Cleaning "wild" wood...?

[Tiiyn]

So, cage is coming along nicely... however, looking at the size of it, it's going to be VERY empty at this rate... so... I'm looking for things to add to it.

We have a bunch of willow trees and silver birches that I can get bits off, but I'm wondering what people do in the way of cleaning them and etc...? The only thing I've heard is boiling them for about 10 mins, then popping them in the oven to dry them out - however, with the limited pans I have, and fairly small oven, this means I'm only going to be able to stick little bits in... these (unwanted) trees are a good 6-9ft+, so it seems a shame to have to cut them down into bits 10-15cm in size... so, I guess I'm looking to see if there are other ways to make them Degu safe.

(Ps. Pics of the cage soon... I kinda want to finish it first, so I can show you all the stages in one go... hoping to finish it up tomorrow.)

[fred]

All I do is scrub the branches thoroughly in warm water in the bath tub. Just make sure that you don't have any visible insect or fungal infestation and that they are from a relatively clean environment (no high exposure to traffic or pesticides). Looking forward to the pics...

[Maravilla]

I also use boiling water and a brush to clean them.
Don't forget to dry them properly before putting them back in the cage. Especially the cut surfaces tend to mould.

[davx]

Hello,

washing branches with boiled water is in my opinion nonsense. I give the branches fresh, thinner ones or twigs with fresh leaves. For the bigger ones, I usually have to remove the thinner twigs. A healthy branch is pretty clean (the trees protecting themselves against microbes and other pathogens... they can produce antiviral, antibiotic like substances etc.) and a sick branch is even a sick one when I have it washed.

What I do is washing the used branches, because the degus make them dirty. For this purpose I use cold or warm water, depending on the situation. But the washing (with a brush) destroys the bark surface and it becomes smooth. After washing I put them again in the cage.

[smithomatic]

Hey everyone, I have posted this on my blog thread in this forum but also wanted to share a the link to my personal blog here smithomatic-degu.blogspot.com/

This is how I have been cleaning my wood

thanks

[Tiiyn]

I forgot I hadn't replied to this, but thank you all for your replies. I took the boiling water + good scrubbing approach in the end, and then hung them directly over my little portable radiator for a few days (they felt dry within a matter of hours, but, to be safe I left them). =)

I now just have to decide what to put where... lol!

[davx]

Nevertheless it sounds strange for me cleaning branches with boiled water or even to put them in the oven. In wild there isn't any opportunity for the degus, that someone put their branches in an oven or washing them with hot water. Well, the scarce rainfalls do their work, but that is cold water.

In addition this is a lot of effort, but what is it worth? I keep degus since 1999 and I never used boiled water or even an oven... isn't it a question of common sense?

[winic1]

I figure that where I live, a temperate forest on another continent, there are much different pests and pathogens potentially present in natural wood I can pick up from my property than from what they would encounter in their natural habitat. Lived a number of years out in the western US near the base of the Rocky Mountains, a more similar type climate to where degus come from, and the amount and types of tree and brush pathogens (fungi and stuff) are very different from the wet forests I live in now.

And having dug up plants from outside and brought them in, or brought houseplants that spent the summer outside in and THEN finding they were hiding bugs, that were now happily taking over MY HOUSE, even if the goos don't mind, I do! So anything small enough goes into the oven for a slow, low roast, and anything too big is hanging in the garage high and dry for a while to discourage any residents from remaining. Better to be safe than sorry. And just being very careful to pick only branches that look fresh and healthy, as we have a multitude of fungi and such that probably don't inhabit the much drier original degu habitat.

[Maravilla]

Dec 4, 2011 13:16:49 GMT davx said:

Nevertheless it sounds strange for me cleaning branches with boiled water or even to put them in the oven. In wild there isn't any opportunity for the degus, that someone put their branches in an oven or washing them with hot water.

Maybe it's not important for the degus nor are they interested in clean branches, but it doesn't cause any harm either, does it? But cleaning branches with boiling water gives me some - maybe just subjective but not real - security. I don't clean twigs either, but the bigger ones I clean, just to wash off bird's dirt and similar things I prefer not to have in my living room.

[davx]

And having dug up plants from outside and brought them in, or brought houseplants that spent the summer outside in and THEN finding they were hiding bugs, that were now happily taking over MY HOUSE, even if the goos don't mind, I do!

Ok, that is a reason for cleaning, but wouldn't it be enough to clean them with cold water?
And yes, the degus don't mind... in my outdoor enclosure I had even slugs and snails and of course a wide range of bugs (ants, beetles, cockroaches etc.). During rainy days it was pretty horrible, all this slugs, I found them even in the water bowl...

And just being very careful to pick only branches that look fresh and healthy, as we have a multitude of fungi and such that probably don't inhabit the much drier original degu habitat.

Heat can't destroy fungus toxines. If there are fungi throw the branches away or they aren't as problematic as often stated. I can't see any advantage of heat concerning fungal detoxification.

In addition most common fungi are in fact lichen, a mixture of fungus and algae. I usually removed them roughly mechanical.

I don't clean twigs either, but the bigger ones I clean, just to wash off bird's dirt and similar things I prefer not to have in my living room.

As I stated, I also clean the branches if needed. Bird's dirt is fortunately easy to detect and I can clean the concerning place with some water. The effect of water is based on physical forces of the water jet... like washing hands, it is more important to wash the branches in-deep and long enough than using heat. After washing it is important to dry the branches, in summer sunlight is a good choice, because of desinfecting effect of UV light, under bad weather conditions and in winter I use an old cloth.

[smithomatic]

Hey Davx,

You are right that heat does not destroy toxins, however heating the wood to 150 - 200 degrees for about 5minutes will destroy the spores in the wood. Unfriendly bacteria are easily destroyed by pouring boiling water over the wood but spores are much harder to destroy. Destroying the spores will prevent any more fungus from growing. You can also prevent spores from becoming active by keeping them in very dry conditions, I guess this depends on how dry the environment of your degus is naturally.

Of course this mostly applies to wood that has been fell for more than a few days. Fresh branches should be clean as the tree can protect itself.

Im not 100% sure on the science but I like to think that submerging the wood in water for some time helps to dilute any toxins present. The wood then must of course be dried again, for this I use the oven becuase it makes the wood go rock hard.

You are right though, some wood is not worth cleaning, jsut throw it away if salvaging it is too much effort!

[aya0aya]

When I red that thread at first I thought I'm doing something very wrong at first. Thanx Davx for convinced me I'm not.

I always look for healthy trees, as far away from people and their chemicals (hiking is great if you have a goal), I check them and if they're healthy and clean I give them in the cage. Maybe I have luck that over here some apple treas grow by their selves. They do have some moss on the branches, that I leave alone and I pick young healthy branches. I do an eye check and that's it. But hey, why are you picking branches with birds dirt on? Isn't it better to choose clean one with no holes that bugs can be in? And they love fresh greens that is on that branches. Even at that time they have some tasty buds on.