# Smell Comparisons?



## YourSoJelly (Jul 1, 2013)

I'm sure many of you have more than just mice, so I need your help. I would really like a pair or trio(preferably) of mice, but my mom is the issue. She is SUPER smell sensitive, so I need a smell comparison, if you will, of all the animals I have had.

In the past I have had:
4 guinea pigs (currently have). All sows in a 2x6 C&C cage with fleece bedding.
3 hamsters- All boys, 2 normal and 1 dwarf. aspen, carefresh, or pine bedding.
2 dogs- 1 boy 1 girl, both fixed. Female was Golden Retriever and Male is a Lab
1 horse- Male who pees a bunch, due to a disorder, gelding.

Out of all those, what would you say smells the worst. My guinea pigs get a daily Spot clean, the hamsters never got spot cleans and the cages were cleaned every 1-2 weeks (I wasn't a very good hammy momma but I was 6, 8, and 11 years old). My mice would get daily spot cleans. Those were all MY animals, the others are just smell comparisons that were not concentrated to my room only. Oh, we also had a bird for a year or two. She was my moms but was given to a better home because I was petrified (I was 0-3 years old when we had her) of her. Thank everyone!


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## Onyx (May 2, 2010)

That is a tricky question, based on many things. In my experience, good bedding, food and ventilation means the mice shouldn't smell at all. Instead they should have that almost hay barn sort of smell. Sweet, grassy. With just a pair or trio, you could easily do partial clean outs every three or four days and with this small number you shouldn't get a big build up of dirty bedding causing the smell of urine/ammonia and if keeping just to does, you shouldn't get smelly hormones from males.

I followed my nose when in my mouse room. I knew it was time for a clean out when it didn't smell like a healthy, clean, hay barn any more :lol: This was usually at about 4 days after cleaning out and because I kept many mice including males


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## Cordane (May 22, 2012)

Ahh the fun of people who are sensitive to smell. My grandma is one of them - occasionally I stay with her and usually have a mouse or two with me. First obvious tip is to avoid males, my grandma was begging me to clean out my boys cage one day and I had actually just cleaned it that morning..

I would love to be able to give you an answer but its rather difficult. Hopefully this will make sense :
When you first get a new animal, no matter what you do, they will smell. A lot of the time it is just because its a smell you aren't use to and so it is.. Obvious. I've owned mice for a little over 3 years now and I don't notice their "smell" any more - usually after a week I will smell them but I do full cleans weekly so that tends not to happen.

If I had to say if one of the animals you listed was worse, I'd say the guinea pigs depending on how often you wash the fleece etc.

As Onyx said, with daily spot cleans, the mice shouldn't smell at all.


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## ThatCertainGlow (Jun 23, 2012)

I'm one of those annoying 'smells everything too strongly' people...

In order of what has driven me far away/out of a house due to smell and allergies in the past:
1. Dogs, especially goldens/labs they REEK to high heaven of something like decomp, to my nose, even when fixed.  I have to scrub anything of mine/or skin, that dogs encountered in other's homes touch, or I'm a sniffly, sneezy mess as well. There are like two (?) breeds that don't send me headed the other way.
2. Horse, but only because of the ammonia/pee issue. Many horses smell tolerable, especially on good pasture. Not an indoor animal, so unless in a barn, especially when grooming one, I usually have no trouble.
3. Guinea pigs. They gag me wherever I've been around them. Oddly, not usually an allergy thing, just bad smell.
4. Hamsters, if on pine or carefresh. Pine w/pee is a sneeze fest for me. On paper products, it's just a super bad smell.

I actually like the way the mice musk smells, but their pee is intolerable. Doing the alfalfa/hay, sweet PDZ, and lab quality aspen, to keep that from attacking me. I keep trying to mix shredded paper in there, but I end up ripping it all out on day two, and going back to no paper. Even in doe bins. I only keep 2-3 does per bin, but paper/carefresh seems to just magnify the pee/poo odor for me. *edit* Ventilation REALLY helps!

The dog thing is actually remedied by a major change of diet, and it seems to help me as well to have a careful diet for the mice. Cats are the same way. Cats I meet who are not mine, and fed a specific diet, cause my allergies to have fits. Even though the cats don't smell exactly bad to me. My cats smell so amazing to me, I often bury my face in their fur. Good luck with your mom...


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## thammy24 (Dec 20, 2012)

I find mouse pee stink the most but some dog fur smell worse. My hamsters and guinea pigs never smelled as much as my mouse cage lol, but my mouse cage only smells when one just peed, once it's dry, they don't smell either.


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