A dream or Reality?

[Emasse22]

So I was sitting watching my chameleon Marley walk around on his screen, he seemed that he wanted to get out because he saw me. So I opened the cage and he immediately went to my hand. I thought of an idea. What If I cut a 9x9 inch square in the screen, make a boarder that fits onto the screen and then make a door for it that I can open and close so that he can only get out when i'm supervising.. Then I was thinking of making a tree or even putting my large bamboo trees in my room next to his cage, but my problem is i'm afraid if I find some nice sticks outside that bugs or parasites could be on them and I don't want them to harm Marley.. If you guys could give me any feedback to make my dream come true that would be greatly appreciated!

 

[xephyr17]

You can bake sticks and stuff from outside at 350F for 5 mins or something and Kim any risk of foreign bugs and parasites

 

[zlew]

you could also soak them in boiling water for a good while. Some people soak them in bleach, which definitely kills everything, but I don't think it's a good idea, mainly because even if you rinse them thoroughly there can still be remnants of bleach. You would have to take at least a week after soaking it in bleach, everyday soaking it in water, then allowing it to dry out, then another soak the next day, to leach all the bleach out.

 

[zlew]

baking has a fire risk.

 

[chamclaris]

Soak the sticks in water for a few hours and it will reduce the fire risk. I bake all of my chams sticks, at least the ones I can fit in my oven.

 

[ChiefRedman]

I would use bleach water ,if they are to big for a oven. Scrub down the sticks ,then letting them sun bake outside for multiple hours, then rinse and repeat

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I always baked my sticks for my bearded dragon in my oven. I would set it at 250 degrees and leave them in there for 20 minutes. 250 degrees is not hot enough to set the wood on fire and will kill any parasite or bug on or in the sticks. This is a VERY common way to sterilize sticks and has almost zero risk of fire (unless you forget that they are in the oven and leave them overnight, even then the risk is incredibly low). The ignition point of wood is 572 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[Emasse22]

All great responses! My only problem is I wanted to use big sticks and tie them together, I cant really bake them.. or soak them in water unless I bring them to my girlfriends pool haha! but there is chlorine in there..So ill have to just work with small sticks or buy a medium sized tree, Does it matter what kind of tree I get for my room? I know they can only have certain plants in there cage but does it really matter for a tree?

 

[Psychobunny]

I have been using tree branches from my backyard dogwood tree for years, never a problem, and I dont bake them.
I just wash them off with hot water and soap and let them dry.

 

[lisagr07]

I have been using tree branches from my backyard dogwood tree for years, never a problem, and I dont bake them.
I just wash them off with hot water and soap and let them dry.

I do the same ,^^^, with crape myrtle branches,,, never hand any issues.
I keep a small supply of them, every time I trim some branches I set them aside for cage redoing...

 

[Lpsouth1978]

For a tree outside of the cage, I just use fake trees. I have several fake focus around my place for the chams.

 

[Emasse22]

So you just use a sponge and wash them down with soapy water and then let them sit in the sun?

 

[ridgebax1]

you could also soak them in boiling water for a good while. Some people soak them in bleach, which definitely kills everything, but I don't think it's a good idea, mainly because even if you rinse them thoroughly there can still be remnants of bleach. You would have to take at least a week after soaking it in bleach, everyday soaking it in water, then allowing it to dry out, then another soak the next day, to leach all the bleach out.

Any residual chlorine from the bleach will dissipate within 24 hours or so. Chlorine is not very stable which is why one must continuously add it to the water in swimming pools and use those large white tablets of "stabilized chlorine" which dissolve slowly over time. If you cannot find a receptacle large enough for the sticks you want to use, just make a diluted bleach solution of 10 parts water and 1 part bleach put it in a spray bottle and then spray the sticks thoroughly with the solution and leave them in the sun to dry. I used sticks from my cherry and magnolia trees as well as sticks from my bamboo. For the cherry and magnolia I used a razor knife and scraped off the bark and sanded down the branches so there were no sharp or rough areas left on them. I never baked or bleached my branches either.

 

[Emasse22]

So basically all I do is wash them with soapy water with a sponge and then let dry in the sun for a couple hours?

 

[Emasse22]

Hmm interesting, Ill have to give it a try thanks for the feedback!

 

[ridgebax1]

I was just wondering why you would want to cut into the screen to make a door when you could just open the big door? Especially since you would only allow the chameleon out with supervision. I kind of think that cutting the screen would be a mistake and if you changed your mind you would have to rescreen the whole panel. Also I would not think that you would be able to make the mini door secure. I would worry about unauthorized exits! Clouseau's cage had a sliding door and I did not close it all the way one day and there was about a half inch or so of space and he managed to wriggle out of his cage and was clear over on the book shelf perusing the titles on the shelf!

 

[Emasse22]

True that hole would be useless and haha little trouble maker!