It’s the cage that will smell if it isn’t cleaned regularly. Our boys [the rescue rats]were never socialized properly and pee/poop everywhere, unlike our girlies who had their “toilet corner” and never got very stinky. Cleaning the cage once a week for the boys does not cut it, it needs to be about every three days, otherwise I start to smell ammonia from the urine. But again, I never noticed this problem with my girl rats.
Its funny how the consensus here seems to favour boys over girls. Maybe the fact the girls were hand raised alters my experience, but I find their coarser greasier fur is not as pleasant as the fluffy softness of Norman and Desiree. My son is asking for two more girls to hand raise and as Desiree has passed age two and starting to look frail, we are getting another set probably this weekend.
[If my son is disobedient and puts the new ones in with the boys, well call me in about a month, I will have a bunch for you…)
