Males marking? FN cleaning regime

[Riana]

Do male rats mark? It's probably a stupid question, but I'm a little unclear about this. When they were younger I never found this to be a problem, but as I'm sure a lot of you know, I am now struggling with a major odor issue. It's the pee that smells, not the poo or the boys themselves. So could this be from them marking? How long do they do this for? What can I do to help curb this?

I was looking through old forums and I noticed that Jorats said this: "As your males become older, they will need to mark their territory more and more. This usually settles at about 12 to 15 months of age." That's what spurred me on with this topic. Is this really true?

Also, as you know I'm going to be getting a ferret nation 142 next month, and I want to be prepared for what to expect with cleaning. What does everyone do on a daily basis? Bi-weekly? Weekly? Monthly? I want to be prepared so that I can keep them as clean as possible and appease my parents (who don't know about the cage yet... :giggle: :laugh2: )

 

[twitch]

yep, the marking thing is certainly true. they will also have more buck grease during that time. i think the only way to "curb" that is to neuter. otherwise you wait it out. but i'm not entirely sure with intact males how much they will mark compared to neutered ones. i have girls that mark too. and all of them will leave scent trails so they know how to get back to where ever it is they want to get back to.

i've never had a FN but with the cat cage i know that it needs to be tidied daily (poop and split litter put back in tray) and blankets and hammocks need changed about once a week. my cat cage needs to be taken out and high pressured hosed to get the grime off the bars and mesh (i hate the mesh-i can't wait for the RN, i will have less room for rats but NO MESH :happydance: ). really this should be done about 4 times a year for the cat cage but given canadian seasons are two (winter and road work) i normally get it done 2 a year. once just before winter and once during road work season. this seems to suffice enough anyway, but i would like to do it more. where you only have 4 boys in a cage that can hold 12 though your cage cleaning may not need to be as often as mine which houses 11. it will depend on how well they use the litter box, how destructive they are with their toys and hammocks, how much of a hoarders you have and if they hoard fresh food well enough to trick you and of course how much they mark.

in the foster boys martins' cage i change their fabric about every three days and wipe down their levels 2 or 3 times a day. they are getting really good at using the litter box (which gets changed every 4-5 days) too and are not big chewers. i also need to bathe them about once every 1.5 weeks at most. but this is because of my allergies to them. in order for me to not get woozy i need to be right on with their clean smells. washing them that much is not recommended if you don't have to. cleaning the cage that much doesn't hurt them any though. mind this is not a FN. again, an FN is MUCH larger then this martins. and you will have even less boys.

are you getting some liners made? javakittie does a wonderful job. but liners are a wonderful way to make it easier on you for cleaning. just unattach, wash and reattach. i love mine. keeps everyone nice and dry and smelling nice as they don't end up walking through their own pee as much. of course they are still determined to marinate.... :roll:

anyway, i hope i've been helpful.

 

[Bronwyn]

Three of my five females leave scent trails...I think I switched to females to avoid that so, don't bother switching genders if that's the reason, lol! I think they marked more than my four guys ever did.

As for scheduling, I only have a single FN, but I spot clean daily and scrub the entire thing once a week, tossing the liners in the laundry. At the moment I only have three fleeces so as soon as I can restock I'll change the liners twice a week. The girls don't smell very much at all to my nose so I think you need to cater it to your rats, how messy they are, like twitch said.

 

[jorats]

Yep, males do scent their territory. It's worse when they are hormonal but will really never go away.
I have had some neutered males continue to scent while others have stopped, so it's definitely no guarantee.
I do a big scrub down once a week on my FNs. But every second day, I change the fleece/liners and clean up poops and empty litter pans.
I've had repairmen comment how my home doesn't smell and they would never have guessed that I had so many rats. :thumbup:
Wish I could say the same about dog smell. :sick2:

 

[SQ]

I have found that unneutered boys mark much more than girls or neutered males.
But they all urine mark.

Change cloths daily, empty and clean litter boxes daily, scrub down levels every couple of days, take apart cage and scrub down every 4 to 6 months.