Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I've had my mouse colony for a little over 2 months. (3 cages 1.5 each cage) Things are finally going good, but the smell is AWFUL. I have them in my half bath. I have tried vanilla in the water, they are on paper-pulp, I clean it regularly,I scrub the tanks and food bowls ECT, and also the bathroom floor. I have two air fresheners in there...
Please tell me there is something I can do??
Thanks
Miya
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"Information is the fuel upon which democracy runs, and unless it accurately reflects reality we are at a disadvantage as a society to make honorable and sensible decisions."
--Peter Howe

It sounds like you've done pretty much all that can be done with the exception of a window/vent and maybe try a different substrate. I use pine shavings.

MissHisssss

The paper pulp absorbs and holds onto the smell, ive had no problem here still I have yet to find out if certain foods cause stronger urine smell or not.
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My roomates are2 boas, 4 corns,Rotti,3cats and snake food AKA the food chain.

Water - bottles or automatic, if they drip, it increases smell.
Being in the bath may not be helping. Just try your best to keep the humidity down and the bedding as dry as possible.

Ventilation - both for keeping the litter drier and if possible venting some smell outside. Check back through the archives. Someone had a setup with drier hose that vented outside.

Crowding - 1 male 5 females 20 pups (or more) = X
Or 1 (15 sq" 5 (15 sq" 20 (6 sq" = 210 sq" of floor space.
That would be 15" X 14" or 10" X 21". If you find that you have more or less pups generally , add or subtract 6 sq" for each.

Good Luck and let us Know what happens.

DeMak
Cage space guidelines - University of Minnesota

Those smiley blinky things are supposed to be end parenthesis!

I find the best way to get rid of the musky smell of male mice is to get rid of the mice completely and switch to rats. If what you are feeding the mice to can take large fuzzy mice or larger, they can take pinky rats or larger. Rats don't smell at all like mice, with regular cleaning the worse smell you may have is a slight oily smell.

I thought I'd mention that it seems that certain foods do add to the odor. Not necessarily the male smell, but just odors in general. I say this because it started smelling worse in the mouse room once I started adding a seed mixture to their diet.

I noticed you mentioned air freshners in your post. I'd recently heard on our news channel that some air fresheners can be a bit toxic. So if your mice start acting weird... eliminate the air freshners and see if it helps. Just a thought.

MissHisssss

I also use insence, they are away from the cages and blow down the hall, or i have a tall bookshelf and a plant on top and stick one in there and light it, Also if you don't aireate your cages well and moisture seeps in that will cause the odor to come forth. I have mixture of wild bird sunflower seeds(thin blk ones), corn, dog and cat food that is low in protien like puppy kibbles and suet for birds, greens like collards etc will cause even our urine to stink, so littlw of that will not hurt in wither case. I have all my critters in the house as snow is at our back door and i havn't smelt them yet!
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My roomates are2 boas, 4 corns,Rotti,3cats and snake food AKA the food chain.

If you scrub the cages really well and get all the mouse smell off, it seems like them males in perticular will scent it really heavily. Making it smell worse than before, IMO.
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Anna

1.0.0 Ball Python {Shane}
1.0.0 Afican Bullfrog {Bungy}
2.2.8 Crested Geckos {Mel, Harley, Sally, Momma, unnamed}
0.0.1 Giant Black African Millipede {Milly}
2.0.0 Parakeets {Storm, Cloud}
4.0.0 Button Quails {Bob, unnamed}
1.0.0 Short Tail Possum {Eddie}
2.0.0 Pet Rats {Carlos the hairless, Ibin the dumbo}
2.1.0 Dogs Lab/Pionter mix,Basset Hound,German Shepherd {Vegas,Shortie,Nevada}
2.1.0 Kitties {Kenny, Sebation, Phoebe}
1.1.0 Ferrets {Weasle, Girlie}
1.0.0 Betta {George}
1.0.0 Boyfriend {Brian}
1 fish tanks with lots of fish
2 Crested Gecko eggs layed 7/24
And the bugs

Thats it for now.....

add a little of their old substrate to their new bedding... unless a male is getting lazy (and there are no babies)I won't add any. This is when the vanilla comes in handy.

MissHisssss

.............raise rats,they (i believe) are better food source than mice.you can breed rats with less males,and females easily accept another's babies no problem.i think they are more fun to work with.have fun!

If you have them in a galvanized cage you won't get rid of the smell. The galvanized wire holds the pee smell in no matter how clean you try to keep the cages clean! Switch cages if need be...

i agree...kill the mice...raise rats....unless you have something that requires pinkie mice, rats are a much better choice

I used to have the same complaint about the mice I was raising. Vanilla and regular cleaning did little to solve the problem. I went to the rodent section at my local pet store and found a product (I can't for the life of me remember what it is called and I don't have any at this time) that is used for rabbits (ferrets too I think) you simply add some of this liquid to their water like you would the vanilla and give it a week or two. It worked great for me.

I know I'm not being real detailed but it's late and I can't remember much more about it. I do remember it was fairly expensive for the 9 ounces or so that I got (about $10.00) but it did last quite a while. It came in a pump bottle.

I hope this helps.

i just wanted to say that i use to use paper typ substrate and had a horendous smell problem. it actually caused me the rent agrement. i now am using pine shavings and it is great! it works just as well as the paper in absorbing but it also absorbs the smell and drys out faster than paper would so not letting too much bacteria build up which is the real cause of the smell. you should try it, you have nothing to lose except the smell.

best of luck to you