Rat breeding questions??

Ok, so I have been breeding rats for the last 8-10 months and it has been goin great. It is a little bit of extra work to do it, but I think that it is fun to have all those rats. It also is nice to have food for the balls whenever I want. I have to admit, they stink really bad when the temperature goes up. I clean the shed once a week and by the end of the week they get pretty bad. Is there any odor absorber that they make? I know that someone told me of a product that farmers use for their livestock that takes away a lot of the smell. He said he uses that and it works great.

I have heard of the vanilla thing also, how much would you use per gallon of water if you are using a rack for mice and rats? There has been no real specific thing to tell me how much, people just say "put some vanilla in" so I am curious if anyone has any specific measurements. I have also wondered if anyone has come up with a very inconspicuous way to ventilate their rat sheds/barns if they live in a neighborhood. I know that I can have them, but it wouldn't be very appealing to have a big tube blowing up in the air and it wouldn't be very nice to blow the smell into my neighbors back yard, anyone got any ideas? I suppose I could make a box for a fan and blow it up in the air or to the side but I thought I would ask others about it.

I will have to make a video of my rat shed and put it up here eventually, I think that it is lots of fun.

I also forgot to ask about a type of food. Has anyone ever used the Masterfeeds Fusion food. I know that that pwilliams guy has a video on youtube where he says he uses Masterfeeds:Fusion that is a horsefood. It looks the same and apparently has the same nutritional value as the lab block.

Right now I use the purina rodent diet and my rats all seem fat and healthy. I get it for $26 a bag and he said that the masterfeeds is significantly cheaper which would be great.

Having an exhaust fan in your shed will help

Also you can use pine pellets (Equine fresh, equine pine) as your bedding it is very absorbent and a little goes a long way.

You can use Pine pellets alone with your breeders and nursing mom with pup over 2 weeks old however I highly recommend that you mix pellets and wood shaving for nursing mom with pups under 2 weeks old (this will prevent having too many losses)