Quote Originally Posted by ThyTempest View Post
Switch from pine to aspen. Pine has some phenols naturaly in the wood, just not as much as cedar. Switching to a "Cleaner" wood may help.
While I believe you are correct about the phenols, I don't know if there is enough to pose a risk to rats. I've been keeping rats on pine for well over a year and have had absolutely no problems. I did switch to aspen for about a month some time ago to try it out, and found it horrible to keep rats on. From what I can see it does not have the same absorbancy as pine. I was finding myself needing to chance cages every 4-5 days as opposed to every 7 days with pine.

Just my 2 cents.