Pine wood? Is it okay?

[Pepper89]

Hi my fiancé recently made steps out of pine.. it is untreated pine wood and i am wondering if it is okay for bunnies? I was looking it up online and there is so much controversy over it... Pepper seems to wanna chew on it... I’ve been trying to get him not to till i get a for sure answer about pine wood! Thank you!

 

[Blue eyes]

Plain, untreated pine is fine. The controversy is over pine shavings which some use for bedding. Pine shavings can emit harmful phenols that can damage a rabbit's respiratory system. If the shaving are kiln-dried, however, they are considered safe.

Pine pellets (not shavings) make great litter for a litter box. The process used to make the pellets makes them safe to use.

I used 1 x 3 untreated pine to block off my baseboards. Bunnies can gnaw on the pine without harm.

 

[ladysown]

Pine shavings are fine.... CEDAR is not.

 

[JBun]

I use pine boards in my rabbits area. They do occasionally chew bits off of it, and I just clean it up when they do. You just don't want to use wood that is too fresh and still sappy. So it needs to be sufficiently dried out.

If you don't want your buns chewing at it, sometimes if it is painted with a rabbit safe paint, they won't chew on it like they do with untreated natural wood. Otherwise the only way to prevent it would be attaching corner guards, which I've also done on other wood that I don't want them chewing on.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Never had any trouble with pine boards other than they will get chewed on, but my bunnies moved on to other things as we make sure they have plenty to chew. Fresh cut apple branches were their favorite.

 

[Pepper89]

Thank you