Sweet bamboo chew sticks

[hana]

My chin stopped chewing apple wood sticks or any kind so I gave him bamboo sticks and he loved it. People say bamboo is safe, and what I got says “sweet bamboo”. When I was reading the reviews one of the sweet bamboo sticks, someone said that’s not sweet bamboo that’s sugar cane. Now I worry… I googled the image of sugar cane chew sticks, it looked like just sweet bamboo.. I can’t tell which one is which so I have to trust the seller.
Sweet bamboo is the one people give chinchillas?
How do I know if it’s sweet bamboo or not?
Can I give sweet bamboo every day?

Thank you

 

[Amethyst]

If it's actually sweet bamboo then yes it's safe, but should be limited to just a stick or two a week since it does contain a good amount of xylose which is the sugar found in wood. Mostly when people say bamboo it's the bamboo vine balls, the hollow bamboo sticks, or the bamboo finger traps. Apparently some sellers are selling sugar cane as "sweet bamboo" though so you do need to know and trust the seller. One way (and probably the easiest if you already have the sticks) to check if it's actually bamboo or sugar cane, since they do look similar, is to boil one and taste the water. If it's bamboo, the water will just taste like grass tea, but if it's sugar cane it will taste like sugar water.

Here is a list of safe wood if you want to try different kinds of wood.

 

[hana]

Thank you very much for additional information too! I will boil it to see what tastes like.