This article is from the WSSF 2015 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Photo from DooKashi.

This is an all-natural pet odor control bedding additive and odor eliminator made out of select wheat bran, certified organic probiotic, blackstrap molasses, and purified water which makes it completely safe if ingested. It has the look of bran flakes. Its job is to reduce ammonia concentration, capture odors without perfumes, chemicals, toxins, or masking agents, be dust free, and work well with all bedding types. This is Non-GMO Project Verified. It’s the only pet product used for odor control whose key ingredient is certified organic by OMRI.

DooKashi™ works from a scientifically proven method. The good microbes outperform the bad, rendering the pathogens inert. Once the pathogens are removed, the odor is gone. The key ingredient is a certified organic microbial solution that initiates this process.

This product is added to cat litter, in poultry houses, and added to the bedding of any small animal that uses bedding in its cage. Generally ½ to 1 cup is initially added with more in between bedding changes as needed. Since this is made from food products, it needs to be stored in a dry area away from direct sunlight and used within 1 year.

DooKashi™ is sold in 2 lb. bags for cats (1 cup per week lasts approximately 8–12 weeks), 4.5 lb. for poultry (lasts 6–10 weeks), and 1 lb. for small animals (1 cup per week lasts approximately 6–8 weeks). The price computes to roughly $1.00–$1.50 per week to eliminate pet waste odor. Cost is $13.95 for a 1 lb bag.

When I saw the ingredient list, my first thought was, “The rats are going to eat it.” Opening the package, it smelled bready-vinegary which I didn’t like. The label said to sprinkle the entire package into the cage. Since I only had one small sample bag to use I decided to use it in my big 50-gallon tank with 6 female rats in it. The bedding used in the cage with this was the Shepherd Paperchip® pellets on the bottom in the corners, then NEPCO aspen shavings on top. Sure enough, after I put the rats back into the clean cage, they went around foraging through the bedding eating the product. Since the ingredients are all food stuffs, there was no concern of it harming them.

In 5 days, the cage needed cleaning. There was no ammonia smell, only dirty cage smell. One product combination I used as a trial against this was CageTech (similar to the Paperchip® pellets) with the aspen shavings. This combination lasted 7 days. The cage smelled dirty but had no ammonia smell and the bedding looked like it could have gone a couple more days before cleaning. Another combination test was the Paperchip® pellets with the aspen shavings. This lasted 8 days with the same results on the smell.

Photo from DooKashi.

Since I only got one small package, I wasn’t able to do a proper test over several weeks, with different bedding combinations, and with several cages, including mice (they are the real test!). This product seemed to work as intended but ideally I would need more of the product to do a more accurate critique. Each person needs to do a test for themselves to determine what the results are for their situation (number of cages, number and type of animals, if it is used in litter boxes instead of in the bedding in the whole cage, etc.) to see how this would work for them.

Overall results:

• smell of fresh product: didn’t like
• no dust: good
• not colorizing the critters: good
• odor control: seemed to work as had no ammonia smell but then again was only able to try out on one cage

NOTE: DooKashi™ comes in 1 lb, 2 lb, and 4.5 lb bags. It is manufactured by DooKashi, 11953 124th Avenue NE, Kirkland, WA 98034, (425) 814-6385, info@dookashi.com.

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