I am looking at building a wooden enclosure for my Australian water dragon. I know how I'm going to build it, but I am wondering if I need to use untreated timber? Would treated timber be likely to leech anything?
enclosure wood.
- Thread starter Shark_Bait
- Start date
When I had iguanas and basilisks I built them enclosures out of treated lumber and never had any issues. I tried of course like you to find as much info about it first. The only thing I came across was that treated lumber was unsafe for animals that might chew on it like pet rodents or dogs. This of course was before I had the internet so things have changed since then. You could also look at that fake composite wood that's made from plastic.
dont use treated lumber!! i had an iguana for about 5 years and i built his cage. but the reson i know not to is i work at a hardware store and i know that the chemicals used to treat wood is actually pretty toxic. so much so, that they warn not to use around gardens cause it will leech said chemicals into the soil and is very carcinogenic (i know its spelled wrong too tired to type it right lol) same applies to using it for picnic tables and such. get a good outdoor paint and just paint any part of the inside of it that will be in contact with his water or if its going to be very humid just paint the entire inside. sorry for the story just no need to risk a pet...
Treated wood differs from location to location some have harmful materials some dont, please check since you are from new zealand. What you can do is use untreated and use tileboard or FRP to line the wood. Then you can caulk the edges around to prevent the wood from warping or getting too much humidity.