Preparation of Woods?

[bchins]

I have never prepared wood, always bought it already prepared, but have apple trees and would like to know how to prepare the wood. any directions would be great! Do all woods need to be prepared?

 

[dayofhope]

This should help you: http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41

 

[tunes]

Yes all wood needs to be prepared. You can never hand your chin wood straight from the tree. You also need to be absolutely sure that the wood you are using has never been treated with any kind of chemical.

 

[bchins]

Okay, thanks and good to know. How about pine? I know it is safe for them, but how do you exactly get it to the "kiln-dried" point? Or can you just prepare it like any other wood?

 

[Vyxxin]

no, you cannot prepare pine to be safe for chinchillas. Pine IS safe for chinchillas but MUST be kiln dried which normal people cannot do at home.

 

[bchins]

Oh, okay thanks. I read on one of the threads that it can be either baked or kiln dried? I'll check it again to see if anyone commented on it.

 

[bchins]

This was posted by "tunes":
the link- http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34
Look under the safe woods and look at pine. Just wondering

 

[Chinantics]

?

Oh no batman now what do we do with pine

Here's another wrench in the plan, can a chin have fresh sprouts.

 

[bchins]

So does that mean pine can be prepared safely by baking it?.......

 

[Spoof]

So does that mean pine can be prepared safely by baking it?.......

If you have a kiln and can boil the sap out of it, yes.

Most people don't have kilns.

Here's another wrench in the plan, can a chin have fresh sprouts.

No. Ironically someone just emailed me about this - it gave theirs extremely runny diarrhea and they couldn't get it to stop.

You can give them wheatgrass in small quantities.

 

[bchins]

Thank you Spoof for the info. That answered my question.

If you have a kiln and can boil the sap out of it, yes.

Most people don't have kilns.

 

[tunes]

The pine in the list refers to kiln dried pine, not pine straight from a tree. I would assume most people would realize that, since we preach about KILN DRIED pine any time pine is mentioned on forum.

You will notice in the unsafe wood section, however, that it says pine that is NOT kiln dried.

 

[bchins]

Sorry, sorry, sorry, I was just clearing it up. :/

 

[Chinantics]

Wood

Not trying to be a snot, but who boils and bakes the wood for chins in the wild.

Safety first of course, but do we take it to an extreme sometimes.

 

[tunes]

I know this has been pointed out about 100 times elsewhere on the forum, but we do not have wild chins. Our chins are domesticated. Pretty much everything comparing chins in the wild and to domesticated chins is a lot like comparing apples and oranges, other than the fact that they dust and need cooler/drier temperatures.

My horses would not survive long in the wild, neither would my dogs. We have raised them in controlled (for the most part) environments where the things they are exposed to are much more limited than their wild counterparts.

 

[Spoof]

Not trying to be a snot, but who boils and bakes the wood for chins in the wild.

Common sense? Chins don't have this type of wood in the wild. The reason wood is washed is for pesticides - which also does not appear in the wild treeless mountain regions of their native habitat.

At lower elevations they do have cactus/cholla - which isn't baked or prepped for pets here either because it is not sprayed.