Male VS Female smell

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Faint

Noah
Joined
Jun 22, 2014
Messages
46
Location
Ontario
I've heard so many conflicting opinions, I would really like to get males, but my room is very small. Do males really smell worse than females? I was planning on using ferret litter under fleece blankets and in litter boxes and washing the fleece and hammocks at the laundromat weekly.
 
I have heard that males can be stinky... I've also heard that they smell like Fritos though. :lol:
I have 3 females and their room gets mildly stinky after seven days, which is when I clean everything out super well and no more stink. c:
The thing I learned with stink is to make sure you clean often and clean the bars! Wipe down the bars once a week with a mix of white vinegar and water (I use 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water) in conjunction with cleaning out litter and fleece, and you really shouldn't have smell issues regardless of gender.
 
I have 1 spayed female, 1 neutered male, and 14 intact males. The boys with balls do indeed smell of Fritos. It's a musky smell and many rat owners not only become used to it, but grow to adore it (see: rat huffing).

If your room is well ventilated, and you are cleaning often, the smell would probably be noticeable but not overwhelming.

Many people discover they have an allergy to rats. This is not immediately apparent, sometimes a person will have their new rats for a few weeks before symptoms show up. I have read (but am by no means an expert on this topic) that what people react to is something called Rat Urinary Allergen. All rats produce it, but intact boys have the highest concentration. If allergies are a concern, you may want to keep that in mind.

My neutered male simply smells like a rat. Not musky, but not completely invisible either.

My spayed girly doesn't carry an odor that I can detect.

If smell is a major concern, I would recommend girls. However, I also recommend getting girls spayed to avoid mammary tumors, whereas I wouldn't recommend neutering males unless they are very hormonal.

Having only had one girl, I can not affirmatively say that *all* girl rats smell fine. Mine does, others may not.
 
I have a male and a female, and neither of them stink that much. If there is any difference, my females cage might have been stinkier.
 
My girls pee more than my boys.
My boys smell like a :redbud: compared to the stinky girls !
The girls tend to pee on the bars much more than the boys, in my case anyways.....
 
My girls pee more than my boys.
My boys smell like a :redbud: compared to the stinky girls !
The girls tend to pee on the bars much more than the boys, in my case anyways.....

Oh yes, that too. My girl when she was in her singleton cage before her spay would back up to the bars and pee on them. Hard to keep clean.
 
Yikes, I'll be keeping their cage on a wire shelving unit, should I buy shelf liner or something? I'd rather not have rat pee in my gecko tanks :tongue1:
 
I find that rats have 2 types of smells - one that is on the rat, and one that is around the rat (cage environment). I've only had males, and the intact boys would smell great when I sniffed them directly, but their cages were a mess!!! And now that I have neutered males instead, they smell like nothing directly, but they keep the cage tidy and I can go longer between cage cleanings.

As far as buying a shelf liner - I would vote yes. You're not just risking urine getting into the gecko tanks below, but you'd be risking getting litter and poop and food crumbs all over, too! Hope that helps.
 
Yikes, I'll be keeping their cage on a wire shelving unit, should I buy shelf liner or something? I'd rather not have rat pee in my gecko tanks :tongue1:

Yes, if you have other animals that could potentially come into contact with rat pee, find something solid to put on the shelf so pee isn't spraying out and dripping down below. Don't know much about geckos but all the same probably better to keep them free of rat tinkle.
 
I'd have to say in my personal exprerience boys smell worse. I have a rat room and currently have around 25 baby girls and 7 adults, their room smells like any other room and i clean it fully once a week and wipe around their cages every few days. When I had three boys, thwir cage always had a musky smell. But thats just my guys. :)
 
Yikes, I'll be keeping their cage on a wire shelving unit, should I buy shelf liner or something? I'd rather not have rat pee in my gecko tanks :tongue1:

What kind of geckos do you have? I LOVE:love6: reptiles but have not had any for years .
I would definately recommend a solid bottom that can easily be wiped down & cleaned. Of course the less ratties you have in the cage - the less mess! I have 4 girls in two story cage. Some nights I swear , they must have a party in there ;)
 
So its really just a case by case which is smellier? I don't want to really spay/neuter if not needed, does that mean I should get males? Would shelf liner be solid enough to put the cage on?
And I have a crested gecko, gargoyle gecko, and a leopard gecko. :) I'd have a room full of them if I had the money. I'm hoping to stick with just two males.
 
So its really just a case by case which is smellier? I don't want to really spay/neuter if not needed, does that mean I should get males? Would shelf liner be solid enough to put the cage on?
And I have a crested gecko, gargoyle gecko, and a leopard gecko. :) I'd have a room full of them if I had the money. I'm hoping to stick with just two males.

I would make sure that your geckos are very securely in their aquariums and there's NO way a rat could knock them down or get at them. Rats are both prey AND predator and if they get a hold of one of your geckos...

Do you have a room with a window, and decent air flow? I would advise boys for a newbie but definitely keep an eye out for hormonal issues at about 5-7 months of age. Girls most times will get tumours so it really is best to get them spayed but a nice pair of boys may never need it. Unfortunately with all the hobby, backyard and mill breeding in Ontario whether they become hormonal or not is going to be a crap shoot. :(

I would advise changing the hammocks every 3 days not once a week, but it all depends on your boys habits...some like to pee in their hammocks and lie in it (we call it marinating) and some are sooo incredibly clean and tidy you rarely have to change their hammocks LOL. Its best to have 2 sets though for a weeks worth of time.
 
I don't think it's so much case-by-case as it's the fact that one isn't really smellier than the other?
As long as you clean up, you really shouldn't have any issues, especially with just two.
I'd say go with males if you wanted to avoid surgeries though. Males don't always need to be neutered, you only do it if someone gets overly hormonal. But the chance of an unspayed female getting a mammary tumor is much higher than a spayed female (I think it's something like 49% vs 4%). Spays are more invasive, risky and often expensive than neuters also.
For the shelf, I would use corroplast (like this) personally, because it's sturdy, reusable and easy to clean. ^_^
 
I don't think it's so much case-by-case as it's the fact that one isn't really smellier than the other?
As long as you clean up, you really shouldn't have any issues, especially with just two.
I'd say go with males if you wanted to avoid surgeries though. Males don't always need to be neutered, you only do it if someone gets overly hormonal. But the chance of an unspayed female getting a mammary tumor is much higher than a spayed female (I think it's something like 49% vs 4%). Spays are more invasive, risky and often expensive than neuters also.
For the shelf, I would use corroplast (like this) personally, because it's sturdy, reusable and easy to clean. ^_^

In Ontario I would say 85% of the intact females will develop tumours. :(
 
My males do smell like fritos, oily smell, I don't mind the smell! My boys pee on each other a lot, and don't like water so they get towel bathes. IF you do not clean the cage often, I change the fleece about every 10 days.. they will stinky. Even on hot days you can smell them a little bit, even with a clean cage. But its not horrific or anything. My females are a lot messier than my boys and need daily pick up more than my boys do. Negatives and positives to both. I promise you won't regret adding boy into your life, they are cuddle bugs and are different personality than the girls, I have both and I always will !
 
Would you be able to 'bath' them with wipes? And does it smell a lot waiting 10 days between changing fleece? I'm in between using fleece or bedding still. What do you use under your fleece, towels or yesterdays news? My main want for boys is their personality and I'm more partial to male animals. I don't mind the general rodent smell, I've held ferrets before, which everyone thinks smell but I don't think they do, they just have the general small critter smell to me.
 
I find my boys are a hit and miss...I have 6, some use the litter box regularly...some make a point not to lol. If I do a full clean once a week, the odour is manageable and really not that noticeable aside from first entry of the room. Their coats I find have a scent to them, but they have a habit of laying where someone has peed/poohed so not surprising. I've used unscented baby wipes, tidies them up. I've had them since Feb/Mar and have "bathed" them only twice when they particularly enjoy sleeping in the litter box or rolling in poop area
 
The length of time you can go between cage cleanings varies depending on how many rats you have, how big the cage is, and how clean in their toilet habits they are. Mine have fleece liners and litter boxes with Yesterday's News litter. They are pretty good at pooping in the litter boxes, but still tend to pee in their beds. You may find you can go ten days, or you may find it's getting rank after four days. I always have at least two sets of fleece and hammocks. I have to do rat laundry after every cage cleaning because it's a big cage and there's lots of fleece. Use UNscented detergent, and no fabric softener/sheets. I am allergic to rats, and my allergies bother me more when the cage needs cleaning.
 
Back
Top