Bird chew treats = Rabbit chew treats?

TLDR: A chew treat my rabbits adore recently vanished, and today I found something similar, except it's labelled as a bird treat, not a small animal treat. Is it still safe?

eCOTRiTiON SNAK SHAK (manufactured by 8 in 1) makes a couple of things, all made from the same edible brown chew material as a base. I stuck mostly with the big hollow logs,

because the big logs were $15 and the small logs half that size were $10.


And they're great! My buns rarely touch wooden chews, but they love the snak shak stuff, presumably because it tastes a whole lot better than wood.

My rescue rabbit, Delilah, is obsessed with destruction (being trapped in a small cage for the first year of your life probably lends itself to some extreme boredom coping behaviours) so I'm constantly looking for things to occupy her that aren't chewing on my furniture, floor, walls, clothes, other rabbits, etc etc.

Sadly, she's not quite as enamoured with the snak shak logs. However, eCOTRiTiON SNAK SHAK made one other product that was an instant success--a chew log stuffed with seeds and hay.

It's about the same size as the smaller chew log, but despite being stuffed with food was actually cheaper than the hollow log: about $7. So, bonus! All three of my rabbits adored it.


However, recently it's completely vanished. Finding eCOTRiTiON SNAK SHAK products was never easy in the first place, only Pet Value consistently stocked it. But now the stuffed log is nowhere to be found. I've talked to all the Pet Value stores in the area, and their orders just aren't coming in. A feed mill I go to tried to track down the company to order from them, and they wouldn't sell to them. I was told to try Petsmart, but my local store doesn't stock any of the snak shak products. They aren't available online, you can only pick them up in stores that have them available, and stores that don't have them in stock won't order them in, nor get the stores that do have them in stock to send them over. The actual manufacturer, 8 in 1, had apparently never heard of online marketing, and doesn't even list any Snak Shak products on their site.

Finally, I searched the online Petsmart website. Petsmart does stock the eCOTRiTiON™ SNAK SHAK™ Edible Small Animal Activity Log (http://www.petsmart.ca/small-pet/fo...-activity-log-zid36-14353/cat-36-catid-600005) but not the seed stuffed log I'm looking for. However, they also have something that seems very similar: eCOTRiTiON™ SNAK SHAK™ Small Bird Treat & Chew (http://www.petsmart.ca/bird/treats/...ird-treat-chew-zid36-4202/cat-36-catid-400056)


Apparently there's a few pet suppliers in the US that still sell the seed-stuffed log (but it would cost me ~$40 shipping to get it over the border. NAFTA is a filthy lie.) so here's a few links so you can see what I'm talking about. Apparently there's a big and small version for it too-- I used to get the large one that was 6" x 2.5" and ~10 oz.

http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Hamsters-Gerbils-Mice-Treats/I/Ecotrition-Snak-Shak-Treats.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WAGVO2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

http://m.petco.com/product/106694/e...ster-Gerbil-Rat-And-Mouse-Treat-Stuffers.aspx

So now my question is, is the bird treat safe? I recognize most of the seeds as safe for rabbits. But for one, it's all seeds--the seed log I used had hay in half of it. There is a LOT of oat groat in there, and oat groat is supposed to be fed in extremely sparing proportions. For two, I can't even tell if the brown chew material is the same.

The activity log (just the log, no seeds) ingredients go: Pine wood shaving, cassava starch, alfalfa straw liquid mix (water, sodium alginate, potassium sorbate, propionic acid, honey, glycerin, propylene glycol).

The bird seed log goes: Pine wood shavings, white millet, modified starch, seeds, water, 4 kinds of oat groats, 4 kinds of seeds, gelatin, 2 seeds, glycerin, propylene glycol, honey, alfalfa, ground corn, feeding oatmeal, wheat middlings, potassium sorbate (a preservative), propionic acid (a preservative), bunch of minerals, peanut butter flavoring, huge ton of what looks like vitamins minerals flavouring and colouring.

The one web page that could give me ingredients for the treat stuffer said: Pine wood shavings, cassava starch, alfalfa, white millet, red millet, milo, medium sunflower seed, wheat, whole corn, oat groats, buckwheat, safflower seed, straw liquid mix, honey, glycerin, propylene glycol, modified starch, maltose, corn oil, water, ground corn, feeding oatmeal, wheat middlings, soybean meal, soybean oil, dicalcium phosphate, salt, yeast culture, minerals vitamins flavours and colours.

Ingredient lists are sorted by proportion--this means that in all three, there are more pine wood shavings than any other ingredient. So it's very concerning that the small animal log lists alfalfa before any kind of seed, while the bird log lists alfalfa as below nearly all the seeds, even under honey. (Though do remember that the small animal log was half stuffed with alfalfa, which may contribute to the extreme difference) The bird log also lists oat groats before all other seeds but two. Also, they listed four different KINDS of oat groat, meaning that the amount EACH kind of oat groat is more than the amount of each of the other kinds of seeds.

So. What are your thoughts? This is a very specific example, but are bird treats in general safe for rabbits? If you don't think the bird log is safe for rabbits, what do you suggest alternatively?



Delilah needs something to occupy her, and that something must apparently be food-based (she generally won't touch wood chews further than a few nibbles). I also want it to take her a while to go through, because I do not have money to burn. That was the beauty of the seed-stuffed log--the hard outer part took her a while to go through, was tastier than wood, and the seeds inside motivated her to keep at it. And unlike hay, which gets thrown around and scattered everywhere, it hardly made any mess at all.

The only other thing I've found to completely absorb her are toilet-paper rolls stuffed with hay. Sadly, a) they don't last very long at all and b) with how quickly she goes through them, I don't go through toilet paper that quickly, even in a house of five people.

I'm looking at the cat and dog toys that are treat-dispensing balls, but the dog toys are usually soft rubber that would be dangerous to be chewed on by rabbits, and the hard plastic cat toys are hard to find and very expensive.

I'm doubtful...seeds are very fattening for rabbits and honey is really high in sugar. As an occasional treat or if she doesn't actually eat that much (less than 10% of her overall daily diet) it would probably be okay. I'd look into alternative forms of entertainment though. If you've got time for a little sweeping afterward, maybe try giving her cardboard boxes or phonebooks/newspaper to tear up. Even old pieces of clothing to chew and rearrange, as long as she isn't the type to consume them. Personally when my bunnies are being raucous and bored I drop in a hefty chunk of refrigerated broccoli stalk, it keeps them busy for 20 minutes and after that their jaws are too tired to do much.

dear liung,-in one word-(no)--lagamorphs are strictly herbivores,--any deviation from that meaning spells disaster for the bun---seeds will cause unnecessary inflammation in the gi tract (diverticulitis)--very painful condition,--you could try fruit tree branches,weeds,grasses all from the safe lists from the r-o-l library...I hope this helps--sincerely james waller :headflick: