are these cardboard tunnels safe?

[elbee]

Are these Great Choice fun tunnels safe for chins. Obviously the cotton inside would be discarded. But is the cardboard tunnel itself safe?http://m.petsmart.com/mt/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4191231&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/N

Hannah loves her fleece bed that I got her but she's mad cause she chewed a hole in it, so Mommy had to take it away. I was looking for something else she might like to snuggle in.

 

[Amethyst]

They are ok, so long as she doesn't eat the cardboard, it's ok to chew on but cardboard can cause an impaction if enough is swallowed. A better option for a tube would be water grade PVC pipe (normally white in color), unlike other plastics it doesn't break in chunks, it comes off in shavings/dust when chewed so wont cause an impaction, it just gets pooped out if swallowed (like anything else if it's being chewed a lot and you see no shavings of it then take it away). Most chins don't bother too much with it though, a little bit of nibbling on the edge is about it. Or better yet a clay pot or if you can find one, a clay pipe, can't really be chewed. I've also used metal coffee tins in the past, thoroughly cleaned and make sure there are no sharp edges.

 

[elbee]

Thank you If I notice she is eating too much of it I will remove it. They're cheap so I just thought I'd give it a try. I just hate that I had to take her bed away I'm a bad chin mom. Lol

 

[elbee]

well that didn't last. It was in her cage 2 minutes and she started ripping it to shreds.

 

[mknoblich1]

Shredding it is normal and ok behavior. It's if they eat the cardboard that you have to be watching for. If they eat it then it should be removed.

 

[akane]

Ours all eat cardboard. We thought it would be fine to leave the empty toilet paper tubes we were saving for the hedgehogs in the bathroom when the chinchillas were running around and they ate half of 2 and 1/4th of another. Now we have to throw those in the hedgehog room before releasing chinchillas.

We have several chunks of white pvc pipe. One they came with has been shaved down a lot on the end. There's probably 2" missing on one side but the pair in that cage were from someone feeding guinea pig junk food, no hay, and no branches. They also ate a palm sized section out of the corner of their plastic pan. Since we switched their diet and got apple branches free from my husband's coworker they haven't eaten anything nonedible in their cage.