# Odor Reducer?



## FaunaQT (Oct 24, 2012)

So I was getting food for my hedgehog at the local petsmart and saw this:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... lInUS%2FNo

I, like most people, am not a fan of the smell of waste. So... do you think this would be a safe product to use? Does anyone have experience with this?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I don't have any personal experience with it, but personally I wouldn't risk trying it either. Too often the odor-reducing or eliminating things sold in pet stores don't work (in my experience, anyway), the fact that it needs to be added to food/water means it could alter the taste enough to cause your hedgehog not to eat/drink, and there's other (imo, safer) ways to reduce odor. You can open a box of baking soda and put it outside her cage, but next to it. That helps absorb odors. You can also run an air purifier in the room to help keep the smell down. It also helps to clean up often, changing the litter box daily or a few times a week, spot-cleaning the liner, and cleaning the wheel every day. Cleaning the wheel in the morning means it's not sitting around all stinky all day, too. Using 50/50 vinegar/water to clean helps eliminate poop and urine odors too.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

I think I'm going to give this a try, if my vet doesn't see any issues with it. I'm seeing a ton of good reviews, and it's not made from chemicals, it's made of enzymes and amino acids. The one thing to be careful of when trying it would be if the change in taste keeps them from drinking, but as long as you're mindful that might happen, there's no reason not to try it out. With one hedgehog, there's really no reason to need a deodorizer, because they really have little smell as long as you keep on top of cleaning the correct amount (like Lilysmommy described). But, we have twenty hedgehogs, not counting the 9 babies in nests right now, and there's pretty much no way to avoid some amount of smell in the hedgehog room, so for us it would be great if something like this actually works as well as it claims.

While there are things to watch for - the taste of it being a turn-off or possible minor stomach upset (which would be no different from adding a new kind of food to a hedgehog's diet) - I don't see anything questionable in the ingredients. As long as you're cautious and know what potential issues to keep in mind, I don't see a reason to not try something new for hedgehogs just because it hasn't been tried before. 

If I do try it, I'll update with how well it works (or not) and anything else I notice along the way.


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## FaunaQT (Oct 24, 2012)

Except for the air purifier, I already do all of those things... I am kind of a neat freak of sorts.  I was just curious on the product. It does seem to have pretty good reviews, and I could see how having a large amount of small animals would warrant the curiosity of some


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Even when I had 20+ hedgies in one room I never had a problem with the smell. I just used an odour sponge and that took care of things. I wouldn't be comfortable adding stuff to my hedgies water. Just my opinion.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Our hedgehog room has no windows, which is amazing for keeping it at a good temperature with minimal use of the heater (it's also insulated on three sides with dirt outside the walls, since the house is built on a slope) - but it's not the best for letting it air out. I've tried the baking soda thing, activated charcoal, and non-perfume plug-ins, and we have a good-sized air purifier in there, but none of them are enough to deal with the whole room. It's not bad by any means - except when Serenity was pregnant and her urine reeked to high heaven, lol. But it's there, and people who don't spend time in the room every day like we do notice it more than us. I hadn't heard of an odor sponge, but it sounds like something else worth trying.

Anyway, I wouldn't suggest a water additive as the first thing to try, and like I said, for a single hedgehog it shouldn't be necessary because it's not at all difficult to manage the smell of a single cage with regular cleaning. But, looking closely at this product and reading the reviews, I also don't see anything "risky" about it. So I wouldn't automatically advise against it - anyone considering trying it should just make their own decision.


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## momIImany (Oct 14, 2012)

Personally, I wouldn't try it because you are trying to change the body chemistry of your hedgehog. This may interfere with their hormones too. Not a good idea for an animal prone to cancer and liver problems; they have very sensitive systems.

I built Mimzy a new C&C cage yesterday and I got a giant wiff (Her cage is about 3 feet away from my bed) of her excrements last night - WOW - but it didn't last. All smells went away after picking up after her and cleaning her wheel with the 50/50 vinegar/water mix.

She loves her new cage and rearranged everything away from the sides so she could get behind it. She played on the wheel, in and out of the tunnel, the cookie monster house, her bedding, and all the toys with bells in them!

Lisa


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

momIImany said:


> Personally, I wouldn't try it because you are trying to change the body chemistry of your hedgehog. This may interfere with their hormones too. Not a good idea for an animal prone to cancer and liver problems; they have very sensitive systems.


How would this change their body chemistry or hormones? It's essentially like those pills people take to decrease gas, it would just affect their digestion to decrease odor.

Because this particular product has been tested I'm sure on an extensive number and variety of animals, and the fact that it's not like a hormone or something, I see no harm in trying it. Like moxie said, main thing is that you wouldn't want to discourage them from drinking.


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## FaunaQT (Oct 24, 2012)

Perhaps momIImany was just concerned about any physiological changes? Though, to be honest, I don't think that the chemical makeup of this product would change anything hormonally. I personally don't think that there is really a safety issue, but I just wanted to be sure, which is why I asked if anyone has had experience with it. I think it would be informative for people to use and post their results if no one has tried it yet. 

Some of the reviews did state how their pets were a little more tentative to drink the water due to the altered taste. But I think that would be largely varied depending on each individual hedgehog, since some are more sensitive to others. So... I guess we shall see


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

The only problem I see, is we don't know how it will affect them long term. While it will have had extensive testing on multiple animals, they are mostly mice, rats and rabbits. Even if tested on larger animals, pigs and such are only kept for ~6 months. Mind you, small animals wise, they don't typically last more than a few years, so it wouldn't do any real harm to try.

I just wouldn't try on say... a chinchilla, who can live much longer just yet, until they do a more lengthy test. 

Moxie, since you DO have a bigger herd and much more to lose, and since you're going to ask your vet about it anyways, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have your vet call the manufacturing company, just for a better grasp of the product. And vet to vet lingo is better than vet to client lingo lol

Also ask about how it may affect the Krebs cycle. I haven't really taken a look at all the ingredients yet, but just the first few are ALL linked to each other, creating more pyruvate, etc etc so more acetyl-CoA and Glycine which can also mean more glucose. 
(could you end up with fatter hogs, because they are producing more energy, that doesn't need to be used, so gets stored instead, etc etc) Seems like something that could possibly affect metabolism. 

/end procrastination time and goes back to studying for midterms XD


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Thanks for the input, Immortalia! I love hearing your side of things since you have the medical understanding most of us don't. If I do try this it would be only on a few of them to see if the results are real. Honestly since it requires a few squirts each time, the cost of using this for all of them just isn't reasonable (definitely trying that odor sponge thing!) but if it works, it would potentially be good to use for our stickier hedgies, and also to suggest for people who are very sensitive to the smell, or if their hog is smellier than most and the normal frequency of cleaning doesn't do enough to keep the smell down. If I end up trying it or find out anything from my vet, I'll let everyone know! She has a ton of hedgehog experience and is a small animal/exotics specialist, so she should have some good insight.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Immortalia said:


> The only problem I see, is we don't know how it will affect them long term. While it will have had extensive testing on multiple animals, they are mostly mice, rats and rabbits. Even if tested on larger animals, pigs and such are only kept for ~6 months. Mind you, small animals wise, they don't typically last more than a few years, so it wouldn't do any real harm to try.
> 
> I just wouldn't try on say... a chinchilla, who can live much longer just yet, until they do a more lengthy test.
> 
> ...


I love it when you procrastinate...we all learn so much from it! :lol:


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

moxieberry said:


> Our hedgehog room has no windows, which is amazing for keeping it at a good temperature with minimal use of the heater (it's also insulated on three sides with dirt outside the walls, since the house is built on a slope) - but it's not the best for letting it air out. I've tried the baking soda thing, activated charcoal, and non-perfume plug-ins, and we have a good-sized air purifier in there, but none of them are enough to deal with the whole room. It's not bad by any means - except when Serenity was pregnant and her urine reeked to high heaven, lol. But it's there, and people who don't spend time in the room every day like we do notice it more than us. I hadn't heard of an odor sponge, but it sounds like something else worth trying.
> 
> Anyway, I wouldn't suggest a water additive as the first thing to try, and like I said, for a single hedgehog it shouldn't be necessary because it's not at all difficult to manage the smell of a single cage with regular cleaning. But, looking closely at this product and reading the reviews, I also don't see anything "risky" about it. So I wouldn't automatically advise against it - anyone considering trying it should just make their own decision.


My hedgehog room was in the basement and had no windows either, it was used as a hot tub room before we bought the house and because of that was completely sealed to be moisture proof.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Nikki, do you remember the brand of odor sponge you had success with? I found one that looks good on Amazon and ordered it to try, but if that doesn't work, I'd love to know which one worked well for you! Might not be able to get the same thing easily since you're in Canada, but figured I'd ask.


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

I don't remember what it was called...it was white and round, disc shaped, and I got it at Walmart. I'll see if I can get a picture of one next time I go there.


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