what about spraying the shelves with plasticote? it will give them a wipe clean water proof surface, but not leave them too slidy

__________________

Never heard of that before o.O is it cheap enough and effective?

yep its both cheep and effective, the only down side is you need to let it dry for a few hours before you put rini back, but you would need to do that with varnish too
you can get it from B&Q

it also comes in different colours, if you didnt want clear

__________________

Hmm that gives me something to think about, I could do it on a day that Rini (and Theo soon hopefully!) can spend the morning/afternoon downstairs ^.^

As long as its animal friendly it may be a great idea!
How much do you think I would need to cover the 4 6x2 shelves? Do you normally do more than one coat?

Think I might need 2 cans cause it says it covers 2.23 squared metres!

yes it is fully animal safe even if chewed, i would probably do 2 coats just to make sure its fully protected
it is often used for hamsters and chinchillas, to coat any wooden shelves

1 square meter is around 10.7 square feet (6 x 2 ft is 12 ft square)

i think

__________________

Hmm I wonder if 1 can would do 2 coats on that amount.. otherwise I would need like 4 cans O.O I'm sure when its on about coverage, that would be a full coverage, and it tells you to wait between coats so I would imagine the coverage would be for more than 1 coat.

Might think of investing in a couple cans