Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am raising 1 male and 3 female mice together. They are pets, but their offspring are to feed my 3 and 5 year old's 2 baby snakes. They are so sweet and the children love playing with the non-pregnant ones. I clean their plastic cage completely on a weekly bases. But I find that I am needing to do it twice a week to keep down odor in my kid's room. And when the pregnant ones go into a separate cage I have double cleaning duty. I use pine shavings because I'm allergic to cedar and I heard somewhere that cedar was bad for them. Is there anything I can use to keep down odor? I really don't want to start cleaning their cage 3 times a week unless I really have to!

Male mice produce a distinctive odour or musk. No amount of cleaning will make the smell stay away. As soon as the male is in the clean cage, he will run around scent marking everything till it smells like home again. To much cleaning and he won't feel secure.

The only way I have heard that can help reduce his odour is to add a small amount of vanilla extract into his water, about one teaspoon to a gallon of water.

Or you can get rid of the mice and get rats instead. Male rats don't have the smell of male mice.

Pine is, if anything, worse than cedar. They both contain the phenols that can lead to respiratory, liver, and kidney disease. Use either a recycled paper bedding, such as Yesterday's News or Carefresh, or if you must use wood, use aspen shavings, as they do not have phenols.

Male mice do smell quite a bit. I do use the vanilla extract drops in their water (one or two drops per bottle usually does it). There is also a product called Bi-Odor you can add to the water which will help the odor a bit as well. I have up to four males in one cage, and with the vanilla drops and cleaning their cage once every three days, the only odor I notice is when I actually stick my nose in the cage. In my rodent room, I have fourteen male mice, eight seperated four to a tank (twenty gallon), one ten gallon with three, one Critter Trail with two, and one male seperated on his own due to his horrendous allergies. As well, in the room I have ten rats, eight female mice, and two rabbits. With the vanilla extract and a regular cleaning schedule, the only odor I ever notice in the room is usually from the rabbits right before their litter box is changed.

Good luck!