Rabbit Safe Trees

[HeidiofTulips]

Is "Hard Sugar Maple" a safe tree wood to give rabbits, for a chew toy?

We have a relative who chopped a chemical-freetree & cut some pieces for our house buns. I only found apple & pear on the safe list, so far.

Anyone know?:coolness:

Thanks!!

Heidi

 

[missyscove]

I haven't been able to find anything on the wood, but I do know that maple leaves are highly toxic to horses. The gallic acid leads to the lysis of blood cells and kidney damage, among other symptoms, but they don't know exactly how it happens and with rabbits being so similar to horses, I wouldn't risk that exposure. It's commonly called "Red Maple Disease" but can be caused by any maple leaves.
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/php/plants.php?action=indiv&byname=common&keynum=97

It looks to me like the gallic acid may also be present in the bark.
http://books.google.com/books?id=R2...BQ#v=onepage&q=gallic acid maple wood&f=false

 

[Hazel-Mom]

Here's a good article that explains about the toxicity of the leaves. It's about horses, but may apply to other animals, including rabbits.

ag.udel.edu/extension/agnr/pdf/eq-18.pdf

Apparently, Red Maple (aka hard maple) is the most toxic.
According to this article, fresh leaves straight from the trees are ok, so are the dead leaves that fall off the trees in fall. But the leaves that come off the trees at any other time and left to wilt, are deadly.

On the other hand, both Silver maple and Sugar maple are on some of the "safe" plants for rabbit lists, and people seem not to have problems with those.

Better safe than sorry though, if you're not sure what maples you have.