Is the boys just stinky or is it the Clean & Cozy?

LokiWolf · 11-20-2012, 01:01 PM

So mom and me noticed from the first day that the Robo boys stink. I always thought that females were suppose to be more smelly than males, but my girls never smelled like this (Charlotte did smell when she had a UTI, but it's a different smell than the boys). Or is it that Kaytee Clean and Cozy, I'm using it as bedding right now, just isn't good at oder control? I've never used it before, I only picked it up because it was on sale, cheaper than Carefresh, and I've heard good things about it. Do you guys think, is Robo boys normally smelly or is it the Clean and Cozy not being good at oder control?

Kirsty1987 · 11-20-2012, 01:05 PM

I have one robo boy and he doesn't smell horrible at all in fact i love the smell in his cage its hard to describe it has like a popcorn smell to it

as for clean and cozy i have never used it so can't really comment on that i use snowflake wood shavings in totoro's cage

LokiWolf · 11-20-2012, 01:09 PM

Yeah, I've heard they don't smell too much, so this is what confuses me. I hope they aren't smelling because one of them is sick.

**kyrilliondaemon** · 11-20-2012, 01:17 PM

Muffin doesn't smell and nor did Skip, but to be fair you have four in a really small cage and that'll really contribute to the smell.

Kirsty1987 · 11-20-2012, 01:21 PM

Can't say for definite but i had a little read about them and have heard that males can smell more than females even though females go into heat news to me lol maybe you could try a different bedding get a small amount just to use for a while and see if it smells any different if not then you know its probably not the bedding causing the smell

LokiWolf · 11-20-2012, 01:21 PM

They're getting a bigger cage soon. If all works out, by the end of the week they will be in the new one. But that could be it. We'll find out when they move to the bigger one if the smell is a size thing or not.

LokiWolf · 11-20-2012, 01:24 PM

I might just pick up some Carefresh or Aspen when we got to Petsmart and mix it with the Clean and Cozy. I have a strong feeling the Clean and Cozy isn't doing a good job on oder control. However, one of my boys loves digging around in the Clean and Cozy; he'll pop his head up and it'd be covered in bedding, very cute.

purple_x · 11-20-2012, 01:48 PM

My trio of robos are in a detolf and they dont smell at all.

Maybe it is just the substrate you are using.

If they are in a small cage, because there are 4 of them you might want to clean them out every other day or so to keep the smell down.

**Silver** · 11-20-2012, 01:53 PM

I've had one boy dwarf & three girls.

The girls I can not smell just when they need a cage clean urine smell, but my boy dwarf he was stinky!. His wee was potent & he scent marked everything over & over again even though I left as much old substrate & bedding as I could.

Bless him I did not love him any the less though, but with my own findings boy hams smell more than girl hams.

Silver xxx

**Hamtastic** · 11-20-2012, 02:04 PM

My Campbell boys are definitely very stinky vs. my other dwarfies who are all female.

On the note of Clean and Cozy, it's significantly worse at odor control than Carefresh. I got a huge bag of it on-line and stopped using it because it was soft and nice, but did not mask any smells. It also caused an allergic reaction in one of my robos, possibly because the residual bleach content was too high in my batch. On both counts, I will not be using this bedding anymore until perhaps it will be improved in the future. Personally I like a combination of EcoBedding with Carefresh Natural in terms of odor control, tunnels, being hypoallergenic, and looking nice (and being cheap on-line).