Useing natural branches

[Blake182]

Hello guy's and girl's
well im setting up a new enclosure's for my children python's and i have found some gum-tree branches is there any thing i need to do be for i put them in the enclosure??


Blake

 

[junglepython2]

They will be fine untreated, but if you are paranoid you can scrub them, soak them and leave them out in the sun for a bit.

 

[Albino93]

I'd probably soak them in boiling water to kill off any bugs then wait a week or so for the branches to fully dry.

 

[leamos]

I'd soak it in the bathtub for a few days to kill/flush out any critters etc, ants can be a real pain in the ....... for your animals but a few days submerged deals with them pretty well

 

[Blake182]

Thanks for all your help can i stain or paint them if so what would be the best paint??

 

[timantula]

All my enc's have natural branches and hollow logs, my job is working with food and our hot wash hose is 80ish degrees and I just hose them well with that and never had any problems. I also give them a squirt with f10. Then sun them dry.

 

[notechistiger]

I don't see the point in using natural branches if you're gonna paint them! xD Just chuck them straight in from the bush and let your snake/s smell nature!

 

[saintanger]

ok from experience my partner once bought home a big hollow branch for my black headed python enclosure and i told him to leave it on my front lawn, cause i wanted to clean it the next day before going in the enclosure. well that night as i sat out on the front porch having a cigarett out popped a redbellied black snake from that hollow branch, it was only a baby but venomous all the same. he then caught it and released it the next day were he got the hollow branch from. he had checked it and carried it to his ute and not once did he see it, got home took it off the ute and put it on the front lawn.

so from now on he inspects them very well befor bringing them home.

always check any hollow wood before you take it home

 

[timantula]

Wow lucky no bite, when I go collecting my logs I get throttle happy with the chainsaw hoping to scare any unwanted critters out. Haven't come across any snakes in the logs.... Yet.

 

[saintanger]

this guy was a hatchie and was very far up, as my partner check the log and banged it on the floor, then through it on the ute and it never came out.

 

[jakedasnake]

I would soak it in hot water

 

[Sistinas]

I can never seem to find any nice branches when I look

 

[Kareeves]

looking for the right branch is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It takes me hours to fined just the right one.

 

[damian83]

I don't see the point in using natural branches if you're gonna paint them! xD Just chuck them straight in from the bush and let your snake/s smell nature!

I've done that with my dragons and snakes no problems...

- - - Updated - - -

I can never seem to find any nice branches when I look

Look somewhere there are gum trees, other wise ill get my hands on some and you can get them off me (finder fees apply in form of rum)

 

[imported_Varanus]

ok from experience my partner once bought home a big hollow branch for my black headed python enclosure and i told him to leave it on my front lawn, cause i wanted to clean it the next day before going in the enclosure. well that night as i sat out on the front porch having a cigarett out popped a redbellied black snake from that hollow branch, it was only a baby but venomous all the same. he then caught it and released it the next day were he got the hollow branch from. he had checked it and carried it to his ute and not once did he see it, got home took it off the ute and put it on the front lawn.

so from now on he inspects them very well befor bringing them home.

always check any hollow wood before you take it home

Says more about RBB's than anything else and I'm glad the log didn't get a soak in boiling water before discovering the little fella. People are CRAZY!

 

[thomasssss]

ok from experience my partner once bought home a big hollow branch for my black headed python enclosure and i told him to leave it on my front lawn, cause i wanted to clean it the next day before going in the enclosure. well that night as i sat out on the front porch having a cigarett out popped a redbellied black snake from that hollow branch, it was only a baby but venomous all the same. he then caught it and released it the next day were he got the hollow branch from. he had checked it and carried it to his ute and not once did he see it, got home took it off the ute and put it on the front lawn.always check any hollow wood before you take it home

Just one of the many reasons that broken rotting logs shouldn't be used , they can be home to a wide variety of creatures best to leave them be Op Find yourself a smooth barked tree that is still very alive with leaven and all, then cut it off let it dry if you want and woolah you will have a pest free branch , any thing that is found on the ground is possibly going to have bugs and all sorts of creatures in it where as a live growing tree with a smooth bark not a loose thick kind shouldn't have anything hiding in it

 

[Pythoninfinite]

I live on 100 acres of bush - some rainforest in the gullies but a lot of eucalypt on the hillsides, plenty of pythons, RBBS, small-eyed, yellow-faced whipsnakes, lacies and other things. Costs me a fortune to aerial spray the bush with F10 and bleach every 2 months to keep the wild animals safe from "NASTIES" and "BUGS" that they might encounter and compromise their health... In the gullies I have to do each shrub and tree individually with a backpack sprayer because the plane can't get down there. You can always tell the ones I've missed by the litter of dead reptiles lying on the ground and draped in the branches, from exposure to things they should never come into contact with. How they manage to survive in the bush with all its natural scents and fresh air I just don't know.

I'm thinking of trying it with a steam cleaner this year, no chemicals, but they're a bit heavy to lug around the hills. I'll do the rocks with a steam mop from Danoz Direct - that should cover all bases... Life is sooo complicated with all these nasties and bugs...

Seriously, you should get a life and realise that your reptile enclosure is a far more pathogenic place than the bush ever is. Your snake/lizard has to live in a very small space in which it defecates and does a range of contaminating activities, and the prospect of the keeper sterilising materials such as porous wood, once a python has crawled through its own waste and then coiled up on a branch, is nil. The bush is a far safe place than your enclosure with regard to exposure to significant pathogens like fungi, bacteria and viruses.

Jamie

Jamie

 

[Chris]

I live on 100 acres of bush - some rainforest in the gullies but a lot of eucalypt on the hillsides, plenty of pythons, RBBS, small-eyed, yellow-faced whipsnakes, lacies and other things. Costs me a fortune to aerial spray the bush with F10 and bleach every 2 months to keep the wild animals safe from "NASTIES" and "BUGS" that they might encounter and compromise their health... In the gullies I have to do each shrub and tree individually with a backpack sprayer because the plane can't get down there. You can always tell the ones I've missed by the litter of dead reptiles lying on the ground and draped in the branches, from exposure to things they should never come into contact with. How they manage to survive in the bush with all its natural scents and fresh air I just don't know.

I'm thinking of trying it with a steam cleaner this year, no chemicals, but they're a bit heavy to lug around the hills. I'll do the rocks with a steam mop from Danoz Direct - that should cover all bases... Life is sooo complicated with all these nasties and bugs...

Post of the year in 2012

 

[imported_Varanus]

! 500ml of f-10 versus several million years of evolution; I know who I'm backing.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Lol lol the day shift arrives. And who should get a life? And maybe some of us keep our enc clean.. You know remove poo on a daily basis.

You're talking about the stuff you can see - which is the least harmful of it. Cages are fetid, stuffy, full of germs you can't see, and unless you add things which smell natural and earthy, not a nice place to be for most of your life. You can't effectively sterilise porous wood, and indeed, the very materials the eclosures are commonly made from (such as particleboard), outgas very toxic substances like formaldehyde...

Given the choice, I'm sure the snake would far sooner vacate the confines of a truly contaminated environment such as its enclosure, and move into a patch of natural-smelling, earthy bush, with all its so-called hazards.

Jamie