Quote:
Originally Posted by ccrunner  You should never put any type of stain or varnish on wood, no matter how safe it claims to be. It may still have some amounts of toxic chemicals. The gpigs will knaw on the wood and I don't think you want them to die that way. |
I don't think that's true. Wooden toys for children come stained and varnished and they are certainly chewed a great deal - there are treatments that are proven to be non-toxic. If a wood treatment says that it is toy safe then it must have been rigorously tested (unfortunately it will probably have been tested on animals at some point, but that's a different, albeit very important, ethical dilemma). If I am happy to give something to my children (when they were younger - they're well past the chewing stage now) than I'm happy to give it to my guinea pigs. Actually I was always happier for the children to chew on wooden toys than PVC ones because of the potential problem with leaching phthalates. I was more worried about splinters than about the wood treatment, but as they have a wooden hidey house indoors then I couldn't see that the run was any more problematic. Overall we are one of the most chemical-conscious families I know (all the guinea pigs veggies and their grass are organic because I worry abot pesticide build-up in such a small body mass) and we did our research very carefully.
Actually (and this isn't a basis for making a decision) my pigs are so busy gorging on grass outside they wouldn't dream of chewing the run.