Mineral oil/walnut oil for wood treatment?

[pookah]

We’re building a litter box/hay feeder/perch for Cashew, and I was wondering if anyone had any input on this:

The wooden box will hold his existing litter box, and provide a frame which holds a hay feeder on one side, and a shelf on the other.  While Cashew doesn’t generally pee outside his litter box, my husband was concerned at leaving the wood totally untreated.

I read that for food safe surfaces, such as “butcher block” counter tops, treatment/upkeep with either mineral oil or walnut oil is considered safe, at least for humans.  I also recall reading an article on rabbit.org where a type of eye drops made of mineral oil and petrolatum were recommended for a bunny with chronic watery eyes, so I’m assuming that mineral oil is at least safe for bunnies in those quantities.

Certainly I think it would be safer than any kind of polyurethane finish.  He’s not a big chewer, but anything I wouldn’t be able to eg apply to his fur or he couldn’t lick up a drop of, I’m not even going to consider.  He’s full of surprises, and I don’t want to one day find out that he just loves the taste of polyurethane. O_O

Does anyone else have any kind of experience or knowledge with treating wood in a way that’s bunny safe?  Is mineral oil acceptable?  I believe I would rub it into the wood, leave it for a while, and then wipe off any excess.  I know walnuts aren’t something we want to feed our bunnies, but is the oil acceptable/preferable to mineral oil?

Thanks so much for any help!

[Bam]

i think I’d go for mineral oil intended for wooden cutting boards/kitchen counter tops, because that’d be food-grade mineral oil. There’s mineral oil for use as a laxative for horses, (other animals too of course, incl bunnies), that’d perhaps be even more refined. It’s not good if the bunny ingests too much of it, of course, but he’s not supposed to eat the wooden box, at least not in one go.

Walnut oil could have have tannins. Tannins protect wood, but they might not be good for a bunny tummy.

[SeaTurtleSwims]

Walnut would be bad for him to ingest- a lot of livestock farmers won’t touch walnut because it’s harmful if they eat the wood etc. The tannins are known to cause fish kills in ponds where they fall into the water after dropped from the tree. It’s weird, because people can eat walnuts no problem. It must be something with the wood/tannins/fruit husk idk specifically.

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