Do rats smell bad?
Speaking as someone who has shared a house with many species, some well-behaved and some not so well-behaved, NO. Rats are the least stinky pets I’ve had, including our cats. People who have owned mice always notice the stink coming from the cage after a few days (especially male mice). Rats do not have this potent urine problem. Even the males, who have a tendency to pee on things, do not stink up their home like other rodent pets. Rats require less cage cleanings than mice, once a week as opposed to twice or three times a week. (A good bedding and a wire cage can make cleaning required even less often.) Female rats are better at keeping their environment clean and less likely to pee on people, so for the scent wary, they are the “better” gender to keep. Some males have a slight body odor, but it is much weaker than dog smell.
