# Best thing for controlling odor?



## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

I have six girls, and naturally they generate alot of poop. I've tried carefresh naturals on the tray on the bottom, which I didn't care for, polar fleece they ripped apart and went under in a matter of minutes, i've tried time and again to use fleece but they just love chewing, and I dont think it does anything for the smell. Currently i'm using yesterdays news paper pellet litter on the bottom and carefresh ultra in their litter box. My rats are about 70% litter trained, they go in the box most of the time but they do get lazy. I don't know if the smell is mostly from the box or the tray, but about 12 hours after cleaning it the smell is noticeable when I walk by the cage. I do spot cleans daily and change the litter box daily but I don't know what to do! Is aspen any good? I got some a few days ago but the back of the bag says "Warning: this product contains wood dust that in the state of California may cause cancer". So I freaked out and didn't use it. I don't know it was a bad brand of aspen or what but any suggestions on litter or keeping down smells would be GREATLY appreciated.

They also have a complete diet of lab blocks as their staple and subee's grain mix as the supplement, and of course fruits and vegetables about three or four times a week. (I don't think the diet is whats causing the smell)


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## ratchet (Sep 27, 2012)

To me, fleece is terrible. It just pools odor. I don't like care fresh, as I've never noticed it inhibiting odors. 

I personally love aspen. It has made the world of a difference with my gals. Before they were housed on care fresh and even after a few hours you could smell it. I think it's the urine more than anything, and aspen does a great job of being absorbent. I use newspaper/paper towel on the bottom liner and throw aspen over it. My girls love it when I clean their cages, they'll romp around in the aspen for quite a while before settling. 

The only thing about aspen is make sure you toss it in your freezer before putting it in their cage as t does t kill mites. Also, for some reason rats tend to get obese easier on aspen - to mitigate this, I took my ramps out.


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## ratchet (Sep 27, 2012)

Also, the aspen and cancer thing - that is probably related to the water in California (Erin brokovich, anyone?) I get my aspen from a pet store local - it doesn't say that. Make sure it's 100% aspen and not aspen and softwood, as that could be something else entirely.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Carefresh is pretty horrible for smell, in my opinion. I am a big fan of aspen as well, but I no longer use it as I use fleece shelf liners and aspen sticks to that like velcro!

An important part to note about fleece is that it wicks urine away and nothing more. This means on a plastic shelf, for instance, it will just pool on the shelf beneath the fleece. For that reason, I sew a layer of cotton batting between two pieces of fleece to make my liners. The fleece wicks the urine to the cotton insides where it is stored until I change the liners, which is generally every other day.


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## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

is there different grades of aspen? like smaller or larger shavings? I noticed the 'cancer bag' i got was quite dusty and had alot of large square inch size shavings


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Generally, yes. It's hard to aim for specific sizes of shavings, though. Brands and batches differ and some are dustier than others. This is really an area where it pays to do some research and shopping around to see where the company gets their aspen. By-products of the lumber industry are swept up off of the lumber mill floor, dust and all.

I think pretty much everything is known to cause cancer in the state of California, though.


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## ratchet (Sep 27, 2012)

Haha true that about Cali!

There are DEFINITELY different types of aspen bedding - a good thing to look for is one specifically made for rats as those tend to be smaller and less dusty.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

HolyyMoleyy said:


> is there different grades of aspen? like smaller or larger shavings? I noticed the 'cancer bag' i got was quite dusty and had alot of large square inch size shavings


Yes. Your best bets are going with Shredded Aspen or Sani Chips. Both are used for reptiles so are made to have no dust. I believe Kaytee sells Shredded Aspen in bulk (4 cubic feet up to 8 cubic feet) for pretty cheap, but you'll need to check the quality. I think the biggest amount Sani-chips you can get without buying whole sale is 2.2 cubic feet.


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## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

LightningWolf said:


> Yes. Your best bets are going with Shredded Aspen or Sani Chips. Both are used for reptiles so are made to have no dust. I believe Kaytee sells Shredded Aspen in bulk (4 cubic feet up to 8 cubic feet) for pretty cheap, but you'll need to check the quality. I think the biggest amount Sani-chips you can get without buying whole sale is 2.2 cubic feet.


Has anyone tried this brand of Aspen? It looks alot cleaner. I'm also not sure what's the right price range for aspen either.
http://www.petco.com/product/14364/...ng.aspx?CoreCat=MM_ReptileSupplies_Substrates


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

I love Aspen...I use the Kaytee brand & have never had any issues. Also I keep one of those California Scents air fresheners near my boys cage, they come in the little cans....totally gets rid of any smells!This is what they look like: http://www.californiascents.com/ they smell SO good!


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

HolyyMoleyy said:


> Has anyone tried this brand of Aspen? It looks alot cleaner. I'm also not sure what's the right price range for aspen either.
> http://www.petco.com/product/14364/...ng.aspx?CoreCat=MM_ReptileSupplies_Substrates


My dad wants to switch our boys to that since our local petsmart has it. If your using litter boxes I would say it's ok, but not sure if your using full pans. I don't how much a few quarts can do. Since it's made for snakes (which usually only need a cage clean out once to twice a month) I'm not sure if it's economical for rats. especially since Kaytee has 8 cubic feet bags for $25 or so (which is pretty cheap)

Oh and Eden, how is the Kaytee brand aspen? I'm thinking of switching to it since it seems very cheap for a lot of bedding.


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

Usually Kaytee products aren't too good, but I'm happy with their Aspen...I get the 56 litre bale which I believe I paid $17...my boys don't sneeze or have any issues whatsoever & I have no odor in their cage. Could probably leave the cage 2+ weeks until you get a slight odor (obviously don't do that ppls! Lol!) but its great at keeping odors at bay.


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## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

Eden10 said:


> Usually Kaytee products aren't too good, but I'm happy with their Aspen...I get the 56 litre bale which I believe I paid $17...my boys don't sneeze or have any issues whatsoever & I have no odor in their cage. Could probably leave the cage 2+ weeks until you get a slight odor (obviously don't do that ppls! Lol!) but its great at keeping odors at bay.


I looked at the Kaytee website and saw the aspen you're talking about, can you only buy it online? I couldn't find it at petco. I bought the aspen snake bedding but I might return it because it was about 23 dollars for 24 quarts. 

Do they sell it in the 56 liter at stores or do I have to order it online? And was there shipping costs?


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

I get it at my local pet store...but I've bought it at Petsmart before...can't remember if it was the same price there, shouldn't be too much of a price difference! I've never bought it online before.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

I forgot to mention that I like to keep "fridge packs" of baking soda by the cage. For those that aren't familiar, the fridge packs are boxes of baking soda with tear-away sides that allow air to circulate through a coarser grade of baking soda.

When the lifespan of the box (about 30 days) is spent, you can then use the baking soda as a cage scrub!


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## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

I do use baking soda by the cage! I also have a bag of charcoal stones above the cage to absorb odor. I tried the goodbye odor water supplement which helps somewhat but not really worth a second buy for me. I'm definitely going to be buying the Kaytee aspen tommorrow!  If anyone else has any suggestions for odor control i'd hugely appreciate it..has anyone tried air purifiers? I've heard they're good for smell.


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## HolyyMoleyy (Mar 8, 2013)

Just a small update, I went to Petsmart yesterday and bought the Kaytee Aspen Bedding, it was 2 cubic feet for $11, which I thought was a brilliant deal. So far it seems to be controlling odor than carefresh ultra and yesterdays news, normally I can 'smell' when it's time to do a spot clean but today I couldn't smell anything! They do seem to kick out the aspen more than any other litter so I bought a black plastic bin at Lowe's to replace the ferret nation shallow bottom tray, which someone else on the rat forum gave me the idea to do! Here's the links to both the bedding and the tray if anyone is interested.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2755138
http://m.lowes.com/pd_19252-1569-ST...currentURL=?Ntt=cement+mixing+tray&facetInfo=


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