Kiln Dried Oak as Nest Box Wood?

[Rabbits by Accident]

I have some kiln dried oak boards that would be handy to use for the nest boxes I need to build.

I've seen that fresh oak is not suitable to feed to rabbits because of the high tannin level.

Kiln dried should not have high tannin levels ... ? Any thoughts on this?
I could line the corners & the opening with tin so that they can't chew it, I suppose. Other than that I don't think they could chew it.

I have used kiln dried cedar as shelves for years with no problems, even when I have a rabbit or two that chews the boards absolutely in half.

Thoughts? Experience?

Thanks!
Liz

 

[Preitler]

Hm, I would not think that tannins are going away by kiln drying since they aren't very volatile? I mean, gallic acid has a melting point of about 250°C. Normally, when tannins are to be removed, it's done by leaching, like when preparing acorns for food, or when making solutions for tanning hides. If there is more tannin in it than a rabbit can stomach, they don't eat it anyway, and as far as I know most of it is in the bark anyway.

Since that stuff isn't volatile it's not compareable to the oils and stuff that causes problems with cedar, there kiln drying removes that.

The boards aren't going to be eaten in significant amounts, and kiln dried I'm sure they are pretty hard and not tasty. Whatever volatile was in there should be mostly gone. I would say a good material, those nest boxes should last forever.

I just use any wood from pallets, once it's dry and somewhat aged, and no pungent smell, I just use it for everything.

 

[eco2pia]

I have used repurposed oak as a scraper board on a nest box, it worked great. The plywood on the rest of the box delaminated but the scraper is still in great shape!

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

Hm, I would not think that tannins are going away by kiln drying since they aren't very volatile? I mean, gallic acid has a melting point of about 250°C. Normally, when tannins are to be removed, it's done by leaching, like when preparing acorns for food, or when making solutions for tanning hides. If there is more tannin in it than a rabbit can stomach, they don't eat it anyway, and as far as I know most of it is in the bark anyway.

Since that stuff isn't volatile it's not compareable to the oils and stuff that causes problems with cedar, there kiln drying removes that.

The boards aren't going to be eaten in significant amounts, and kiln dried I'm sure they are pretty hard and not tasty. Whatever volatile was in there should be mostly gone. I would say a good material, those nest boxes should last forever.

I just use any wood from pallets, once it's dry and somewhat aged, and no pungent smell, I just use it for everything.

Thanks for putting such thought into answering my query! I've made acorn bread (multiple soaks to remove tannins) it makes total sense! I do tend to let my rabbits figure things out, but didn't want to risk it with nest boxes. Also didn't want to do all the work to build from culled oak boards (cutting, trimming, sanding, etc) and then find the resulting boxes weren't usable.

I just got 4 new pallets from the Azure delivery! Love pallets, but the oak for the boxes is some unfinished flooring scraps.

Thanks for your help!! Greatly appreciated!