Is Zinc coating/galvanizing bad for buns?

[lapaki]

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?

 

[OneTwoThree]

The midwest pens are coated in acrylic "Acri-Lock™ Acrylic Coated Gold Zinc" so are safe

 

[lapaki]

As I said in my original post, the Zoomer has already worn through the coating on my pen. That Acri-Lock coating is not very effective against bunny teeth.

So, back to my original question. Does anyone know if Zinc is bad for rabbits, or if a rabbit can even get Zinc poisoning?

 

[PeachySteph]

very good question, I'm also interested in the answer.

 

[OneTwoThree]

lapaki wrote:

As I said in my original post, the Zoomer has already worn through the coating on my pen. That Acri-Lock coating is not very effective against bunny teeth.

So, back to my original question. Does anyone know if Zinc is bad for rabbits, or if a rabbit can even get Zinc poisoning?

Did he chew through the entire bar? Like theres a hole there now? If not, how do you know he chewed through the acrylic coating?

 

[lapaki]

Because the gold is gone, and the gray/silver metal underneath is clearly visible.

 

[majorv]

I don't know about zinc plate, but there's nothing wrong with galvanized wire for rabbit cages. There'd be an awful lot of rabbitries with dead rabbits if that was the case. :shock: Galvanizing protects the wire from rusting which, I think, would be much worse for the rabbit to ingest.

 

[MILU]

I've heard that too.. but I ask myself if the bunnies will eat zinc.. I know their teeth are really powerful but I guess a happy bunny wouldn't want to bite a metal sheet or bar.

 

[pamnock]

It's a huge issue with birds, but far less information is available relating to mammals. This is most likely because they have to ingest or absorb a much larger amount to be toxic http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Hardy/ A higher risk seems to be related to some types of litter http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/training.html (see post "Get the Right Box!") about 1/2 way down the page.

I wouldn't be concerned unless your rabbit is a chronic cage chewer. We've had thousands of rabbits and have used galvanized cages since I was a little girl.

 

[Butterscotch]

I realize that I'm reviving a very old thread here but I had a similar question to the OP's question. I have several play pens that I link together to increase my rabbits' exercise area and I'm wondering about the safest metal of swivel bolt snaps to use for this. I'm currently using the ones that came with a gold colored puppy play pen but I read about zinc plating being bad for animals. I went to Home Depot to look at what they offered and they had brass, nickel plated, and stainless steel. I know that medical catheters are made out of stainless steel 304 and I know that cookware is made out of stainless steel, so bought stainless steel 304 swivel bolt snaps. However, the package has a California prop 65 warning on the back saying they contain a chemical known to cause cancer, birth defects, etc. I'm at a loss as to the safest type of metal swivel bolt snaps to use. Brass snaps don't have the prop 65 warning but they may contain zinc, lead or arsenic. All very bad. Nickel is a carcinogen, so do nickel plated bolt snaps also cause cancer even though they don't have the prop 65 warning on the packaging? What do you guys use to connect your play pens? I can't use cable ties, I need to move the play pens around daily. My house is really too small for them so I set them up and take them down every day.