What if a chinchilla eats a unsafe piece of wood

[whiskers387]

Well i got some wood from lowes and was making shelves and stuff, and put a little scrap in there and she chewed it all up, the brand was TopChoice and it said whitewood, the people working there said white wood is pine and that it was not treated, im debating whether it is safe or not, what signs will there be if its not and how soon?

 

[Rickman]

If I remember correctly, whitewoods is the name of the lumber co. that mills the wood, not the type - google it - it should be pine! I've seen it stamped on wood I've purchased!

 

[Remyma0408]

I don't understand why you'd be making shelves and giving the chin the wood if you didn't know if it was safe or not....

 

[seachin]

Whitewood is NOT the company that makes it. 'whitewood' is technically (having worked for Weyerhaeuser, I know this to be a fact) wood made from spruce trees, which is generally considered on here to be unsafe for chinchillas. Sometimes, whitewood is also known as SPF, but this is not correct. SPF means spruce/pine/fir which means that it comes from a mixed forest as opposed to a monospecies forest grown for a specific timber purpose, such as a pine forest or a spruce forest. SPF basically means that all the logs were mixed up and it is one of those three species, and one of the three is not considered safe (spruce). So, either way you cut it, spruce is not safe, ergo whitewood is not safe.

 

[whiskers387]

Whitewood is NOT the company that makes it. 'whitewood' is technically (having worked for Weyerhaeuser, I know this to be a fact) wood made from spruce trees, which is generally considered on here to be unsafe for chinchillas. Sometimes, whitewood is also known as SPF, but this is not correct. SPF means spruce/pine/fir which means that it comes from a mixed forest as opposed to a monospecies forest grown for a specific timber purpose, such as a pine forest or a spruce forest. SPF basically means that all the logs were mixed up and it is one of those three species, and one of the three is not considered safe (spruce). So, either way you cut it, spruce is not safe, ergo whitewood is not safe.

Ok she alrdy got a small piece, could anything happen from that? When and what? Also 3 different guys at Lowes all said it was Pine.

 

[seachin]

Well, if you put KD pine and whitewood next to each other, you should be able to see that the pine is more yellow than the whitewood (being more white or pale). I have not personally experienced what happens when a chin ingests 'unsafe' wood as I am very cautious and always look for the stamp "KD pine". At my Lowes, the whitewood and KD pine boards are separated to avoid confusion. I doubt anything will happen for a small amount, just make sure the chin keeps eating pellets and hay, weight doesnt drop, and the poop doesnt change consistency. If there is any change a vet visit is in order.

 

[whiskers387]

It is about the same as my sleep n' ledge and matchs plenty of pictures of shelves from different websites that are chin safe

 

[searchand_dstry]

Probably not a good idea to be posting a classified for shelves if you are unsure whether or not the wood you are making these shelves from is unsafe.

 

[whiskers387]

Probably not a good idea to be posting a classified for shelves if you are unsure whether or not the wood you are making these shelves from is unsafe.

If you read i said i would go buy new wood that was labeled KD Pine if i were to sell it

 

[Sheri]

I don't know about anywhere else but here the people who work at home depot ect do not know KD pine or anything else from theirs a**.

I went looking for melamine, standing right in front of it. Guy asks what I am looking for, I tell him, he says they don't carry it.

If you have a local lumber yard near you go there. Chain stored advertise they beat prices but they don't always. My local lumber yard beats Home Depot on all my pine and melamine. And they know the difference.