lapaki
Well-Known Member
I've been researching ideas for making my own exercise pen, and many of the sites have instructions related to bird cage construction. Most of those sites say NOT to use galvanized or zinc plated wire. They say that the zinc coating can be ingested and cause heavy metal poisoning, which is quite serious.
That got my thinking, because the Midwest brand X-Pens are zinc coated (the gold ones, anyway). And so is most of the common "cage wire" used to construct home made hutches and enclosures.
I noticed the zinc coating has worn off a few spots on my pen where the Zoomer frequently grabbed it (and the zinc was probably ingested). This likely happened quite a long time ago, since he's now a free roaming bunn, and I've never noticed any of the symptoms those sites say to watch out for, so I don't think it's done him any harm.
I tried a quick google search and found some info on lead poisoning in rabbits, but most of the links mentioning zinc were about birds.
So how bad is this for our fluffy friends?
And is it safe to use zinc plated pens, and/or galvanized cage wire?
That got my thinking, because the Midwest brand X-Pens are zinc coated (the gold ones, anyway). And so is most of the common "cage wire" used to construct home made hutches and enclosures.
I noticed the zinc coating has worn off a few spots on my pen where the Zoomer frequently grabbed it (and the zinc was probably ingested). This likely happened quite a long time ago, since he's now a free roaming bunn, and I've never noticed any of the symptoms those sites say to watch out for, so I don't think it's done him any harm.
I tried a quick google search and found some info on lead poisoning in rabbits, but most of the links mentioning zinc were about birds.
So how bad is this for our fluffy friends?
And is it safe to use zinc plated pens, and/or galvanized cage wire?