Rat's strange behavior and odor control tips?

ok i have 7 rats
3 big ones (chachi, pickles, and cosmo), 3 babies (haku, smee, and hobbes), and 1 medium sized one (kemo)
currently the 3 bigs ones are in the huge cage because im still introducing the hairless (just got him) and the babies are too small (they'll slip right through the bars)
now the cage i have is very large, but there is no guard on the levels to keep shavings in, and there has been so much aspen on my floor i was going insane
so i took all the shavings out, and to prevent there being a mess, i just put towels in there
the only problem is, without the fresh scent of the aspen, i can smell the rats a whole lot easier and quicker now
anyone have any tips for odor control? or maybe a different thing i could put in their cage? any kind of litter/shavings/tiny bits of paper are out of the question
tips are appreciated


also i've been noticing some strange behavior with cosmo lately
i've had him for about a month and he was quite tame, came up to the bars, snuggled up to me, everything
but recently (the past couple days) he's been acting strange whenever i approach him
if i touch him, he completely freezes, lifts one paw off the ground and looks absolutely terrified
last night he was even acting like he was going to bite me (which would be horribly shocking)
he's still eating normally, clear eyes, acting normal
he's not sick, just whenever i pet him he acts very very strange
he never used to do this

is this like a phase? a strange scent? this happen to someone before?

he's such a cute little guy and i dont want to ruin our relationship by trying to force my affection on him
it's just so strange,

and on an upbeat note, my 3 rescued feeder babies are doing great =) they're soo much braver now. i actually have to keep feeding them sweets just to get them off my laptop while im typing this question

anyway, thanks in advance for the help

Can you post a picture of the cage?

i heard that you can sprinkle some baking soda around the cage floor to make it look like it lightly snowed, and then cover it with the bedding your using. i havent dont this myself just heard about it.

Get a cage that will hold the bedding you want to use.

He could just be pissy. Maybe he misses the bedding? LOL.

Rats can be fickle little b-turds.

vanilla in the water does help

I have tried the baking soda trick...and it worked to a certain extent. The lovely little odor rats leave in their cage was always a big struggle for me. I cleaned it at least once a week, and it still smelled a day or two later.

I use feline pine or good mews cat litter, mixed with a little Carefresh for nesting purposes. Seems to do a good job.

There is a pelleted cat litter called Yesterdays News it works excellent on smells and is made out of newspaper. Its heavier than shavings and normal cat litter as well so it shouldnt spread as easily.

I have a female rat for a pet that has just recently become aggressive. She bit me for the first time like two days ago. She has been very sweet up until this point. I had to put gloves on yesterday just so I could move her to clean out her cage. Nothing has changed with her cage or her diet. Sorry for hijacking your thread OP. I am just very interested in what others have to say about the aggressive behavior.

Males are the stinky ones, not the females. Their urine has a stronger odour than the girls, so if you keep too many males, it's just a stink you'll have to get used to.
Another great tip to keep the odour down is to clean often.
I hear it all the time; people complaining about the smell with their feeders, but they only clean once every week or two. There is no fast easy way to eliminate stink except for some elbow grease and limiting the number of males.
Beta Chip helps too.