Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is fir okay to use? It's not pine, but it is an evergreen. Can I use it?

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1.1 Gargoyle geckos
1.1 leucistic leopard gecko
0.0.1 asian golden tree frog
1.0 oriental firebelly toad
0.1 european firebelly toad
1.0 albino betta
1.0 orange tabby
0.0.1 asian painted frog
1.0 broad headed skink
0.0.1 fowlers toad
1.1 red eyed tree frog
1.1 red eared sliders
476.769.47 feeder crickets

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1.1 Gargoyle geckos
1.1 leucistic leopard gecko
0.0.1 asian golden tree frog
1.0 oriental firebelly toad
0.1 european firebelly toad
1.0 albino betta
1.0 orange tabby
0.0.1 asian painted frog
1.0 broad headed skink
0.0.1 fowlers toad
1.1 red eyed tree frog
1.1 red eared sliders
476.769.47 feeder crickets

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Why is pine bad?
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My Site

The oils in pine and cedar are toxic to reptiles.

i have never found pine to be toxic, ceder yes but not pine

I thought pine was too. I thought I remember something about pine shavings. Maybe I was wrong.

Cedar is bad and the jury is still out on pine but I would think if cedar gives out oils why not pine to.
Some people that keep rodents say pine is bad not as bad as cedar which is bad for everything but bad any way.
Pine sure smells good tho and looks good . To bad

Douglas fir? I'm guessing it's okay. I'm just gonna throw a few caots of paint on it to give it a good seal and go ahead and use it. I haven't heard anything bad about it. It's probably the second most common next to pine, so plenty of people have more than likely used it. If there was anything bad about it I'm sure I would have read it somewhere.

Bryan,

Sorry, I assumed you meant fir as a substrate, not a building material so I did not reply.

Pine is fine for a building material since it needs to be sealed anyways. The reason why cedar should not be used as a building material (for herps) is because the resin tends to leak out, even through paint/sealers and even with aged wood. In fact it can be very hard to get paint or sealers to stick to cedar. Otherwise it could probably be used.

I'm not sure if the same holds true for douglas fir but I'm guessing it would be fine once sealed. To be safe make sure you're buying aged/dried wood.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I Meant pine for substrate. I imagine even cedar if coated is fine for building cant think of why it wouldnt be but used as substrate its bad.

If you are talking about using substrates, you don't want to use pine, fir, or cedar. Fir is from the same family that pine trees are from, and produce the same toxic oils and vapors. Cedar is just a no no all around.

I would use aspen for colubrids and most any snake that likes to burrow. The finer the shred, the better it is, I think. This will allow them to burrow and create "tunnels" in the substrate.

If you have a snake that needs a higher humidity (chondro, ATB, other boas and pythons, etc...) then I would reccomend to use 3:1 mixture of chipped coco husk and ground coco peat. This is basically just a coconut husk that has been processed. The ground coco husk will hold moisture very well, and the chips just look really good. www.creaturetravlers.com is where i get it from - last i heard darryl, the owner of the company, is still sending out free samples.

if it's for building a cage, there is no problem using pine for it... it just wont look too great. you should paint, stain, or somehow cover the interior of the cage anyway so there is no problem there.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

Thanks guys. Next time I'll be more clear lol