Dealing With a Husband...

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Good Karma

Good Karma

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
353
Location
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Hi All,

I didn't know where to post this.

First off: Smell: how do those of you with many rats keep the smell down?
I spot clean my cage every day and my husband always complains that they smell (i have 2 boys in a super pet cage).
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Any advice on anti-smelling stuff?

Also, i am wanting to adopt 2 more boys from a friend but my husband is up in arms about increasing smellyness! I don't think 2 more rats is going to make the smell stronger. What do you guys think?

I'm sure all of us married folk would have way more animals if it wasn't for our husbands!

Tara
 
I can tell you that my BF says they smell no matter how often I clean the cage.

I have eight girls in a Double FN. I change their fleece and their litter every other day, I also wipe it down with vinegar and water. Which by the way is really, really good at killing the urine smell and is non-toxic to our furkids.

I think they just have to have something to complain about.
 
I use about 40v/60w but it really only depends on if the smell bothers your boys. My girls do not sneeze at all and like to lick the vinegar. Others use a 50/50. I like the smell of vinegar, it bothered me at first. But the BF says it stinks :lol: . I just say whatever than don't breath. I think he does it just to be a jerk and to hear me holler at him.

I wipe everything down every other day. I also limited the amount of wood toys that lay around the bottom of the cage.

The wood thing at the bottom of your cage could be the smelly culprit?
 
I'm an expert on dealing with husband (as I have one with an extreme temper and zero sense of humor) - we have great ventilation and the stuff I use in the buttom of the cage is real good made of corn
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20-25 rats in a cage, after 4 days the smell is only starting

and then the husband - doesn't he have a hobby? I tell mine 'arh you can buy that Gucci-scarf if you want' and then he'll be happy and I can spend the same fortune on my babies, if your husband is more normal than mine it's probably something for the car or the computer that'll make him happy, you just have to find out his weak point 8)
 
I use yesterdays news in the litter boxes (cleaned and emptied daily), clean the cage and change cloths daily.

I also use a Honeywell Hepa filter in the room where the ratties are.
It really makes a difference.
 
I change liners and wipe down my cage every 3 days with a Water/Vinegar [50/50] mixture. Just spray, grab damp washcloth and wipe. I use Yesterday's News in their litterbox, and I change that out every 3 days as well. I only scrub my cage [with soap/water] about every 3months or so.

How often do you wipe down the cage? Scrub it? Change out their hammocks/cloth? Wood items absorb urine like there's no tomorrow, and reek horribly even after a day of being in the cage. Small wood chews can even cause an ungodly smell if they've been peed on too much. I'd try removing that wooden bridge thing outside and see if that doesn't help.

Another thing with boys is over cleaning. Males like to really mark their territory, so if *nothing* smells like them they can go on a marking spree and that can smell pretty foul. I always try and keep a few things that smell like them in the cage so that they still feel it's home.
 
Thanks for the great advice guys!

I do a wipe down daily or every other day with a pet stain/odor remover and i change the bedding ever few days.

Where do you guys put your soiled bedding before laundry day?

I also use a Honeywell Hepa filter in the room where the ratties are.
It really makes a difference.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a great idea - does anyone else use a hepa filter?
I will definitely try this.
I will also get rid of the wood and use the vinegar and water solution for cleaning!
Thank you!
 
and then the husband - doesn't he have a hobby? I tell mine 'arh you can buy that Gucci-scarf if you want' and then he'll be happy and I can spend the same fortune on my babies, if your husband is more normal than mine it's probably something for the car or the computer that'll make him happy, you just have to find out his weak point
Click to expand...
I should get my husband some nose plugs hehehehe! :lol:
 
I put my used hammocks in a plastikbag, spray it with some odour neutralizer and just keep it either on the balcony or in the bathroom, but be warned, it stinks! I wash it 90 celsius and double wash-cycle, and it's very odourless after washing.
 
I just wash it when I clean their cage. I learned my lesson I put some in a trash can and after a few days it was a toxic smell. I almost puked and I have a strong stomach.

I just wash it in hot water and regular laundry detergent.

I also use the Yesterdays News and I love it.
 
First of all, if you have a husband that just tolerates the rats, no matter what you do, he will find the rats smell.
The rats do have an odour but most of us rat lovers love that smell, it's a musky corn chip kind of smell which to a non rat lover will find offensive.
I notice you have a dog... in my home with 21 rats, it's the dog smell that overpowers the home. :lol:

From my experience, the plastic shelves in those super pet cages do seem to "hold" the urine and poop odour. Have you tried lining your shelves with towels or fleece and changing them every 2 to 3 days? Also, if you place Yesterday's News at the bottom it will absorb a lot of the odours.
 
Jo, is so right.

I have four dogs that are in crates in the rat room. Every time my BF says it stinks in there it is because of the dogs, not my rats. Even though he argues with me and says its the rats.

I have to wash the dog blankets every week other wise there is just a dirt smell to the room. My Retriever likes to roll in the dirt. :lol:

But if I lets the girls cage go one day over two days then I can smell them. This only happens every once in awhile, I just get really tired and can't do anything but sleep. :?
 
I have an air filter running in the room with the rats, but I've never noticed it helping with the any smells, really. I use it to help cut the dust and allergens that make my girls sneeze.

I have an old laundry bag I just toss the liners into when I change the cage. It's hanging here in my bedroom, and I do their laundry once a week. That's two changes of liners and a set of hammocks. I've never had a problem with it smelling too badly. Maybe because I toss the washcloth I use to wipe down their floors in there? I don't know if vinegar has that much of an anti-odor effect..

I'll also agree that my dogs smell more than my rats. We've got 3 of them and their beds and areas are more disgusting than the girls' cage.
 
I also run an air filter, and I do find it cuts down on the smell. But I think that is partially due to the fact it helps circulate the air so it doesn't become stagnant in one place.
 
I put their laundry in a plastic garbage pail with a snap-tight lid. Sometimes I could faint from the smell when I open the lid on laundry day!! I also put laundry in a mesh laundry bag on the back porch.

sometimes hammocks smell bad enough (esp with older rats and with babies) that I need to pre-soak them in hot water with detergent and a bit of vinegar before laundering them. When I have babies and older rats I change the hammocks often. My Edith spends a lot of time in a couple of spots in the cage, so I put soft cloths where she will be, and I change them twice a day sometimes.

My husband is also sensitive to the smell of rat cages, although he sees that I put in super-human efforts to keep them clean. Luckily he has become very attached to my girls and that helps him tolerate the odour, the clutter, and the constant bits of litter on the floor near their cages. :lol:
 
I guess I should consider myself lucky to have a bf without a good sense of smell, he got it broke while he was a teenager and got in a fight with a pregnant girl :D
The only time he complains of the smell is when we take my boys to Cochrane in his cavailer :lol: If he only knew :roll:
 
Hi Guys,

You are all awesome! Thanks for the great advice.

I have 2 dogs actually and a cat. I don't find they smell at all. And my husband never complains about them.

I bought a honeywell hepa air filter last night and did the whole cage with vinegar and water.

I used to use CareFresh at the bottom of my cages but i found it smelled more when i used it. Now i just wipe down the bottoms. Some of you mentioned a corn cob litter or yesterday's news - do these work better than carefresh or nothing on the bottom?

Also, i know many of you line your shelves. I am reluctant to do this because it seems like more work to me. And how do you get the fleece to stay in place? Especially on the bottom (i have super pet cages that have deep pans for bottoms).
If someone could point me towards a thread on making fleece liners that would be great!

Thanks again!

Tara
 
You can just cut fleece pieces to fit the shelves and use bull clips to fasten it to the sides of the cage. Bull clips are the black plastic office clips to hold stacks of paper together. It really isn't any more work than having to wipe down the shelves every day, and you can usually get 2 days out of a single set of liners. So at the very least, you'll be wiping it down every other day instead of every day.

For the base, you can just put a layer of Yesterday's News or some other litter instead of the fleece. I really like Yesterday's News, and I think it has really great odor control. You can get it in a really big bag in the cat section of most pet stores, just make sure you get the unscented kind.
 

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