Beech wood

Question
Is ordinary Beech wood, straight from the tree, safe for rats to chew on?  I am in the process of getting two rats and understand it is good to have something like this for them to chew.  The pet shop sells little coloured pieces of wood, but am concerned that the colours are probably artificial (they were not able to tell me).  I am told that these can be harmful to rats.  Many thanks

Answer
Honestly?   Any wood can splinter so I would say no.  The good news is that rats absolutely do NOT need anything to chew on in order to keep their teeth trimmed.  A healthy rat will  grind his own teeth down simply when they eat. Their incisors act like scissors and file down as they chew. Bruxing their teeth also helps grind them down.  If their teeth do over grow, this is due to several factors such as a tumor or growth that is pushing the teeth out, or malocclusion, which is when the jaw is not properly aligned and the teeth grow sideways. This has nothing to do with not gnawing on something. It is a congenital condition and the vet will need to trim the rats teeth down every few weeks to prevent them from growing crooked.

Rats do like to gnaw by nature: rat =rodentia = gnawing animal, but its just natural for them to gnaw, not something they must do for a reason.  You can give them hard dog biscuits that are low in protein to let them gnaw on to safely satisfy their craving to gnaw.

Hope this helps

My Critter city website is based on fact, never fiction, nor do I print anything that cannot be backed up by a Veterinary professional so you can trust what you read on my site.
you can read about their teeth here:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/thosemarvelousteeth.htm