Quote:
Originally Posted by VOESSY
I appreciate his knowledge, but I don't see how it would be a concern for what you are using it for. In industrial environments I am sure that caution is valid. I bought mine in a normal garden/building/DIY shop and it was advertised as good mesh for birds and rodents, so I doubt they would be allowed to do that if there was a health issue for animals or humans.
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For the most part I'd agree with this - almost entirely even when it comes to hamsters specifically. The chances of them actually having enough contact with the mesh shouldn't be high providing the lid is designed properly for that purpose. Bar chewing as we know is a problematic behavior for many reasons regardless of the type of metal being chewed. Even extremely safe high quality stainless steel mesh would be unsafe for chewing!
That being said, there would definitely be concerns for other species but those concerns are very much unusual species specific ones - for example with parrots in general galvanized mesh wouldn't be considered safe. A key factor in the safety issue there is that parrots tend to spend tons of time around the wire part of the enclosure and are significantly more likely to wind up ingesting the coating from that mesh. Of course there are other bird species that wouldn't generally be in contact with the mesh enough to have the same concerns. In general birds tend to have extremely low tolerance for potential toxins though, so it wouldn't be a fair comparison for safety.
With galvanized mesh you do also have the very high potential for rusting which unfortunately just comes with the territory. Luckily for the purpose of a raised lid for a hamster enclosure, it would be fairly easy to avoid that. At the very least unlike with some species you wouldn't end up with urine or other wet substances on the mesh so that does help the general durability a lot.
The ideal solution would be a high quality stainless steel mesh. However, that could get very expensive and it may even be difficult to source. You generally won't find that kind of thing at the average hardware/home improvement store.