Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm getting desperate for better odor control for my rack. I've got roughly 75 breeders in this room and my roomates are complaining about the smell. I'm keeping it very clean, but still it smells. There are two identical sized windows, one with a window fan in it on a timer to run a few hours here and there everyday. In the other window is a hanging air freshner, but it just makes the room smell like strawberrys and rats. I'm wondering about the vanilla extract or any other addatives to the rats water that might help. Also does anyone know if there are sophisticated digital appliance timers that I could get and set it to just turn the fan on for 10 minutes of every hours?

Thanks!

i live in an apartment and didn't have anywhere outside to have a rack so i thought what other options were there. i decided to totally enclose the rack, connect a dryer tube to the exhaust fan and then have the bottom made out of pegboard. it has worked out really well. my girlfriend turns her nose up when i clean the tubs but thats it. its been really fun being able to watch their activity too. i would recomend only using these sterilite tubs with mice though. you said you are breeding rats so i would use cat litter pans or cement mixing tubs.
here is a link to a good place to get cat litter pans. this is where i bought mine for my new rack that is going to replace the one shown below.

http://dresslersdog.com/catlitter.html

you can see a few more pics in my gallery. its under theanimalman.
good luck, chris

I use one teaspoon of imitation vanilla extract (you can also use pure, but it costs a lot more) to a gallon of water for my mice and it really cuts down on the odor. I also use Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) too... so I don't know if this is a factor or not, nor do I know if this formula will work on rats.

Good Luck
MissHisssss

Go to Wal-Mart and you can find the cheapest timer they have will let you set it to go on and off every 15 minutes. It is really easy and you can set it to do pretty much anything!
Kevin