Branches for my ball to climb on???

So I want to put a branch or something in my snakes tank for it to climb on. I just want to know if it's okay to get a branch from my back yard cd buying some thirty dollar fake thing from the store.

The sand blasted grape wood is a good choice if its available to you.

I Have also used found branches after submersing it in water for a few days to kill off any possible bugs that may be hiding in it.you can bake in the oven at low temps 180*F for a short time also.

Good luck with whatever you do.:)

So I I get a piece of oak and bake
It To kill any bugs it should
Be okay?

Yep. Thats what i do. Put it in for around 15 minutes and let that cooked wood smell fill the

kitchen. For bigger pieces i have heard of using a water and bleach method, but i think i will

just use the submerged way and use something to disinfect it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beebe_1990

Yep. Thats what i do. Put it in for around 15 minutes and let that cooked wood smell fill the

kitchen. For bigger pieces i have heard of using a water and bleach method, but i think i will

just use the submerged way and use something to disinfect it.

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I have always been a fan of the baking method simply because a good 20 minutes (give or take) should make sure any parasites inside of the wood are good and dead.

Soaking on the other hand, while good for disinfecting the surface and a little below, I find is ineffective for anything living deeper inside.

I found this out while using a smoker. Wood chunks that were maybe 4x4 cubes rarely were saturated deeper than a quarter of an inch. After discovering this I did some home testing and discovered that even letting one of these wood chunks soak for 3-4 days saturated them only a half to 3/4ths on an inch. Wood can become completely saturated, but it would take some time.

These were apple wood chunks if that makes any difference in relation to density.

I am not sure I'd use oak as it has lots of tannins and I am not sure they are good for you snake *unsure check that* If you have poplar, that is a good choice it is correctly aspen yup the same and is smooth barked wood so if you leave the bark on there are few places for critters to live in. baking it will work but it needs to be quite some time the whole wood core to outside needs to be over 120ºF for 20 min.

I would not place any branches in the enclosure without baking them first. I've had ants that were in the wood that I picked up off the forest floor in the winter. Once the branches were placed in a warm house ants started crawling out of them. This was before I placed the new snake into the tank. Everything had to come out and get baked again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigByrd47119

I have always been a fan of the baking method simply because a good 20 minutes (give or take) should make sure any parasites inside of the wood are good and dead.

Soaking on the other hand, while good for disinfecting the surface and a little below, I find is ineffective for anything living deeper inside.

I found this out while using a smoker. Wood chunks that were maybe 4x4 cubes rarely were saturated deeper than a quarter of an inch. After discovering this I did some home testing and discovered that even letting one of these wood chunks soak for 3-4 days saturated them only a half to 3/4ths on an inch. Wood can become completely saturated, but it would take some time.

These were apple wood chunks if that makes any difference in relation to density.

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I would bake the branches that i am planning on putting in my enclosure, but
they are too big. I wish i could find an oven big enough so i would feel better
about everything being dead on the inside. Is there any other method you
may have heard of for bigger branches?

i just dive into the river and find any wood that submerged under water.than i boil it for about 20 minutes(u can just put it in a tube with hot water).let it dry for a day n i get super clean,strong n free dusk wood.

just submerged the wood or baked in the oven dont remove the dust inside the wood.

you may ask why i find wood that submerged under water,it because that wood is strong,solid and dont have space in that wood(because some insect live in the center of a wood)

Either boil or bake the wood whatever you do, and removing the bark might be a good idea to make sure you can get it as clean as possible.

The only thing I'd like to add is not to make it too high of the floor of the enclosure because although the snake is likely to climb, ball pythons are pretty clumsy little climbers, so you don't want them to have too far to fall. maybe about five-seven inches is what I'd aim for.