Need advise on how to control odor

[natalie2010]

Hi, this is my first time to post here.
I have 4 rat boys, all of them under 3 months old. I have a Martin's cage
skyscraper. Their cage starts to smell like next day I clean. Mainly, smell is
coming from any fabric materials in their cage (Hammocks and Cage liners). Most
of their poop end up in 3 litter boxes inside of their cage, (I change litter
box every day, and I use yesterday's news in their litter box) but it seems like
they are peeing on everywhere. I did shower it down a few days ago too. Today, I removed freece cage liner from bottom pan and
placed carefresh ultra instead to see how long it will take to start to smell. But
anyways, I am wondering if there is any advise on how to control their odor. I
am washing hammocks and cage liners every day in order to control their smell.
Do you think the cage is too small for 4 boys in the cage? According to cage calculator, they said it can hold up to 5 rats.
Maybe Critter nation is easier to clean than Martin's?
Should I separate them in two and two and use 2 cages instead? I am just trying to find a better
way to control odor since my husband started to complain about smell all the
time. Please help!

 

[jorats]

What are you using to wash down your martins? I remember really disliking the smell of vinegar on the powder coating.
At 3 months, your boys are poop and pee monsters. So it's going to be hard to control that right now. Your best bet is an odor controlling bedding. Carefresh is not that great. I suggest you toss your carefresh and get yourself a big back of Yesterday's News. Poor that at the bottom and have a few corner litter pans with it throughout the cage. This will help reduce the odor. Another thing, keep a bowl of vinegar nearby, it will absorb the odors as well. When you add your fleece, dust very lightly a bit of baking soda on them. Don't change your fleece too often, only the ones that are wet and soaked, the others, change ever 2 to 4 days. The more you change the more the boys will pee because they are trying to mark their home and they are coming into puberty soon.
4 in the skyscrapper is good, don't separate them, they need each other. You could also invest in an air purifier as well as something to keep the room cool. When the heat goes up like at this time of year, the smell seems to become unbearable.
Another drastic step would be to neuter the boys which has some health benefits too.

 

[jorats]

Oh and I forgot any wood that has been peed on should be thrown out, you can't clean the smell out of wood.
Also check some of the plastics in your cage, some of them seems to hold the odor as well.

 

[natalie2010]

Thank you so much for the great advise! I just use dawn dish soap to wash down the cage. I will pour the yesterday's news on the bottom pan, and will do the baking soda on fleece. I also got info that Bi-Odor by Marshall pet will help reduce odor internally from rats, so I will try that as well. I will give you update on how it goes. I am leaning a lot from your website and thank you so much!

 

[jorats]

Good luck!

 

[victoria]

I use bi-odor with my mice and I find it helps, but it changes the smell rather than eliminating it. It's possible that if you're changing the hammocks every day your boys may be going into overdrive trying to reclaim their territory. I change one of my cubes daily because it is often soaked in pee and stinks, but I leave the others for a few days or up to a week, depending how often they are used.

 

[natalie2010]

Yeah, it could be that I am changing it too often. I will try the baking soda on it and try to change it less. I started to use Bi-odor from today, so I am excited to smell the results in about a week. Thank you for the info!