Types of wood

[Emma247]

I have been giving lots of pieces of wood for my snakes tank from peoples back garden. Alot of which is conifer tree (quite thick stuff). Now I know from experience that this is a sappy wood, but once I take the bark off the wood is a nice dry wood and no sign of sap at all. I have only ever used fruit tree logs and twigs for my other animals (as well as shop bought cork bark) so am unsure if this would be ok to use for my corn snake. I know fir along with pine and cedar shavings shouldn't be used as they have chemicals that are poisonous, but I wondered if the real macoy fir branches would be ok (not sure if the chemicals that they refer to are from the manufacturing process)?

I consulted my books which reccomended hard wood or fruit tree branches, is this a good rule of thumb, i.e. no softwood? Is the reason that soft wood isn't used it because it has resin canals to provide transport of resin as a defense against injury and obviously you don't want a snake picking up resin off a piece of wood.

I have apple tree branches which I am happy with, I have removed the outer bark, sanded them and now they need a soak in bleach and then drying out. The big chunky stuff that would be perfect however is the confier and another "unknown" that must be another resinous softwood. Like I said when I removed the bark, the wood underneath was bone dry and obviously I would be cleaning it with bleach and letting it dry out fully. I am just unsure as to whether this would be ok?

Sorry for the essay, you just can't be too careful what you are putting in the viv.

Thanks in advance and aologies as I am sure this question has been asked before and I probably have misssed the post in my search that probably has all the answers.

[Pleco07]

me personally, i wud steer clear of coniferous/fir trees just because of the sappy/resin wood. I stick to my apple and pear trees at least i know once they have been cleaned up they are safe.

I dont actually know if conifers and such like would do reps any harm, its just always better to be safe than sorry.

[Emma247]

Originally Posted by Pleco07

me personally, i wud steer clear of coniferous/fir trees just because of the sappy/resin wood. I stick to my apple and pear trees at least i know once they have been cleaned up they are safe.

I dont actually know if conifers and such like would do reps any harm, its just always better to be safe than sorry.

That's what I thought. It was definately worth asking as the wood I have been given would be excellent for his viv.

I'll stick to the fruit trees to be on the safe side. Unless anyone else has used this sort of wood with success before?

Thanks for your reply Pleco07

[eeji]

the danger in pine comes from 'phenols' which is a chemical contained in the sap