# Preparing Driftwood for Reptiles



## aclesi11 (Oct 30, 2013)

Hello everyone,

In addition to a tortoise, I have an anery Honduran milksnake. I am building a larger cage for him and am planning on putting in driftwood for him to climb. Rather than buying driftwood, there is a large supply of it along the Mississippi River by my house. 

Does anyone have experience with preparing driftwood for use in habitats?


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## ascott (Oct 31, 2013)

> Soak enclosure pieces in a 5% bleach solution, the longer the better. Then rinse repeatedly and soak in clean water (change the water a few times) until there is no sign of the bleach smell. And If you are really paranoid you can add a dechlorinating agent, like the ones for fish tanks, on the final soak. The whole process takes a few days.



While I have not had the need to do this....this is a common method I have read about....


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## OCTortoiseGuy (Oct 31, 2013)

I have used driftwood many times in my enclosures. All I used was fresh water out of the hose then let it dry. I did this until I could not smell anything fishy. The driftwood I used came out of the ocean not a river, but they took 2-3 times before the smell was gone and then I would leave in the sun to dry out for a week or two.


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## mike taylor (Oct 31, 2013)

I bleach my drift wood and wash it really good .Then let it sit in the sun until its dry . I have Three pieces for each snake is I can always ha e one clean .


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## EchoTheLeoTort (Oct 31, 2013)

I did the same as mike. I have 3-4 pieces of driftwood i found at the river that are in my tegu cage. They were
Covered in sand and a few bugs. I made a solution of bleach with water. First i sprayed off the pieces with water, and then i sprayed them with the bleach. Let it sit for half an hour or an hour, and then rinsed them off and repeated for a second time. After rinsing off again they sat out in the sun to dry. Worked really well


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