them from eating the other mouses babies? I have 3 female mise, and one male, and I had to seperate them when my first had babies because they started to canabilize.

[magick-bears]

That one is simple for me to answer. I simply don't keep females that eat their babies. Most of the time I won't even keep females that survive being ate. I find that mother's that eat their young also have babies that eat them. The only exceptions I make is if they are a first time mother and I only see signs of canabilizing right after they dilever and they are nursing the rest of them. This useraly means she had trouble having those babies.

Jeff C.
http://the-rodent-express.com

[Taceas]

I agree with Jeff. Of the two females I've ever had eat another female's babies...they didn't live past that weekend. I don't want it in my colonies genetic past at all.

I've only had one instance of a female eating her own young, it was her very first litter and the problem came from when she didn't realize she was supposed to stop eating once she got to the baby. They traditionally eat the placenta, an Advil sized tablet of tissue jam packed with nutrition, and sometimes they don't stop when they've eaten the umbilical cord and continue to eat. She'd only ate two when she became disinterested in the whole mess of babies previously delivered and the other more experienced mothers took over responsibility.

Most cannibalistic events I've had are the males, when they get older I think they realize that if they can get rid of the babies the mother will go into estrus quicker and he has more chance of being the father (even if the babies he killed/ate were his own). And once again, the moment I saw it he became an instant feeder mouse. ;)

I think you just have to be tough on it and run it like a mini-business. The mice are working for you. Their paycheck is food and water everyday. The moment they do something bad, time to "fire" them. \


Off-topic: Jeff, Petsmart here finally carried Aspen Supreme Pellets. Albeit in 10lb bags of which they only had 4 and I bought all 4. So far after a few days I don't notice any smell. I do know the mice don't seem to like it. They tippy-toe around their cage like they're walking on gravel. So I did put one corner full of aspen shavings for a bed or lounging area. But so far so good. =)

[magick-bears]

:-offtopic Hey Misty that is great. As for them not liking it just give them a few days. Once they realize they can shred it they will be very happy. Best part is that you don't have to use that much (just enough to cover the bottom of the tank) cause it expands as they shred it. It is just as absorbent when it is shredded as it is when it's not.

Also wanted to let you know all babies are eating great. The reason #10 gave me a hard time was because she was getting ready to shed which she did 2 days later :crazy02:

Jeff C.

[rolph1414]

The best way that I have found to remove the smell of mice is to feed them/or it to one of my 4 cornsnakes. Amazingly, this has proven to be the only proven method other than buying stock in an air freshener company!

Hope this helps!

[CornCrazy]

I will have to look for the aspen pellets to try. I read in another thread that gardenmum (I think) was using the feline pine cat litter pellets. I decided to try it. It works pretty good! I added a bit of regular aspen shavings for the mice so that they would have some bedding. It has been over a week and there is not much smell at all. I will definitely use it again if I can't find the aspen pellets.

[rspier]

I tried the Aspen pellets from petsmart and they are working well at keeping down the odor, however at $7 for 10 lbs the cost is too much for me. I am going to try pine pellets from my food supplier, at $9 for 40 lbs it would be affordable for me. I will post on how well it works.

[drizzt_19]

I currently have around 200 mice, sitting in one room...Here's what I do to help eliminate the odor...I add about 20-25 drops of grapefruit seed extract(not the concentrate, if using concentrate it's more like 6-8 drops) and 1 teaspoon vanilla to 1/2 gallon of water...It works wonders in controlling the odor, and it doesn,t taste too bad...Yes, I always taste the mice's water...

Try this and you'll be a believer in no time...

HTH,

P.S. GSE also works great for the snakes, since it helps reduce the ammonia smell and even kills some internal parasites that you don't want them to have anyway...