CAULK: Safe?

[cowsnortle]

[FONT=Georgia]I am in the market for a new guinea pig. It will be the first time I have owned one. My boyfriend, with whom I live and the past owner of a cavy, is helping me build the cage. We're considering using caulk to fill some gaps in our construction. Is this safe? If not, what else can we plausibly use?[/FONT]

[this_lil_piggy]

I wouldn't put caulk anywhere that the pigs might be able to chew/ingest it.
What type cage are you building? If you are building one of the C & C cages with a coroplast bottom, there is no need for caulking. If you really want to make sure it is sealed I supposed the caulk would be ok as long as you used it on the outside of the cage. You could try just running duct tape along the seams too....walmart sells it in different colors now.

[Jenni_Feathers]

I would reccomemd making a c&c cage instead of what ever cage you were making that used cauk.

[aqh88]

Even if caulk itself isn't toxic, and I think it is, there are antimildew agents in almost all caulk. Those are definitely toxic. A safe alternative is aquarium silicone. Make sure it says aquarium safe or specifically for aquariums on it. It is nontoxic and if small amounts are eaten it's no more dangerous than chewing on coroplast or plastic houses. Most of the time they can't eat it anyway unless they eat the surface it's on since it spreads into a thin nearly invisible layer.

[ljm0104]

You can buy several different kind of plastics in the form of edges. I wasn't able to find coroplast so I had to put that around the bottom of my cage. What are you using for the bottom?