Reptile section

[Ria P]

I had a look around the very appealing reptile section of a small petshop.
They had cork pieces and tunnels of various shapes and sizes, small branches from South African wood and other exotic looking wooden items. The cork seems quite crumbly and dusty earthy on the inside but the lovely African woods are smooth.
When i asked the shopkeeper if i could use these reptile items for a hamster his face went blank and he pointed me towards the rodent section.
Does anyone know if reptile items would be safe to use in a hamster cage?
Henry strips bark off wood sticks when he's annoyed and he has been quite stroppy lately so a big piece of cork or bark would be ideal for him to get his teeth in.

[LunaTheHamster1]

I use a cork log in Luna's cage, she loves it, always diving in and out of it and clambering all over it.

[Shannonmcn]

Cork is perfectly safe! I love my big cork logs even tho neither of mine chew them or even notice them tbh.

Someone told me mopani, or bogwood, isn't safe because it's got high concentrations of tannin. I've had a bit for years tho, none of mine have chewed it, it's just a climby thing but I'd maybe be careful with that if Henry is going to munch on it.

[AmityvilleHams]

I would personally avoid the mopani and "bogwood"(unknown wood types basically). Mopani as mentioned does have a high tannin content and is extremely hard anyways so it wouldn't really be that good for chewing!

A much better choice for the driftwood type chews is grapevine which is also easy to find in a lot of reptile sections, just make sure it actually is grapevine and not some random "driftwood" of unknown wood species!

[Ria P]

Thank you for your replies and information.

Do you guys get the cork from the reptile section in the petshops or from Rodipet? I just wonder if they are the same thing.

Yes, that pretty African wood i liked could have been anything because it didn't identify the wood on the label so i will stay away from anything unknown. I'll go back and check out the Grapevine situation though.

[LunaTheHamster1]

I got mine from zooplus- i got the medium
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small...EaAuHyEALw_wcB

[GhostsInSnow]

The cork is the same regardless Java wood and grapevine are good too. Also, check out aquarium sections too. I've had some amazing finds there in the past when I've been doing natural setups

[Ria P]

Do i need to brush the earthy dust off the cork before i give it to the hamster in case it goes up his nose?