I want to add more wood decor to my snakes house and buying reptile wood is so expensive, is there a way to sanitize and kill all the bugs in natural wood?
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Also, what wood is good and bad for snakes? (ball pythons and boas if that matters)
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This depends on the size. My go to way is cooking it in the oven at 250 for 30-60 minutes. if the wood doesn’t fit in the oven I have heard that you can put it in the freezer for 24 or 48 hours (Sorry I can’t remember) or you can boil multiple large pots of water (number depends on the size of wood) and dump it on the wood. there are a few other ways but I don’t know much about them and these are the more common ways I have heard.
As for the type of wood, hard woods like oak are usually best and make sure to stay away from pine and cedar.
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I’ve used the oven and the freezer method.
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Where I live we have mites and bugs that can survive a deep freeze, so I use the oven method.
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Oven is the best, if you freeze I would do it for a extended amount of time like a couple weeks. After the initial method to make sure there are no bugs, to keep it sanitized I would use a f-10 type of animal safe cleaner. Also don’t use cedar or pine. Cedar oils are harmful to reptiles, and pine while not as bad can irritate them. Go with a nice hardwood branch, oak, cherry something like that.
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Does leaving it in a bleach solution work by chance? I’ve read that you could leave it in a 10% bleach and water mixture for a couple of days, or is that bad for the wood and snakes?
The people I live with are not to appreciative of the cooking idea for the heat it causes and the ability for it to possibly light on fire.
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I have heard about it but don’t know much about it because I personally don’t like the Idea of having stuff like bleach in with my animals. I am pretty sure it is safe but for me I just don’t like the idea of it. I would do some research before just to make sure you do it properly
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The diluted bleach solution is a old school standby. Herpers use to use it for everything in the cage from water bowl, hides, branches as well as the cage itself. This is not harmful as long as the solution is not a strength that will be harmful, and it is completely dry before putting it in the cage. I personally agree with @logar about not liking bleach or strong chemicals when it comes to animals. I would bake it, and then for regular cleaning use f-10 solution myself. Natural branches are great looking, but if baking it safe is a issue there is also good fake branches you can purchase or make.
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