Reptile & Amphibian Forums

any advice on trying to keep the smell out of rat room- i use abm bedding its like wood pellets. i have a bathroom exhaust fan above the one rack and also an ionic pro but i dont think the ionic is working at all. we have about 400 rats all the time in a mason pan rack system.

You might have to look into installing a bigger exaust fan. Just a thought.

Quig

wouldn't you get used to the smell by now? the only way to cure that would be to install a intake fan and an exhaust fan. one fan to blow in fresh air while the other blow out the funk. and of course change bedding routinely.

good luck!

Pitoon

I have about double that number of rats in the same type of mason pan racks but mine are in a barn with good ventilation. 400 rats in a closed room are going to smell. I have a couple of suggestions which may help.

Good exhaust ventilation - you will need more than a small bathroom fan. You will most likely need an a sizeable intake as well as an exhaust fan. A small exhaust fan pulling from a closed room probably isn't effectively moving alot of air.

Garden Lime - try buying some garden lime available at home depot, Lowes, or any large garden center. Sprinkle a cup or two in each tub with your bedding. The lime will help neutralize the nitrogen in the urine and help knock down the ammonia smell. Not much you can do about the other order other than increase the frequency of bedding changes.

Good Luck with the critters.
Grant

The ONLY way to truly keep the smell down in your rat room is to clean them often. I clean mine twice a week and I find the Mazuri is the dominant smell in there.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

I add a couple drops of vanilla flavoring to my mice's water, and it helps a ton with the smell! Or you could do about a teaspoon to a gallon. If it works for mice, I don't see why it shouldn't work for rats. For some reason it makes thier pee smell less.
I've also tried adding baking soda in the rodent bedding, but it actually makes the smell way worse. not sure why...
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www.freewebs.com/snakesandstuff
"Let us step out into the night and pursue that mighty temptress, adventure." (Albus Dumbledore)

My menagerie
2.2 Ball Pythons (and 5 eggs!) 1.1 Amazon Tree Boas 1.0 Corn Snake (and 9 eggs) 1.0 Dumeril's Boa 2.1.10 Bearded Dragons 2.1.2 Crested Geckos (and 4 eggs!) 1.1.4 Eastern Box Turtles (eggs?)1.0 Northern Mockingbird 0.3 Chickens 2.0 Cats 1.1 Ferrets plus lots of mice and feeder insects and 3 Black Rat snake eggs

If you use vanilla, you must use the imitation. The real stuff will gum-up your water valves. It does reduce odor some, but I wouldn't bother with that. The only way to lessen the odor is to increase ventilation and frequent bedding changes.
That's the bottom line.