How to Sterilize Wood for Reptiles? I am guessing you are hither because yous recently had the experience below:

Every pet possessor has had this feel:

Hey, I am going to finish by the pet store to pick up a climbing co-operative for my fauna…

$35.00 for a stick?! HUH?

Don't you hate that? I know I do.

Ringlet TO THE BOTTOM FOR THE VIDEO

If you follow my blog or my YouTube videos you lot know that I am all about including natural features in your reptile'south enclosure to enrich their environment! Calculation existent branches to the enclosure is a neat manner to accomplish that… simply who wants to spend a agglomeration of money on something yous can get exterior for free!

How to Sterilize Wood for Reptiles

Collect your Forest!

First y'all need to find some wood! Here are somethings to keep in mind:

  • Stay with hardwood trees (Oak, Ash, Maple, etc.), softwood trees incorporate sap that tin can exist toxic to your animal. Likewise, stay away from any hardwood copse that seem to exist very "sappy" for any reason.
  • Discover an area that that is unlikely to have pesticides or chemicals sprayed. I.eastward. stay abroad from areas shut to farmers fields (pesticides) or areas that may take been fogged for mosquitoes.
  • I look for trees that take recently fallen down. You don't desire something that has been decaying for a long period of time. I guess live copse would work fine besides.
Forested Area
Dead tree

Clean Up the Branches

Once you have found a suitable branch you need to "make clean information technology up". In other words, use a hand saw and sandpaper to smooth out any areas that could crusade an injury for your animal.

Tools: Sandpaper and saw

I generally utilise a manus saw to remove any precipitous leftovers from smaller branches.

Remove any loose bawl. Then,  smooth out the entire co-operative, once with grade sand newspaper and in one case with fine sandpaper.

Information technology is perfectly okay to exit some rough edges here and in that location as some animals will use it to scratch and/or shed themselves confronting, only y'all should remove anything that feels sharp to your touch.

How to Sterilize Forest for Reptiles: Method #1

If your branch is minor plenty to fit within your oven, than you lot tin can follow the directions for Method #ane (and consider yourself lucky)!

  1. Prepare your oven to 250°F
  2. Prepare yourself a x minute timer (reoccurring)
  3. Place your branch in the oven and bake for 2 hours
  4. Bank check it every 10 minutes to ensure there is no charring
Bake forest for reptiles
10 Minute timer: Bake Wood for Reptiles

The heat of the oven will slowly impale whatsoever bacteria and microbes establish deep inside the tissue of the woods. Using a higher temperature DOES Non make this process any faster and increases your take a chance of starting a burn!I promise… two hours is not that long, specially considering how long Method #2 takes!

Once 2 hours has surpassed, pull the branch out of the oven, wait for it to cool off and you are done!

How to Broil wood for reptiles

How to Sterilize Wood for Reptiles: Method #ii

If your branch is too large to fit within your oven then you are stuck with Method #two! This method is equally effective, but takes much, much longer!

  1. Find a barrel, bin or tub big enough to comprise your branch.
  2. Fill up the tub with water, roughly keeping track of the volume of water you are using. I use a pail to fill my tub to keep track, i.e. x pails full of water is around 30 gallons full.
    Filling the tub, pail past pail
  3. Add bleach, using a ratio of 1/3 – 1/ii Cups of bleach for every gallon of water. Brand sure you lot employ regular bleach, do not employ any products that have additives for laundry use, etc.
    Bleaching Reptile wood
    Bleach Ratio
  4. Allow the branch soak for a full 24 hours.If you have a portion of your branch that is above the surface of the water (like mine in the photo), change the orientation of the co-operative later 12 hours so the exposed portion is at present submerged.
    Bleaching reptile wood
  5. Afterward 24 hours, bleed the tub of the bleach solution. Yous will discover the colour of your branch will be lighter, the bleach pulls the tanins and pigments out of the forest. You at present need to flush the wood to remove the bleach.Soak the wood for at to the lowest degree 48 hours in fresh water, change the water every 2-8 hours.
    Flushing the bleach from the forest
  6. After the forest has been flushed of the bleach yous at present need to permit it dry. Wood will take anywhere from 3-5 days to dry depending on the size and the climate you live in. You lot MUST await for the forest to dry out completely before adding information technology to your reptiles enclosure for one of two reasons: 1) If you add together it to a humid environment it will never dry out and likely grow mold or ii) if you add together it to an arid environment it will spike the humidity of your enclosure for several days.

Adding natural wood to your enclosure can really enhance your creature's surround and I highly recommend you exercise it!

How to Sterilize Forest for Reptiles