rats and cage odor

Question
QUESTION: Our venerable first pair of rats (Fisket and Ponker) have died, and we have three (3) new jeuveniles (3 - 4 months old) -- who arrived in time to make the last few weeks of Fisket's life much happier after the loss of Ponker. My question: the cage now smells terrible! It is the same odor as before, but twice as strong. And within hours, or a day, of cleaning the cage, the odor is back again. We only have room for their large cage in our kitchen, which is where we spend most of our time, anyway, and we appreciate the company. But yikes! Is there anything we can do?

ANSWER: What bedding are you using?  Some rats have a higher odor to their urine, or they are more prone to urine marking and you may have to try a different type of litter to cope with their different behaviours.  Aspen, Carefresh, Yesterday's News, and SoftSorb are some good examples of bedding, and you can even mix two different kinds together.  I believe SoftSorb has a lavender scented bedding as well, though I haven't personally tried it.

Another suggestion is to have them neutered, which can reduce the tendency to urine mark and therefore reduce the smell.  Contact your veterinarian to find out if they can perform the procedure and what the cost would be.

If you have had the cage for a while, the plastic bottom may be absorbing odors (galvanized wire also can absorb odors if it is not painted or powder coated).  Try soaking it in hot water with some bleach in the bathtub then rinse it out really well to remove any lingering smells.

You could also try litter training them and changing their litter pan every day.  Find the corner where they pee in the most and place a pan large enough for them to stand in with their full body and place any poops in the cage into it.  If you continue to move their poops to the litter box and immediately put them in the box if you see them peeing, they may use the box and it might make it easier to clean the cage.  Here is a good article about litter training: http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm#litter

I hope this helps, it certainly is a bit odd that your new rats would have such a stronger smell than your previous rats.  Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Robin, Thank you so much. Since you wrote, we cleaned the cage again and
this time the odor returned at a rate we are more familiar with. I'm guessing
that as our new buddies get more comfortable and familiar with us, they are
not marking their territory so frantically. We noticed that immediately after
they returned to their cleaned cage, they explored it excitedly and the odor
briefly spiked to alarming levels very quickly. Then it subsided. So perhaps
after one round of marking, they calmed down. Of the three, there is only one
that is tame enough so far to actively seek contact and voluntarily leave the
cage, climbing up onto us and going back in and then returning over and
over for more of the same.

It occurs to me I do have another question. I get nervous when we are taming
them that one might jump off the couch or off our shoulders. This hasn't
happened so far, but if one of them does, even though the kitchen doors are
shut, I worry that one of these girls might be impossible to recapture.

Thanks again, Robin. Very helpful. I'll let you know what solutions we try.

Best,

Jonathan

Answer
Normally rats don't choose to jump off something that is more than 2 feet off the ground.  I've successfully kept them out on coffee tables and my couch which are 16" high and they have never jumped down intentionally.

They might, however, fall down by accident or if they are very scared they may slip off.  It doesn't happen often but it does happen, more often with babies than with adults.  If they are on your shoulder, try sitting down so if they do fall off they can quickly be grabbed.  Though rats can run quite fast if they hit the floor, often it is easy enough to grab them if you are quick.  One of my females has learned to climb down to the floor from the end table where their cage is, and I've never had trouble catching her (she is about 7 months old).