Which wood and glue to use?

[purple_x]

Ok after spending hours looking through pics of housing on the german hamster board I have decided I am going to start buying aquariums and keeping my hammies in them with lots of natural looking toys and things. Also making platforms and ladders myself to fit in the aquarium
So big projects ahead of me!

So I have some questions as I have never really made anything myself before.
What wood is best to use for the platforms? Does it need to be plasti-koted to stop it being ruined?
Where can you buy those little dowels from so I can build bridges and safety rails out of them?
What glue is best for my project? I dont want to use a glue gun. So just an animal safe glue.

Any other tips or stuff to use to make things for my hamsters would be great.
I've noticed in some pics on the hamster board that people have white houses that look like they are made out of stiff toilet tissue, is it toilet tissue or papier mache?

Thanks in advance for any replies

[Lemming]

We usally take poplar plywood to build the furnishing. If we want to protect it from urine we coat it with nontoxic varnish (those you can use to varnish baby wood toys) or we just use hemp floors which are easy to exchange if they are dirty and you can easily cut them to the size you need(Nests & Nesting Materials at zooplus: Hemp Floor for Small Animals)
You also can use laminated wood like chipboard, but on laminated surfaces it's not easy to glue dowels on it.

The dowels are available in hardware stores over here. It's mostly cheaper to buy them on ebay.

Over here we use solvent-free wood glue, don't which brands you have over there.

I think the white house you mean are made of toilet paper

[Fidgetthefirst]

Not sure if this is any help...

Elmers All Purpose Non-Toxic Glue: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products
It says it glues all and its non toxic this is the one im getting to make stuff

[Faerydae]

I'm thinking of buying "hardwood plywood" from B&Q for my next project, £13.98 for a 8ft x 4ft sheet that's 6mm thick and should only really need plastikoting if your hammie likes to pee on things.

can buy dowels from homebase, £2 for 50:

Wooden Dowels - M6x30mm - 50 Pack from Homebase.co.uk

and I use a hot glue gun with non toxic glue sticks whenever I make anything

[KatiePillow]

If I were you I'd use lolly sticks instead of the dowels, they don't really go very far and it's £2 for 50... which works out quite expensive..if I did my stuff again I'd use lolly sticks (although I've only made a waterbottle stand, it worked out at like.. £3 + 6 jenga blocks, but if I'd used dowels for all of it, would have been like £4.. I know I'm not making this sound expensive, but for 4 hammies..works out quite a lot)

I know birch is ok, the German people use Poplar plywood, but the plywood over here doesn't seem to say what wood it's from which is frustrating >.<

[Faerydae]

agreed ^^^ dowels are good for adding decoration and for small things but not for the whole project

[alexarcano]

I used (read pinched from my oh) the spatula like things that is used for waxing. Kinda like old style tongue depressers for making a swing for Buster.

[ihearthammies1172]

Are lolly sticks and the thingies alexarcano talking about commonly known as Popsicle sticks, at least in the part of the US I'm from?

[SnickersTheFirst]

Yep, lolly/ popsicle sticks are the same thing.

[alexarcano]

Same thing as popsicle sticks yes, but the waxing spatula things are... well they are a bit bigger compared to lolly sticks, and made of a different wood (rubbertree maybe?), as well as being smoother. Here's a pic of them side by side.