# Bad smelling sisal / manila rope!



## PowerPie5000 (Apr 13, 2010)

I ordered a few bits from an online Chinchilla store and one of the toys uses sisal or manila rope... It smells strongly of oil/petrol which rubs off onto my hands! This cannot be safe for my chins so i've removed it from their cage.

After doing a bit of research it seems the oil/pertrol smell comes from the machinery that makes the rope and then the rope gets fumigated with pesticide!! Has anyone else noticed this with any rodent toys that use either sisal or manila rope?

Anyone else have any idea's why the rope smells "dangerous"?


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## carlycharlie (Jan 16, 2008)

Some rope is also treated to make it last longer & slow the rotting process down - maybe this is the cause of the smell. Or, it might have been stored in an area thats got oil & the like.

Who did you order it from? Was it a shop or private seller? If a shop then I would get back to them & let them know as these toys might not be safe.


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## PowerPie5000 (Apr 13, 2010)

carlycharlie said:


> Some rope is also treated to make it last longer & slow the rotting process down - maybe this is the cause of the smell. Or, it might have been stored in an area thats got oil & the like.
> 
> Who did you order it from? Was it a shop or private seller? If a shop then I would get back to them & let them know as these toys might not be safe.


I ordered it from this shop: CHINCHILLAS 2 SHOP

I've bought from them before and never had any issues... they sell great stuff for Chins :smile:

Anyway i got into contact with them via email and this is the reply i got:

Hi Daniel, and yes I quite understand your concerns about treated ropes
The Abaca plant rope is naturally ‘oily’ and when natural and untreated it is a deep brown colour
(treated with industrial oils and pesticides it is very dark black brown, greasy and _really _smells!)​  Unfortunately it DOES smell oily compared to sisal which is lighter in colour and dry​ The rope we buy is _natural_ but we can only buy the vegetable oil version in the UK – many shops that sell this trype of manila do sell it with vegetable oil for flexibility and is used quite a lot for bird toys and is safe​ Our ‘Dollydrop’ toy does use quite a bit, and we have thoughts of changing it’s amount used to a more restricted/safer version soon, although it is a ‘brittle’ type rope and shouldn’t cause accidents because it is easy to chew through – but it does drive us mad making it! ;-) ​ hope that helps with your enquiry​ kind regards, linda​
So i guess this rope is perfectly safe to use?... can't really find much info about the Abaca plant.


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## carlycharlie (Jan 16, 2008)

At least they got back to you & explained it you you :2thumb:


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