Fragrance

[redsaw]

I personally would be cautious ... I unfortunately managed to kill of 2 budgies with the use of plug in and battery operated air fresheners within 2 months of having them. I have also noticed that my pet rats had suffered with them too ... My previous rats started sneezing and were getting respiratory problems and subsequently died.... but the replacement rats have not died after discontinuing the use of air freshener and have not suffered with any breathing problems. T's have a different way of breathing to mammals but I would still be careful as any chemical in the air ends up settling somewhere on surfaces and walls etc .... and could easily find its way into the enclosures through the ventilation slits/holes/mesh.

It is unfortunate that you didnt do research on the budgies to find out what there needs are before you killed them, but you learned from your mistake.
We have budgies also and we found out that you can use sage sticks as an air freshener. It doesnt need to burn very long either.
So maybe that is an alternative to commercial air fresheners that you can use around Ts also.

 

[cacoseraph]

I'm going to write this claiming no expertise at all, but this is just my logic.

Just because something smells, doesn't mean it's bad for your T. I think it all depends on the ingredients of your method of air freshener! Liquids especially, like perfumes, febreeze, and aerosols, would be uncomfortable for the T because they dislike having stuff sprayed on them. Pretty simple, no? Not to mention these products usually contain harsher chemicals that irritate some people's skin, nose and allergies. The more potent stuff, you'll want to stay away from.

Scented candles and oils, however, are a different matter. Basically, these are just nice-smelling waxes that evaporate into the air. Probably not as discomforting to your T. Things like incense might bother them just by virtue of being smokey.

Your best bet is- like someone else said- to use natural ABSORBANTS to neutralize smell instead of layering a perfumy, flowery scent on top of dog pee smell (which in itself might bug your T. Ammonia?). I would try baking soda.

Also keep in mind that things that don't bother us might bother your T- they are inverebrates, after all, and have different ways of ingesting and internalizing things. Pesticides mess with your neurological system, and they also affect those of inverts. But things that bother your skin or nose might not affect a T in the same way- but this is just speculation.

I know that I wear perfume every day, and my T lives in my bedroom- and so far I haven't seen any ill effects. But I try to keep things like hairspray, air freshener and other stuff in the bathroom- because I know how nasty chemicals have a habit of building up slowly over time.

a lot of good points there

here is my thinking (not a doctor, caveat emptor, etc)

human senses... kinda suck. my senses are worse than the average humans. so i don't really count on them beyond basic temperature sensing and extensive use of eye sight. even if you can't smell something doesn't mean it doesn't exist in levels that could be damaging to bugs

humans and bugs have WILDLY different bio systems! stuff that we don't even register can be deadly to them and vice versa. not to mention there is what... three orders of magnitude between our sizes and weights (we are 1000 times bigger)?



i don't think a blanket statement of "fragrance is bad" or whatever is possible with any degree of accuracy. i expect, like most things, some frags will death, most will be mildly bad, and some basically neutral. that being said, i would probably be willling to research one or two products for people. (USA only, law stuff the only problem is that when things are not marketed for internal consumption they have much less strict labeling guidelines and might not have all the ingredients actually listed. even if they do, i don't want to look up 40+ ingredients =P

 

[GOMER113]

I currently have my Ts upwind from my fans and I spray air freshener on a somewhat regular basis in my room. Before I organized my room this way, I only had one fan and my Ts were way on the other side of it and downwind. I smoked hookah in there regularly and have seen no ill-effects regarding my Ts. This is just my personal experience.

 

[cacoseraph]

well, the problem is that anecdotal evidence... kinda sucks. in all likelihood we wouldn't be talking about a massive die off from poisoning... probably just a slight decrease in vitality and fecundity which would be most difficult (or just plain impossible) to track with a small, non-controlled sample size


i mean, until i accidentily solarized her i had a black widow named sPot that i regularily smoked cigs with. i would always get her out and blow smoke into her cage. she was doing as fine as any widow i have kept until i accidentally solarized her one day... but i am pretty sure as nicotine is a pretty powerful insecticide that i was messing her up *somehow*.










something to consider with tarantulas vs mammals. mammals have active breathing... that is, we have muscular contractions that draw air into our longs. tarantulas have virtually, if not wholly, 100% passive breathing. that is, they allow normal like, atmospheric diffusion bring new oyxgenated air into their lungs. one practical upshot to that is that even for taking size into proportional account i believe tarantulas have a considerably smaller air flow through put than mammals. so, they might actually take less frag out of their, compared to humans, even relative to size.

of course, they do clean themselves with their *mouth* so they probably would have a higher proportion of frag particles on their feet and body make it into their mouth for ingestion than humans would (not counting times my brother mists my drink with air freshener =P ). unless the frag particle size is really tiny most will fall out of the air onto surfaces and even tiny particles will not stay floating indefinitely in most cases

 

[Arachnocentric]

If your T room doesn't smell like the rest of the house close the door and spray the rest of the house. I've never used that crap in the T room but I periodically spray after cooking salmon. MMMMMM Salmon!

 

[WelshTan]

I commend you for taking responsibility for the ill health of your animals. Before you go beating yourself up about killing your pet rats I think you should know that all rats bred in captivity are born with a bacterial infection called mycoplasma. While keeping your pets' cages in a well ventilated area and free of old feces/urine or any phenol-containing bedding (like cedar) is vital to the management of this infection, there are also a number of things outside of your control that could have caused the rats to have a flare up and not make it through. The stress of moving to their new home, a secondary illness (rats pass infections to one another like... rats), having too many animals in too small a cage (why all captive bred rats have this infection in the first place), etc.

Besides getting to know a good rat vet and keeping your rats on medication there is little else you can do about your rats' respiratory infection. All you can really do is try to keep them comfortable and not stress them out too much.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is you didn't kill your rats. An infection that pet stores aren't going to divulge to you killed your rats and you don't know if you caused it or hastened it or what. Also, be ready for the rats you currently own to come down with respiratory or reproductive symptoms down the line. As your rats age they will almost certainly come down with a secondary illness that will cause a flare up of their mycoplasmosis.

Thankyou very much for those kind words and advice

 

[Flower]

I'm going to write this claiming no expertise at all, but this is just my logic.

Just because something smells, doesn't mean it's bad for your T. I think it all depends on the ingredients of your method of air freshener! Liquids especially, like perfumes, febreeze, and aerosols, would be uncomfortable for the T because they dislike having stuff sprayed on them. Pretty simple, no? Not to mention these products usually contain harsher chemicals that irritate some people's skin, nose and allergies. The more potent stuff, you'll want to stay away from.

Scented candles and oils, however, are a different matter. Basically, these are just nice-smelling waxes that evaporate into the air. Probably not as discomforting to your T. Things like incense might bother them just by virtue of being smokey.

Your best bet is- like someone else said- to use natural ABSORBANTS to neutralize smell instead of layering a perfumy, flowery scent on top of dog pee smell (which in itself might bug your T. Ammonia?). I would try baking soda.

Also keep in mind that things that don't bother us might bother your T- they are inverebrates, after all, and have different ways of ingesting and internalizing things. Pesticides mess with your neurological system, and they also affect those of inverts. But things that bother your skin or nose might not affect a T in the same way- but this is just speculation.

I know that I wear perfume every day, and my T lives in my bedroom- and so far I haven't seen any ill effects. But I try to keep things like hairspray, air freshener and other stuff in the bathroom- because I know how nasty chemicals have a habit of building up slowly over time.

Their room might be the only room in the house that isn't smelly. My mom is just old and batty sometimes.

I might try the neutralization trick around the house though! I think that might help!

 

[Webbly]

of course, they do clean themselves with their *mouth* so they probably would have a higher proportion of frag particles on their feet and body make it into their mouth for ingestion than humans would (not counting times my brother mists my drink with air freshener =P ). unless the frag particle size is really tiny most will fall out of the air onto surfaces and even tiny particles will not stay floating indefinitely in most cases

I think this is a very good point and leads us all to the solution. Scent the air with MEAT not FRUIT!