Baking Sticks from outside..

[JaysonDuque83]

I recently bought a new chameleon, and I want to set up his new cage. I picked up a couple of sticks and twigs from outside, but I had heard that I need to bake them or something first to kill any bacteria on them.. I was wondering if anybody knew the exact details. Thanks

 

[astroprojector]

Take the sticks, place them on the backing sheet and put the sheet in to the oven. Set the oven to 300 degrees and bake for about 20 min. That should be enough.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

No need to bake them.

-Brad

 

[chams1]

Once again, I totally agree with Brad. I have never done anything with them and use them for all my outdoor enclosures (and will soon be bringing a bunch of them inside for a new enclosure I'm setting up for one of my adult melleri....).

 

[zwhitman]

Search!

 

[ChamOh]

bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until golden brown. garnish with cinnamon and a sprig of parsley.

jk i never baked sticks.

 

[james L]

Wouldnt sticks catch on fire if you tried to bake them? Especially the bark?

 

[ChamOh]

Wouldnt sticks catch on fire if you tried to bake them? Especially the bark?

wondered the same thing. I wouldn't think they would catch too easily though.

 

[ChamOh]

i would think, if you wanted to take some sort of precaution, that maybe whittling the bark of a stick off, then letting the stick dry out in the sun may work??

but yeah i dont see why a regular old stick would be so bad..

 

[joshua n janet]

wondered the same thing. I wouldn't think they would catch too easily though.

maybe they just move it around alot

 

[hondataeg6]

I baked mine for 20 min at 300* but mine where already dried when i picked them up at the park, i think it was usless to baked them. My cage is still empty tough no chameleon yet, but fully set-up.

 

[chrisw]

A reason you might want to bake a stick is to kill small mites, boring insects or anything else that might infest a stick. If you are finding sticks on the ground that fell off of an otherwise healthy tree, there is a good chance that something small is crawling around on it - but it's not likely that it would create a big issue in your house. I have been putting sticks in cages for many years with no issues. Another way to solve for this is to clip a branch off of a healthy tree. Any decent tree stand has a lot of scrub trees and even "weeds" that can grow like trees. I occasioanally clip off my own branches because a fresh branch lasts longer and is less likely to carry too many bugs. Just food for thought

 

[skully23]

I agree with Brad. I bleached mine when I first got a cham but then the next time I asked about it...found out it was a waste of time... All you have to do is scrub them down with water and let them dry. No need to waste time

 

[nick barta]

Chameleon urban legend....

Nick

 

[lisa h]

If you want to bake them, soak them in water first, then they won't burn. I do mine at about 325, for about 15-20 minutes. I also wash my rocks and boil my leaf litter.