Safe/unsafe wood

inserirnome

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 5, 2015
Messages
16
Dudes and dudettes...

I know some of you keep enclosure decoration to the minimum mostly because it is unnecessary and it can be harmful to our pets, and some of you have a collection so big it would be extremely expensive and time consuming to keep everything looking neat. There is also the ones that try really hard to make each terrarium as loyal to the habitat of the species as possible, making real art pieces. And then there is guys like me, that want a good looking enclosure for display but also want to do everything on their own because they are suspicious, or alergic to petstores, or they are cheap, or have a handyman's can do attitude, or have time to kill, etc...
Luckily we have a ton of info and we can do our stuff our way with minimal risk to our beloved pets if we put some time and effort into it.
I've been looking around for a while now and aside from the cedar/pine warning, I did not find a list of safe/unsafe kinds of wood. Is there such a list? If there is not, is it because of it's unnecessary and the only unsafe options are well-known? Or is it because prety much everyone uses proven safe options or petshop stuff and I'm the only one that walks by a kiwi tree in my backyard and thinks "Hey, that would look great in a new enclosure!"?


TL;DR
Kiwi branches look really cool, are they safe for dry T species?
Also, is there a list of safe woods and stuff?
 

Draketeeth

Arachnoknight
Joined
Mar 22, 2015
Messages
209
Did some reading around online. Looks like kiwi is probably safe. It's listed as a safe wood for rabbits and rats to chew on, so if it's safe enough to nibble, it's probably safe decoration.

Being as it's a fruiting wood, a big concern would be the use of pesticides on or around the plant. If it has been treated, it should be avoided.
 

inserirnome

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 5, 2015
Messages
16
Did some reading around online. Looks like kiwi is probably safe. It's listed as a safe wood for rabbits and rats to chew on, so if it's safe enough to nibble, it's probably safe decoration.

Being as it's a fruiting wood, a big concern would be the use of pesticides on or around the plant. If it has been treated, it should be avoided.
It's my fruit tree, my only concern is mites right now. Time to do some baking :)
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,223
All the wood I use is collected from lakeshores or rivers...driftwood. Cheap, looks nice and doesn't mold on me.View media item 37300
:)
 

Anoplogaster

Arachnodemon
Joined
Jan 15, 2017
Messages
675
My litmus test is presence of spider webs. If you see natural wood with spider webs on it, it's probably fine. Unless that spider happened to die right after setting that web:shifty:
 
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