live in an partment as well and only plan to raise 2 colonies. I think I easily adapt to smells since it rarely bothers me. Would like to know if my coworkers notice anything :shrugs: Anyway the aquaria with a screen top or tubs with mesh tops work well. I have tried a variety of beddings and most are ok if changed every week. Do not use those cute Critter Keepers/Habitrails you find at the pet store. The plastic almost seemed to absorb the odor and acquired a disgusting film of urine. The tunnels and detachable wheel also disgusting, stinky, and a pain to clean. The mice would poop in the wheel and keep running which would mix it into the film of urine. When they were in the Critter Keeper the smell DID bother me a lot.
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How bad do they really smell?
- Thread starter zwyatt
- Start date
I guess, all in all, it seems to be a mixed bag. I do put up with smells pretty well. However, I don't want my apartment and clothes to smell terrible even if I can't notice it. A lot of people who smoke (and I'm not ragging on smokers!) don't notice the smell, but get me within 50 feet and I can smell it on them. I'd hate for people to feel the same way with me and mice urine!
Anyways, I plan on giving it a try when I get into my new apartment. Maybe if I spend anytime at home this summer I can set something up in the garage as a test run. Although, I probably won't get to be home over the summer.
Thanks for all the help. If anyone else has anything to add feel free.
:wavey:
Anyways, I plan on giving it a try when I get into my new apartment. Maybe if I spend anytime at home this summer I can set something up in the garage as a test run. Although, I probably won't get to be home over the summer.
Thanks for all the help. If anyone else has anything to add feel free.
:wavey:
Baba-Lou
Snakeism Evangelist!
Hmm. Makes me wonder. I have 2 colonies and I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment. But the smells arn't that strong or so I have noticed. The only time my mice stink are when I hold them really close to my nose, Which isn't that often. Someday i'll ship out my mice live to people who want mice lol. Heck I can do it now. If someone really really wanted. lol But then again thats not going to be anytime soon.
sdmessmer
New member
Hamsters as feeders?
I have thought of breeding hampsters as feeders too. They don't smell like mice and rats but the only drawback is you cannot put males with females until the females are receptive. How do you handle that? Can you house several females together? How big are their litters?
With as often as I have to clean the rodent cages to keep the smell down it might be more economical to keep hamsters. Anyone else use hamsters as feeders?
:shrugs:
Silvia
serpentalley said:
I have thought of breeding hampsters as feeders too. They don't smell like mice and rats but the only drawback is you cannot put males with females until the females are receptive. How do you handle that? Can you house several females together? How big are their litters?
With as often as I have to clean the rodent cages to keep the smell down it might be more economical to keep hamsters. Anyone else use hamsters as feeders?
:shrugs:
Silvia
cornsnakekid92
trouser snake
The only thing i have herd about breeding hamsters as feeders is that you can not feed live no matter what, they are vicious suckers
CornDazzle
New member
Alright, I will add my 2 cents. I keep three females in a 10g aquarium. I MUST clean their entire home weekly. When I added the male, his urine began to stink their home within one day. Now, I MUST clean their entire home twice a week. If I want absolutely NO smell what-so-ever I MUST clean their home every day (I don't have the enthusiasm for this). I clean their 10g aquarium, wire wheel, & water bottle in the bathtub letting everything soak in very hot bleach water for 10 minutes (to kill anything that may be potentially harboring so that none of my other animals get infected) then I wash everything with a rag and Dawn dish detergent to cleanse (and remove ALL bleach residue which may cause respiratory distress to the mice). I dry all things immediately and use Yesterday's News/Cell-Sorb about 1 1/2 inches deep. You just cannot eliminate the odor of a male mouse unless you are adamant about cleaning on a daily basis, in which case, the novelty wears thin quickly. Ever have a male mouse pee on your hand (or clothes)? It is very musky and potent, and that's just from one pee-ing. I always use toilet and paper towel rolls for their furniture/entertainment and a small box (poptarts) to hide/sleep all of which can be discarded/replaced as often as necessary.
I have grown to accept the smell so I clean everything weekly, but, if I have friends/relatives stop for a visit, they ALWAYS complain of the smell. :sidestep:
I have used baking soda under the bedding. It did work a bit, but, I do not reccommend using it because the fine powder may cause respiratory distress to the mice as they love to dig, push, and root among their bedding.
My mice live in the lower living room, I smell them in my upper living room after a week. I must walk through the lower room to exit my home; there is no denying their odor.
All encompassing, I prefer my live mice to f/t. Frozen/Thawed pinkies shed their outer skin (upper-dermis) and their bellies "pop" open spewing runny, slimy intestines and juices everywhere when my snakes eat them. I thought one of my snakes was drowning when one popped-open mid swallow. I had to clean the area to prevent decay odor.
I hope this helps! Try both: live and f/t. Choose for yourself. :crazy02:
I have grown to accept the smell so I clean everything weekly, but, if I have friends/relatives stop for a visit, they ALWAYS complain of the smell. :sidestep:
I have used baking soda under the bedding. It did work a bit, but, I do not reccommend using it because the fine powder may cause respiratory distress to the mice as they love to dig, push, and root among their bedding.
My mice live in the lower living room, I smell them in my upper living room after a week. I must walk through the lower room to exit my home; there is no denying their odor.
All encompassing, I prefer my live mice to f/t. Frozen/Thawed pinkies shed their outer skin (upper-dermis) and their bellies "pop" open spewing runny, slimy intestines and juices everywhere when my snakes eat them. I thought one of my snakes was drowning when one popped-open mid swallow. I had to clean the area to prevent decay odor.
I hope this helps! Try both: live and f/t. Choose for yourself. :crazy02:
Taceas
USW = UB313
The only drawback to hamsters/gerbils as feeder rodents is the fact that they have a litter the fraction of the size of a mouse/rat. So it isn't very economical if you're feeding a lot of snakes.
The largest litter I ever got out of my gerbil was 8, and they slowly died of starvation down to 3. And even then, they weren't very good growers.
With hamsters, I've never been able to house a hamster with a cagemate of either sex without the fighting. But Petsmart and petstores keep them together (sexes separated) with no problem. I'm talking about the large hamsters, though.
My dwarf hamsters were more prolific and more adorable, but ALL ages of them buggers bite like the dickens. I picked up a week old baby once and it chomped on my finger, god how I'd hate to suckle that thing.
I keep my mice and rats in the garage, and while it does have a "petshop smell" it doesn't spread to the house unless I have the door open. I clean everyone out every week and that's as good as they're going to get. I don't have the money for bi-weekly or daily changes.
I personally think rats stink less, even though they produce more copious amounts of urine/feces. It has a different smell to me and its not as noxious as male mice. Although nothing rivals un-cut male cat pee, ugh.
Also I've noticed a reduction in the waste odor when I switched over to all Mazuri feeds. The feed contains Yucca Shidigera extract, which internally binds to ammonia and converts it into a non-smelly compound that's passed. Its pretty popular for feeding to mass-produced turkeys and hogs as they produce abundant amounts of ammonia in their wastes. Its sometimes marketed as De-Oderase in some products.
The largest litter I ever got out of my gerbil was 8, and they slowly died of starvation down to 3. And even then, they weren't very good growers.
With hamsters, I've never been able to house a hamster with a cagemate of either sex without the fighting. But Petsmart and petstores keep them together (sexes separated) with no problem. I'm talking about the large hamsters, though.
My dwarf hamsters were more prolific and more adorable, but ALL ages of them buggers bite like the dickens. I picked up a week old baby once and it chomped on my finger, god how I'd hate to suckle that thing.
I keep my mice and rats in the garage, and while it does have a "petshop smell" it doesn't spread to the house unless I have the door open. I clean everyone out every week and that's as good as they're going to get. I don't have the money for bi-weekly or daily changes.
I personally think rats stink less, even though they produce more copious amounts of urine/feces. It has a different smell to me and its not as noxious as male mice. Although nothing rivals un-cut male cat pee, ugh.
Also I've noticed a reduction in the waste odor when I switched over to all Mazuri feeds. The feed contains Yucca Shidigera extract, which internally binds to ammonia and converts it into a non-smelly compound that's passed. Its pretty popular for feeding to mass-produced turkeys and hogs as they produce abundant amounts of ammonia in their wastes. Its sometimes marketed as De-Oderase in some products.
serpentalley
Mirage, motley snow corn.
Breeding Hamsters, excellent alternative!
OK, I've been breeding hamsters, rats and mice for a long time. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had to give up breeding mice since the smell gave me headaches. I breed rats for pets only and I don't breed them very often because there is an overpopulation at the petsores where I live. I breed hamsters for pets too but now that I have a snake, I need food for him. I decided on hamsters because they breed very fast. They have the shortest gestation of ANY mammal...only 16 days before the female gives birth. The average litter for me is 8-10 with the biggest litter being 18. There is the added advantage that the babies are born bigger than mice's babies so when you have older baby snakes, it takes less time to "grow" their food.
The babies wean at 3wks but still suckle on mom for about 1 more week. At 1 wk they are fuzzies then at 2 wks the eyes are open and around 3 wks I guess you call em hoppers. They become mature at 6wks. They can safely be housed together until about 8-12 wks but then the fights break out, especially the females. They are NASTY! I separate mine at about 5 weeks before they can breed so to prevent inbreeding (it doesn't matter if you breed for food). Yes, you need more cages since they are housed separately so I build a rack for them. You can get the traditional used hamster cages fairly cheap at garage sales, and even for free, they are so common.
As for breeding, yes, it is tricky. You can only place the female with the male at night when she is in heat. And then you have to watch them because after about 30 min. she turns on him and the fight is on. It is not pretty! She can injure the male so make sure they are of equal size to prevent any mortalities if you can't remove her after mating. If you have many females to breed, they will more than likely come into heat the same night. The poor male can only mate with one maybe 2 girls in one night so sometimes I keep 2 males. I could go into much greater detail but it is prob. best that you look up hamster breeding sites on the internet to find out more about them.
Males do not stink, the females have a smell when in heat but I notice it only when I handle them. And the smell is not even close to male mice urine. I do a thorough cage clean 1 every 2 wks. Since they are kept singly, 2 wks is sufficient as the bedding does not get very dirty as quickly. And they can be tought to urinate in a "hamster" toilet with kitty litter. I used to use them but gave up because it gave me that much more to clean and disinfect.
So yeah, I think breeding hamsters is a terrific alternative to mice. It is true that you can only feed the larger ones dead since they will injure anything that tries to eat them. I don't think an adult corn could eat a full grown hamster, but if you have a larger snake, and your hamster is no longer breeding, then you get the picture...
I hope this helps any of you who are thinking about an alternative to mice. Mirage doesn't know the difference as he was eating mice before we got him. He is now eating 1 wk old hammies which is probably the size of 3-4 wk old mice.
The only concern I've heard about feeding hamsters to snakes is that they are supposedly "fattier" than other species.
sdmessmer said:
OK, I've been breeding hamsters, rats and mice for a long time. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had to give up breeding mice since the smell gave me headaches. I breed rats for pets only and I don't breed them very often because there is an overpopulation at the petsores where I live. I breed hamsters for pets too but now that I have a snake, I need food for him. I decided on hamsters because they breed very fast. They have the shortest gestation of ANY mammal...only 16 days before the female gives birth. The average litter for me is 8-10 with the biggest litter being 18. There is the added advantage that the babies are born bigger than mice's babies so when you have older baby snakes, it takes less time to "grow" their food.
The babies wean at 3wks but still suckle on mom for about 1 more week. At 1 wk they are fuzzies then at 2 wks the eyes are open and around 3 wks I guess you call em hoppers. They become mature at 6wks. They can safely be housed together until about 8-12 wks but then the fights break out, especially the females. They are NASTY! I separate mine at about 5 weeks before they can breed so to prevent inbreeding (it doesn't matter if you breed for food). Yes, you need more cages since they are housed separately so I build a rack for them. You can get the traditional used hamster cages fairly cheap at garage sales, and even for free, they are so common.
As for breeding, yes, it is tricky. You can only place the female with the male at night when she is in heat. And then you have to watch them because after about 30 min. she turns on him and the fight is on. It is not pretty! She can injure the male so make sure they are of equal size to prevent any mortalities if you can't remove her after mating. If you have many females to breed, they will more than likely come into heat the same night. The poor male can only mate with one maybe 2 girls in one night so sometimes I keep 2 males. I could go into much greater detail but it is prob. best that you look up hamster breeding sites on the internet to find out more about them.
Males do not stink, the females have a smell when in heat but I notice it only when I handle them. And the smell is not even close to male mice urine. I do a thorough cage clean 1 every 2 wks. Since they are kept singly, 2 wks is sufficient as the bedding does not get very dirty as quickly. And they can be tought to urinate in a "hamster" toilet with kitty litter. I used to use them but gave up because it gave me that much more to clean and disinfect.
So yeah, I think breeding hamsters is a terrific alternative to mice. It is true that you can only feed the larger ones dead since they will injure anything that tries to eat them. I don't think an adult corn could eat a full grown hamster, but if you have a larger snake, and your hamster is no longer breeding, then you get the picture...
I hope this helps any of you who are thinking about an alternative to mice. Mirage doesn't know the difference as he was eating mice before we got him. He is now eating 1 wk old hammies which is probably the size of 3-4 wk old mice.
The only concern I've heard about feeding hamsters to snakes is that they are supposedly "fattier" than other species.
sdmessmer
New member
Thanks for the hamster info!
Great post! I'll look up more on the web and see what there is. I've noticed that some hamster varieties get bigger than others, like the blacks and teddies, with the long haired ones I've seen a little bit on the smaller side. With the hamsters you breed what would be the size comparison to mouse feeders with hamster pinks? Are they the size of mouse fuzzies? Hoppers? Bigger than that? I'm thinking hamsters could take the place of my rats, but I would still need some mice for hatchling corns.
Silvia
Great post! I'll look up more on the web and see what there is. I've noticed that some hamster varieties get bigger than others, like the blacks and teddies, with the long haired ones I've seen a little bit on the smaller side. With the hamsters you breed what would be the size comparison to mouse feeders with hamster pinks? Are they the size of mouse fuzzies? Hoppers? Bigger than that? I'm thinking hamsters could take the place of my rats, but I would still need some mice for hatchling corns.
Silvia
serpentalley
Mirage, motley snow corn.
I currently breed short haired blacks and they are average sized for a hamster. The teddies are the long haired varieties and depending on the lineage, they can be smaller or average sized. The females get larger than the males. I guess I wouldn't breed teddies only because if I need to feed juveniles, the fur is already starting to grow long at that age and hence they would simply constitute a "hairier" meal for the snake as oposed to short fured varieties. The males are the ones that get the long fur, not the females btw.sdmessmer said:
For hatchling corns they probably would not be able to handle newborn hamsters so purchasing f/t mice for the first month or so is one option. I rather buy them for that short period of time than having to setup a mice breeding colony which I can't do anyways. But then, I only have 1 baby snake. There's always the option of "partitioning" a nb hamster and I am sure that could work too, instead of feeding nb mice...a bit messier and gorry for some I suppose.
In general, my newborn hamsters are about the size of 1 wk old mouse. Remember that larger litters produce smaller babies and smaller litters produce larger babies. A 3 wk old hamster is prob. around the size of a juvenile or 6wk old mouse. I haven't bred mice in a long time so I am trying to remember from what I've seen at the pet store lately.
Other than feeling guilty (haha, I love rats) why would you want to give up breeding hamsters as opposed to rats? I mean if you already have a breeding colony of rats...I don't understand. I refuse to breed my rats for food simply because I LOVE rats and they are bred as pets only. I find they always get a bad rep and kids almost always chose to get a bitting hamster instead of a loving rat!! Go figure, I love rats and snakes...
serpentalley
Mirage, motley snow corn.
To avoid any confusion, I should clarify that the hamster I am refering to is the syrian hamster, Mesocricetus auratus.
MohaviMoon
New member
Couple of things...
I work at a Petsmart, and we regularly lose hamsters that are housed together due to fighting. We just go to great pains to make sure customers don't see it and isolate them into singles when the fighting starts. There's nothing quite like coming in at six in the morning to clean up blood, headless bodies, and gory parts strewn about the cage. I hate hamsters. Seriously, why do these crotchety women come in and insist on buying these foul tempered, evil little beasts for their four year old children?
Although I haven't tried it with mice, Marshall's produces a wonderful product called Bi-Odor. Its an additive you put in the drinking water that's supposed to make the animal's wastes smell less. Someone recommended it to me when I bought my ferret, but I was skeptical and passed it up. Nothing smells worse than ferret poo... its far worse than cats, to me, and I hate the smell of cats... Anyway, we used the ferret Bi-Odor and that eliminated most of the smell from her wastes. A little later on we also discovered feline pine. Its just a very hard, compact pine pellet that obsorbs odors like you would not believe. Seriously. The only problem with it is that it has a strong smell of its own, and little rodents like mice can't really handle the phenols in pine real well. That aside, a layer of feline pine underneath either aspen or carefresh should be really effective at odor absorption and still be a liveable habitat for the mice. Add the Bi-Odor on top of that (there's a ferret version and a small animal version, buy the appropriate one!), and theoretically you should be able to eliminate most or perhaps even all of the odor.
Or so I think, anyway. At the rate I'm going, pretty soon I'll need to start a breeding colony of my own to feed my babies with!
I work at a Petsmart, and we regularly lose hamsters that are housed together due to fighting. We just go to great pains to make sure customers don't see it and isolate them into singles when the fighting starts. There's nothing quite like coming in at six in the morning to clean up blood, headless bodies, and gory parts strewn about the cage. I hate hamsters. Seriously, why do these crotchety women come in and insist on buying these foul tempered, evil little beasts for their four year old children?
Although I haven't tried it with mice, Marshall's produces a wonderful product called Bi-Odor. Its an additive you put in the drinking water that's supposed to make the animal's wastes smell less. Someone recommended it to me when I bought my ferret, but I was skeptical and passed it up. Nothing smells worse than ferret poo... its far worse than cats, to me, and I hate the smell of cats... Anyway, we used the ferret Bi-Odor and that eliminated most of the smell from her wastes. A little later on we also discovered feline pine. Its just a very hard, compact pine pellet that obsorbs odors like you would not believe. Seriously. The only problem with it is that it has a strong smell of its own, and little rodents like mice can't really handle the phenols in pine real well. That aside, a layer of feline pine underneath either aspen or carefresh should be really effective at odor absorption and still be a liveable habitat for the mice. Add the Bi-Odor on top of that (there's a ferret version and a small animal version, buy the appropriate one!), and theoretically you should be able to eliminate most or perhaps even all of the odor.
Or so I think, anyway. At the rate I'm going, pretty soon I'll need to start a breeding colony of my own to feed my babies with!
sdmessmer
New member
MohaviMoon said:
I didn't know there was a small animal version of Bi-Odor. I'll have to look for it. I use the ferret version for both my ferrets and rodents. It really does help cut down on the odors, but I still have to clean the rodents often as I can't stand the smell. I'll have to try the feline pine with my regular Aspen bedding and see if that helps.
As for hamsters being evil, I think its only the females. My son has a male and he is as sweet as can be, both in temperament and odor wise. :grin01: I had a male as a pet when I was a kid and he was also sweet and docile, never bit. My sister had an evil female and the older she got the worse she was. We ended up feeding her to our brother's boa after she laid into my sister's hand, bit down to the bone! :eek1:
Silvia