I love rats and used to have 9 , I had 6 girls and 3 boys and they never smelt
I've taken 5 rescue girls and everything came with them including an amazing large taller than me "critter nation " cage
All their toys and bowls etc came with them
The first day I left everything as is as I thought they might need their own smells to adjust to the new surroundings
By day 2 I couldn't abide the smell , took the cage apart, washed everything, and threw all the accessories in the bath with hot water for a scrub as it was clear nothing had been washed in forever , I threw anything away like fleeces and cardboard , washed all plastic and wooden toys, ,most of the wooden stuff is fine anything where the smell lingered I've chucked
I've put everything back together, took a full day.
And still they smell terrible .
They're in their own bedroom and I've kept the window open . They're quite skittish and obviously haven't been handled much but they're getting used to me and now coming for a scritch and taking treats out of my hands
They're very gentle but nervous.
How do I get rid of the smell tho ? They actually smell , their fur smells , it seems while their owner loved them and gave them lots of toys and stimulation handling and cleaning wasnt their forte , and I've never owned rats that smelled this bad . I really don't want the smell pervading through my house . It's awful . Rats get a bad press and my dd was moaning they'd smell , I kept saying rats actually don't smell they're really clean etc but oh my god these do 🤢
What can I do ? I've even thought about bathing them but I dont want to traumatise them .