My Rats Stink! Tips for Managing Pet Rat Smell

You’ve probably heard before that rats are actually super clean animals who groom themselves a lot and like to stay clean. This is generally true, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have to live and play in the same cage where they pee! Here are some tips for keeping your rats clean.

Minimizing pet rat smell helps you breathe a lot easier, especially if you have a smaller living space. But it also helps your furry friends breathe easier and minimizes respiratory issues.

What’s causing the smell?

First of all, determine what the problem is.

• Is it your rat’s personal hygiene? It’s true that most rats are super clean, and will groom themselves (and each other) several times a day. But I’ve definitely had at least one rat who didn’t care as much about his hygiene. He would regularly lay in his own pee, and could definitely get stinky. A wipe down of their tail, paws and fur with a wet wash cloth can often help your rat’s hygiene if they’re having trouble keeping it up themselves.
• Older rats can sometimes have trouble with their hygiene, especially if they have mobility problems like hind leg degeneration. Again, giving them a wipe down with a wet cloth can really help them out. Pay special attention to their ears if they’re unable to reach them with their hind legs.
• Rats are, of course, living things – just like us! So they will always have a little bit of smell. With that said, it’s not normal for the smell to be so strong that nobody wants to be in the same room with them. That’s more likely to be a problem with cage husbandry.
• Most often, the problem is less with the rats themselves, and more their cage, waste, and urine. Sometimes their pee can build up in sneaky places that we might not immediately consider, and can really reek over time!

Cage Cleaning Tips

1. Bedding is one of the biggest factors in how quickly your rat cage starts to stink. Over the years, different types of bedding have come in and out of style for pet rats. For awhile, it was popular to line entire cages with fleece – but this actually gets super stinky quickly! Paper beddings like CareFresh also aren’t great for keeping ammonia levels down. Wood shavings are some of the best beddings for rats, but make sure you pick an unscented, kiln-dried one. We go into lots of detail about finding the right bedding in this article.
2. Make sure their cage has enough ventilation. Cages with bars are best for pet rats. Because of their sensitive respiratory systems, rats can’t safely live in aquariums with glass walls, or plastic tubs. Having a large enough cage for the number of rats you have is also an important consideration.
3. Don’t clean the cage too often! Once a week is fine for a total cage cleaning. Both male and female rats like it when their surroundings smell like them. If you deep clean more than that, your rats will just mark even more to compensate.
4. While a deep clean is only needed once a week, you can still spot clean the cage daily by wiping down flat surfaces where pee collects, checking any fabric items (like hammocks) for smells, and tossing out any non-reusable toys or decorations that are starting to get stinky. Litter trays can be switched out daily or every few days, and if you notice any spots in the bedding where waste is building up, you can scoop that out as well. Daily spot checks can go a long way towards minimizing your rats’ smell.
5. Flat surfaces (like the shelves that come with most cages) are notorious for collecting pee. Rats naturally gravitate towards peeing on these, and it just dries up and gets sticky because there isn’t any bedding to soak it up. Consider removing these flat shelves altogether and placing uneven surfaces to encourage your rats to use their bedding (or litter boxes) as a bathroom instead. If you go this route, make sure to include lots of scarves and hammocks, etc. lower down in case your rats lose their balance and fall from higher up. (For ideas on designing this type of cage layout, see our article on Creating an Enriching Rat Cage Setup.)
6. If your rats are elderly, or you can’t avoid using flat shelves, you’ll probably have to wipe them down every day to stop the pee from collecting there and your rats from marinating in it! Another option is to build a litter tray out of metal or plastic to sit on top of the shelves. It should have high enough sides to keep your rats from flinging the litter outside their cage. (A big part of litter training rats is to just place litter boxes where they would naturally want to go.)
7. Hammocks and certain wooden pieces do need to be changed every 2-3 days. You can give them the “sniff check” if you’re brave, or just keep a few sets of hammocks on rotation so that you can easily switch them out and wash them. You can toss hammocks in your washing machine after shaking out any poops or crumbs. (If that makes you squeamish, just soaking them in a bucket of hot water with some vinegar can also work.) You can soak wooden items in your bath tub, and then let them air dry. Cardboard items are usually only good for a few days before they need to be recycled.
8. Remember to clean all around the cage too. This includes wiping down the floor and walls. Rats love to shuffle their bedding around, and it can end up all over the place. Make sure to vacuum or sweep it all up, then try mopping around the cage as well with hot soapy water when you do your weekly deep cleans.
9. Give the entire cage a good soak in your bath tub, or even outside, once every few months. This gets every tiny crevasse that their pee can sink into. After soaking the bars, give each one a good wipe down with a rag, making sure you get into and behind the corners.
10. Try switching to unscented cleaning supplies if you aren’t using them already. As mentioned above, rats will go crazy with marking if their environment smells too strongly of chemically Lemon Fresh. (Unscented products are also much easier on their delicate respiratory systems!) Vinegar is a great natural cleaning product that neutralizes the smell of urine.
11. If you’re still struggling to keep up with the rat cage smell, consider setting up an air purifier in the same room you keep your rats. This helps both with the smell, and minimizes respiratory problems.

Ratty Hygiene Tips

1. Consider your ratties’ diet. More fresh whole foods (as opposed to processed ones) will affect the way your rats smell, including their waste.
2. Try litter training so that you can just change out the litter boxes every day.
3. As a last resort, give your rats a bath. It’s not normally recommended because bathing rats can dry out their skin. Most (but not all!) rats also have a general dislike for water and being wet. If you find them really getting behind on their hygiene or finding things caked into their fur, it may be necessary.

I hope these tips help and you can get your rats smelling fresh as daisies in no time. Share your tips for managing rat smell below!