Those things will just drag along behind them.
HAHAHA - no DOUBT. What I call "draggin baggage" - makes them rather easy to seperate once they've matured to that point.

As far as the food goes I have used both Beneful and Kibbles and Chunks when the Beneful is unobtainable and not seen the rash mentioned. The mix is heavily adulterated with grain cereals though.

I've been trying the newspaper supersubstrate (laid underneath the shavings - not instead of) idea for a bit now and it really doesnt seem to affect the odor one way or the other. If it makes cleaning the bigger tanks easier though I may stick with it.