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Bathing a Rat

21 17:35:02

Question
I recently brought home a rat from the local pet store, and she's wonderful except for her smell.  She has a strong urine smell from where she was kept.  I've bathed her using Dove soap, but it wasn't enough.  Any suggestions for getting her to smell as fresh as her cage mate?

Answer
If you like the smell of tea-tree oil or melaluca, you can use a little bit of that essential oil mixed with an oatmeal puppy shampoo and suds her up in that. Otherwise, you can use vanilla extract on the base of her tail and neck, or my favorite solution, spray some vanilla water on a papertowel and wipe her down. If the smell continues, I'd look into having her checked out for a UTI.. their urine can be REALLY strong when they're sick!

Good luck.