[Miss Aqua]

Hello, I'm brand new to this forum and looking for some information regarding toys for my one year old hedgie, Kepler. So far I've observed that he loves his wheel and toilet paper rolls for entertainment, but he's ignored plastic eggs and stuffed toys.

I'm keen on giving him more entertainment and was looking at a few pine wood guinea pig toys, such as a little wooden dumbbell with a bell in it, a wooden wicker ball, and a wooden seesaw short enough there wouldn't be any risk of him falling and hurting himself. However, because these toys that I've found online are all pine based, and it is possible he would end up chewing them, I was wondering whether this would pose any health risks? I know that pine shavings in his cage could have harmful effects, so I'm wondering whether anyone has information on whether pine toys could also be detrimental. The product info states that they are ultraviolet sterilized. Thank you!

 

[nikki]

Pine is safe as long as it's been kiln dried, that goes for shavings as well as toys made from pine. One issue with any wooden items in the cage is that if your hedgehog ends up with mites you'll have to throw them away as they can harbor the mites.

 

[Emc]

I disagree with kiln dried savings being safe; one issue with pine is abietic acid, which has a melting point of 155C. Kiln drying treats shavings up to 84C, so we really cannot say that this process makes pine shavings any safer than untreated pine shavings. Yes, many use kiln dried shavings with no issues - but there are plenty other folk who do have issues, and this cannot be ignored. If you want to play it safe, it is a major No to kiln dried shavings.

Solid pine wood is fine; untreated or not, because its solid. Its just the shavings you want to avoid.

 

[Askeptosaurus]

I second the pine shavings skepticism but also add that you can use aspen shavings or paper shavings with no issues.