Should I sanitize these driftwood?

[creed0513]

I'm setting a new enclosure for Mexican Black Kingsnake and I got several driftwoods from petsmart. It was made by 'All Living Things' and written 'Heat treated'.
BTW I just noticed there's pretty much dirt and wood crusts on them. Can I use them without any treatment? or should I boil and scrub all the dirt out? Otherwise, should just return them?

[infernalis]

No need to wash or do anything. Place it in your cage and don't worry....be happy.

[Concept9]

PERSONALY, I would. I always clean anything new before putting it in my enclosures.

I have never seen drift wood come that dirty from a pet store, maybe I have just got lucky.

It’s possible that these items were used in a display case with another reptile or something.

Never hurts to be too safe with your animal.

1) Soak it in a 5% bleach mixture.
2) Then soak it in soap and water mixture.
3) Wrap it in tinfoil and bake it in the oven at 100~ for 10-15 mins.
4) Let it air dry and come to room temperature and you are good to go.

[Gungirl]

If It was something you picked up outside I wouldn't bother cleaning it. However everything I buy from a pet shop gets sprayed with mite treatment before being placed in my vivs.

[possum]

I would personally sanitize it as others above suggested: I have seen too many petstores use such items in cages with their animals and then turn around and SELL them as "new". (ugh!) No way to know what's on it...

[Starbuck]

i think i saw similar driftwood at a petco for almost 20$ per segment. O_O

I went to my local lake front and found hundreds of perfect pieces, bleached by the sun, clean, dry, and in any size i could imagine, and for free. I would return them and just go looking in your back yard...
If you keep them, i wouldnt bother cleaning them either, as wayne said.

[infernalis]

Wow.... So let me get this straight, Animals that crawl around on the ground, some live in caves filled with guano (bat poop) and often eat carcassas off the ground are going to get cooties from wood???

I keep several of my animals on dirt, I feed them plates of food that I thawed out yesterday and fell asleep waiting for it to thaw.

Try learning the lifecycles of the parasites you are worried about. Before man had science, we were afraid of thunder too.

[Concept9]

Wow.... So let me get this straight, Animals that crawl around on the ground, some live in caves filled with guano (bat poop) and often eat carcassas off the ground are going to get cooties from wood???

I keep several of my animals on dirt, I feed them plates of food that I thawed out yesterday and fell asleep waiting for it to thaw.

Try learning the lifecycles of the parasites you are worried about. Before man had science, we were afraid of thunder too.

I agree 100% Wayne.

My concern was that he purchased this from a pet store. I never seen one come from a pet store with so much dirty on it and the thought that it has been used with another retile crossed my mind and might have mites.

Better safe than sorry.

[Terranaut]

I agree with Wayne. Why bother. Do you bleach your rats before a feeding? Of course not and they eat the rat so some dirty bark is fine.

[possum]

So (infernalis) you're not worried about IBD or crypto or anything else that other creatures may have had or even died from then?
(remind me not to eat at your house, LOL)

For many years I had 85-90 snakes in my house...and sometimes up to 150 or so, with offspring...but I never had any outbreak of illness or mites, as has happened to so many others. Wonder why?

[Terranaut]

Unless you clean their prey it's all a waste of time.The rats and the wood are at the same place. All of the above issues are more likely to affect them from the inside. If getting expensive wood at a pet store is an issue because other snakes may have been in contact with it the get cheap ,safe wood from..............the forest.

[smy_749]

But the rats don't live in reptile display cages. The people who said to clean it are concerned it was used in a reptile display tank. If it was used in a reptile display tank, and there was a sick reptile in that tank , or one infested with mights, then what?

If I said I had a kingsnake with mites and IBD and I wanted to use the drift wood in his tank for my other healthy kingsnake, then you would say to sanitize it very well or throw it out. This is the same situation, just in the off chance that since its dirty it was used in a display tank.

[possum]

...
If I said I had a kingsnake with mites and IBD and I wanted to use the drift wood in his tank for my other healthy kingsnake, then you would say to sanitize it very well or throw it out. This is the same situation, just in the off chance that since its dirty it was used in a display tank.

I would throw it out...that was my point. Petstores have many reptiles, not all of them are healthy, many have mites, & some of them die while on display. It is thought that besides being a nuisance mites may be vectors of diseases like IBD. I would not rely on petstore personnel no matter how well-intentioned to do the right thing, particularly because they may not be knowledgable enough, they are pressured for time to help customers, or because they do not have exclusive responsibility for the animals/cages. I seriously doubt that complete disinfection of cages really takes place after a reptile dies in a store. Things made of glass or plastic like water bowls can be easily disinfected, but things like branches are porous & very difficult. Bleach is very effective but not suitable for porous wood since it remains and is very harsh for the reptiles to breathe fumes from...all odor from it must be rinsed away & that's hard to do if it's used in a high enough concentration to actually be effective. I know that baking branches, assuming they fit in your oven, is a pretty effective method to kill 'germs', but all things considered I wouldn't take the chance on a used branch from a petstore, partly because they now say snakes should be quarantined for over a year to make sure they don't have IBD. :( that's my opinion anyway...I wonder what a reptile vet would say?

To the OP: Personally I would return them to the store and tell them why. You may help them (& the reptiles they sell) in the long run...they may have just never thought about it?

[possum]

Afterthought: if they sell their stuff online, from a warehouse, I would think it would be pretty safe as it's never been in a store where it "may" have been used in a reptile cage. I have bought a few such heat-treated branches before, but they did not appear to have been used. We cannot really see that well from photos online, not like you can. I think if it's obvious enough to worry you, why take a chance?

[Terranaut]

Yup again if your concerned I hear the bush has many many branches at a very reasonable price.....free :)

[possum]

LOL, I went kayaking on the Buffalo river last fall & couldn't resist hauling some lovely branches back with me. And you know, there's SO much room in a solo kayak...

[possum]

But nothing is totally safe... I was just thinking about the fungal diseases that are affecting (& killing) snakes & amphibians these days? And to their surprise, they treated/cured some frogs only to see them get re-infected from something in the environment once they were released.