Is spuce wood ok?

Hi all.

I just went the hardware store and bought a 2x4 cut into little pieces for my rabbits. I had read that pin wood is good for them (not oak)...
However i seem to have wrongly translated the wood i bought (damn french stickers ). i bought ''Epinette'' wood which is actually spruce, not pin...

I gave it to them for 5 minutes, they nibbled on it for a bit a little.
But then i started thinking that it might not be pin. Sure enough it wasn't.
I have taken it away just to be sure. They hadn't eaten a lot of yet...

So is spruce wood rabbit safe?

Thanks for your help!
Cheers.

From what I can gather from the fabulous Google, Spruce and Pine are both kinds of fir tree. The difference being the way the needles are shaped. Although I can't say definitively that it would be OK for them to eat, from what I saw there it would suggest it would be OK. You would probably be better waiting for someone who is surer than me though.

I honestly can't remember but for some reason thought both were best avoided due to the strongly scented saps they contained. Safe foods are not my strong point so my buns tend to get tried and tested base foods instead.

^^ when you say "both" do you mean spruce and pin? Or spruce and oak?

It's too give them in thier cage to nibble on. I have some petshop bought wood toys, one rabbits likes them the other hasn't touched it.
The one that doesn't like the store bought ones, loves my baseboards.

I've read several sites that recommended a block of pin from the local hardware store??

This is a difficult one to get a definitive answer on. I have read that untreated pine is OK for buns and the pine skirting boards we have used in the sheds has been chewed upon. I have no info on spruce or oak tho.

All my six however have chewed treated wood

I find none of my buns are remotely interested in twigs or pieces of wood I have given them. Their favourite item to chew is willow, in the form of balls or baskets so I tend to stick to these.

Hope this helps a wee bit.

Hehe one of my buns LOVES willow. I left him witha willow ball at night and in the morning it was gone!!! He ate it all!

Can I give him as much willow as he wants? His urine smelled different that day

The info I got suggested that pine and spruce are the woods of the same kind of tree. If they are able to eat pine, that would suggest that spruce would be OK. However, if you are at all unsure, I wouldn't feed them the wood and would buy something else.

You can buy them willow balls and they love fruit wood which isn't harmful for them. Better to be safe rather than sorry.

Do you have any local willow tree's? I used to take wood from those for my rabbits to chew on. You can use apple tree wood too. It may be the all round safest alternative as they are 100% known to be safe.

unfortunately i live in the city. I'll try to buy more willow balls from the store.
Can they have as much willow as they want?

I give them the sticks of apple branches. But they aren't as crazy for it as I'd like them to be.

I've never heard of a bun ODing on Willow so I don't think that would be a problem.

I've been trying to answer this question for ages, as I want to build something fun for the buns to play on/chew if they so desire.

Does anyone have any idea what are outdoor rabbit hutches made of? Wouldn't that kind of wood be safe to use for them to chew on?

Well I went to buy some supplies at the vet yesterday, and they assured me that pin and spruce is safe for rabbits, as long as it's not treated...

I bought some untreated pin picture frames at the hardware store also, and Lewis is chewing them like their going out of style! Our buns have lost interest in the baseboards they were so obsessed with prior to their new toys

Glad they are leaving the baseboards alone now

ElleyMay - I seem to think that some companies use red cedar for building hutches.

Daisy has a liking for painted skirting boards and doorframes.....whatever the wood.

Wouldnt recommend it though . .

Willow balls are always a hit, and he has digested oodles of it in his time - with no problems so im sure it will be okay.