Re: Kapok
There was a member on another well known hamster forum *cough* that did an "experiment" where she used a thin pipette of water and stuffed some of the kapok bedding into the end to show that it didn't let the water past. She also mentioned that the fibres had a waxy protective coating designed to keep the seeds inside the pods dry so in theory it could block a digestive tract if it was accidentally swallowed and not allow water to pass. Of course there are digestive fluids to consider that could maybe break down the fibres but you can't exactly test for that and in reality a hamster digestive tract would be much much smaller than a pipette and more easily blocked.
The fibres are easily broken apart in your hands but they don't dissolve or break down in water which is a test I had always heard of to see whether the bedding is safe.
I don't want to be cross posting from other forums but if you google around you might find it, I only saw the post a week or so ago. It's not a scientifically rigorous experiment by any means but it is illustrative. I wouldn't risk the kapok pods anyway, I don't know why anybody would risk it, like its a fluffy bedding with a "loophole" but why would you want anything fluffy? Toilet tissue works perfectly, it's almost free and they can have fun shredding that too!
Hamsters in the "wild" is a discussion that I don't think is worth much, they aren't in the wild and what's best for them there might not be best for them when they live with us. But I would imagine they would use bits of dried grass or moss or other vegetation, like a bird might. Certainly they aren't climbing trees on different continents to find kapok pods.
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