Clean bush rocks of snake enclosure

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Mo Deville

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hey guys, just wonder, i grabbed a couple of rocks from the bush for shedding rocks and i am cleaning them with water and domestic cleaner to remove any nasties, is this ok or does the domestic cleaner stay in the rock after i wash it off and would this harm my snake? i havn't put the rocks in the enclosore yet. anyone that can help?

Cheers Mo :)
 
Don't need to use any chemicals to clean - there are no 'nasties' that can harm your snake on a bush rock. Snakes live in the bush, often under rocks.

Just brush off loose stuff, or hose down and dry and away you go. There is nothing on a bush rock that can harm your snake.
Jamie
 
i'v already used domestic cleaner on it so would it still be ok?

I would just scrub it with some warm soapy water and rinse it off , it should get rid of any chemical residue.
In future just give them a blast with the hose and chuck them in the cage , it's only a rock after all ....
 
In future if you are concerned about nasties(I made the mistake of adding a bush rock to my stick insect tank once only to discover too late that it was home to a red back who proceeded to kill all my stickies :( ) just give it a hose and then bake it in the oven for a while.
 
like snakenewbie said above i also bake mine.
i wash it with hot water and give it a scrub then chuck it in the oven for 20mins around 150degrees C. If something can live through that than it deserves too haha!
 
Baking rocks is another no-no... if they contain moisture they can explode and make a big mess of your oven. You don't need to bake anything either - a visual examination, a brush down or rinse and you'll be fine.

Jamie
 
if you have already used cleaner i would spend a good amount of time spraying down the rock with a hose of full pressure to make sure you get rid of any chemicals that are left on it. better safe than sorry. think of the fumes it might let off if it warmed up.
 
Jamie beat me to it ....

Once when young we made a camp fire with a few rocks around it , after an hour or so one them exploded all over the place .... not going to be much fun blowing up the oven to bake a rock that has no need what so ever to be baked.
 
I used boiling water but definatly won't put them in the oven cos they do explode and i do a lot of earth ovens and see it all the time, but i rinsed of the rocks and hopfully there won't be any chemicals left on it, as i probably used way too much domestic cleaner, but iv put them in the enclosures now, if u know or had any bad experiences with using domestic cleaner let me know hey.

Cheers Mo :)

I took the rocks back out and put them in hot salty water for a bit longer just incase.
 
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Make sure you've rinsed the salt off them now...

Jamie
 
I pinched some branches from a friends property. All I did was blast the dust of with the hose. My snakes are now using them. Mind you, one of the bark hollows I brought home seems to be full of ants, and I don't have a big enough container to drown them out, so will keep that for my new aviary which is going up very soon, when I get some time off work to play.
 
Would this be the same for branches aswell cause i have a couple laying around but to afraid to put into the enclosure cause of what they might have??

Cheers, Brendon
 
i'd be more careful of branches bringing nasties into your enclosure than stones, so make sure you can fully submerge the branch under boiling water at least.
 
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Would this be the same for branches aswell cause i have a couple laying around but to afraid to put into the enclosure cause of what they might have??

Cheers, Brendon

I always put branches in the bath tub and hold them down with some big rocks and fill the bath with steaming hot water (add several jugs of boiling water to it as you fill it as well) then I leave them for the better part of the day and drain my bath. Make sure you clean the bath straight after this so it doesn't get permanently stained.
 
I heard if you put boiling water over branches and rocks you kill the good spirits inside them. Wild animals like snakes cant live without good spirits so I would make sure you do none of the suggestions above just incase you do more damage than good.
 
I would just scrub it with some warm soapy water and rinse it off , it should get rid of any chemical residue.
....
Or to be safe just get a new rock..... There are always plenty of rocks in the bush after all lol
 
i'd be more careful of branches bringing nasties into your enclosure than stones, so make sure you can fully submerge the branch under boiling water at least.

This broad category of "nasties" intrigues me. Can you tell us what you regard as "nasties" which could be brought into an enclosure and that could harm your reptiles? How do you explain the fact that snakes live in the bush surrounded by "nasties' and seem to get on very well?

Rock, branches, logs, or anything from the bush that you may want to use as enclosure furnishings can simply be brushed down or rinsed with clean water before adding to your enclosure, but in truth they don't even need that as long as you remove the obvious hazards such as the redbacks mentioned earler in this thread.

Jamie
 
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