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I am building the 'second story' to my Savannah Monitor that is currently 8x3x2. The top part will extend the height to about 7 feet at its tallest. Living in a socal beach city, its will be hard to go out to the forest to find pieces of wood big enough to fit my cage and buying that large will be very expensive. I do, on the other hand, have 2 pine trees in the front yard, that are going to be removed eventually.

I was wondering if I could use pine trees as the branches in the monitor cage. Are they toxic or is the sap dangerous? Could I dry them out and then use them, removing the bark?

Thanks for your help.

Pine was the substrate of choice for reptiles not too long ago but aspen now seem to be the go-to. I used Pine bedding for years with no adverse affects but have since switched to aspen myself.

That being said would I use a fresh cut pine tree in my cages? No, without being kiln dried the pine would ooze sap for several years.

Nate

Thats what I figured. I don't need a 4 foot monitor superglued to a pine branch.

Any good ideas or resources for finding nice branches/trunks, other than hiking in the woods?

THanks again