Safe Wood Options for Rats to Chew: A Guide to Preventing Harm Discover which woods keep your pet rats healthy and their teeth trimmed. By Adrienne Kruzer Adrienne Kruzer Adrienne Kruzer is a veterinary technician with more than 15 years of experience providing healthcare to domestic and exotic animals. She is trained as a Fear Free Certified Professional to prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress in pets. Learn more about The Spruce Pets' Editorial Process Updated on 06/13/25 Credit: Westend61 / Getty Images Key Takeaways Rats need to chew regularly to maintain their dental health.Not all woods are safe for rats; there is a specific list of safe and toxic woods.Cedar shavings are harmful to rats and should not be used for bedding; aspen shavings are the safest option among wood shavings. Rats are rodents that need to chew on things regularly to keep their teeth trimmed and healthy, because their teeth grow continuously throughout their life. Wood is a popular and natural choice for rat owners to provide to their pets, but not all types of wood are safe. Before just grabbing that tree branch from your backyard or a chunk of wood from the local lumber yard, make sure that the wood you are offering your pet is safe, free of pesticides, untreated, and free of paint. Many kinds of wood on the safe list can be found in your yard, but if you aren't 100 percent sure on what it is, it is best not to give it to your rat. Safe Woods and Substances Apple (thin apple wood sticks can often be purchased from pet stores) Arbutus Ash Bamboo cane Blackberry Blackcurrant Bholla Coconut shell (can be purchased at craft stores and pet stores, usually with hermit crab supplies) Cottonwood Crabapple Dogwood Grapevine Hawthorn Hazelnut Kiwi Linden Manzanita Mulberry Pear Pecan Pine (kiln-dried white only) Poplar Quince Rose hip Sycamore Toxic Woods and Substances Abale/esia Alder Almond (can produce cyanide) Apricot Aspen Balsam fir Beech Birch Black locust Blackwood Bogwood Boxwood Buddleia Cashew Cedar Cherry Citrus (all citrus woods including lemon, orange, lime, etc.) Cocobolo Cypress/bald cypress Dahoma Ebony Elang/mukulungu Elder/elderberry Elm Eucalyptus Fig/cape fig Fir Goncalo alves Greenheart Hemlock Horse chestnut Iroko Juniper Kapok Laurel Magnolia Mahogany Mansonia Maple Mimosa Mopane/mopani Myrtle Nectarine Oak/cork Obeche/abachi Okuhaba/yungu Oleander Olive Opepe/kussia Paduak Pau ferro Peach Peroba rosa Pine (fresh pine is toxic as are pinecones) Plum Plywood Prune Purpleheart Quebracho Redwood Rosewood Satinwood Sassafras Sequoia Snakewood Spruce Teak Walnut Wenge Willow Yew Yunnan Zebrawood Other safe wood options for rats are available in pet stores. Woods marketed for chinchillas, and other rodents are usually safe to offer to your rat, but make sure the type of wood is not on the toxic woods list before putting it in your rat's cage (just in case). The same goes for the material that hide boxes and cages are made out of (if they are made of wood). Any items in the cage are fair game for your rat's teeth to nibble on, so you want to make sure they are safe! If you think your rat may have eaten a toxic wood, then contact your exotics vet as soon as possible. Different woods are more dangerous than others and affect your rat in different ways. Wood Bedding It used to be common to house your pet rat on wood shavings, but we have learned that there are more comfortable and safer options for our pets. If you still want to use wood, Aspen shavings are the safest of the wood shavings available at pet stores, and you should avoid pine shavings. Warning Cedar shavings are thought to be the most dangerous to rats so you should under no circumstances house your rat on cedar bedding. Besides the fumes and possible ingestion of toxic wood shavings, wood can be irritating to walk on. Rats may develop sores or small cuts on their feet and might itch due to the wood being irritating to their skin. Options such as recycled paper bedding (such as CareFresh) are preferred over wood shavings for their absorption qualities and softer texture. Explore more: Small Pets Pet Rats Sources The Spruce Pets uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Routine Health Care Of Rats. Merck Veterinary Manual. Mice and Rats as Pets. Merck Veterinary Manual.