BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I have had a busy day avoiding getting any actual work done at work by finding a rock outside (my work is in quite a rural location) the rock was very muddy and had moss etc on.
So far i have sat it in boiling water until the water cooled and scrubbed as much of the moss and dirt off as I can.
Next step i'm going to get a wire brush on my way home and do a weak bleach solution and scrub lots...
but my query is, It looks like this rock is never going to be completely pristine. The moss over the centuries has coloured areas of it. So yes, if i can't get every tiny last green bit off the rock would this cause any issues to Ventress?
I would bake the rock as suggested on here but I am concerned about it exploding... because that's the kind of luck I have. (trust me!)
Anyways let me know what you think.
thankyooooou

I haven’t done any for a BTS but my beardie had quite a few garden rocks in there. I found the weak bleach or using a lot of reptile disinfectant and scrubbing did get rid of most of it but one rock was stubborn and had black/green colour on it still. I baked it, washed it and scrubbed it so many times I was sure anything on it that could cause problems would be dead and I had no problems. It’s still slightly stained I think and that was after nine years of cleaning!

What kind of rock is it? I was always worried about exploding too so ended up finding rocks I could identify and googling how they’d do. I also gradually put the temps up with the oven light on to keep an eye out for any cracks. I think it’s rock types that might have air bubbles in that are the problem, can’t remember which ones they are off the top of my head though.

lifesagame wrote:I haven’t done any for a BTS but my beardie had quite a few garden rocks in there. I found the weak bleach or using a lot of reptile disinfectant and scrubbing did get rid of most of it but one rock was stubborn and had black/green colour on it still. I baked it, washed it and scrubbed it so many times I was sure anything on it that could cause problems would be dead and I had no problems. It’s still slightly stained I think and that was after nine years of cleaning!

What kind of rock is it? I was always worried about exploding too so ended up finding rocks I could identify and googling how they’d do. I also gradually put the temps up with the oven light on to keep an eye out for any cracks. I think it’s rock types that might have air bubbles in that are the problem, can’t remember which ones they are off the top of my head though.

Hi! I’m not sure what kind of rock it is to be perfectly honest, i’ll get googling and see if I can figure it out, if I can’t i’ll take a photo of the troublesome rock and pop it on here, see what you think . If not I will do the same as you and clean this one until I’m sure there couldn’t possibly be anything left on it to harm.
You’re brave to oven them, I bet it’s a tense time when watching for cracks!!
Thankyou for your help so far, I will find out more about the rock type and get back to you.

Suzle87 wrote:

lifesagame wrote:I haven’t done any for a BTS but my beardie had quite a few garden rocks in there. I found the weak bleach or using a lot of reptile disinfectant and scrubbing did get rid of most of it but one rock was stubborn and had black/green colour on it still. I baked it, washed it and scrubbed it so many times I was sure anything on it that could cause problems would be dead and I had no problems. It’s still slightly stained I think and that was after nine years of cleaning!

What kind of rock is it? I was always worried about exploding too so ended up finding rocks I could identify and googling how they’d do. I also gradually put the temps up with the oven light on to keep an eye out for any cracks. I think it’s rock types that might have air bubbles in that are the problem, can’t remember which ones they are off the top of my head though.

Hi! I’m not sure what kind of rock it is to be perfectly honest, i’ll get googling and see if I can figure it out, if I can’t i’ll take a photo of the troublesome rock and pop it on here, see what you think . If not I will do the same as you and clean this one until I’m sure there couldn’t possibly be anything left on it to harm.
You’re brave to oven them, I bet it’s a tense time when watching for cracks!!
Thankyou for your help so far, I will find out more about the rock type and get back to you.

Haha, yeah the first rock I think I sat and watched it for the first hour, maybe even more boring that watching paint dry but much more tense! After that we just left them. I’ve been doing some rearranging in the vivarium today so thought I’d take a photo of how the still slightly black rock looks, I didn’t realise how much black there is still left after all the cleaning over the years. Good luck with the scrubbing

lifesagame wrote:

Suzle87 wrote:

lifesagame wrote:I haven’t done any for a BTS but my beardie had quite a few garden rocks in there. I found the weak bleach or using a lot of reptile disinfectant and scrubbing did get rid of most of it but one rock was stubborn and had black/green colour on it still. I baked it, washed it and scrubbed it so many times I was sure anything on it that could cause problems would be dead and I had no problems. It’s still slightly stained I think and that was after nine years of cleaning!

What kind of rock is it? I was always worried about exploding too so ended up finding rocks I could identify and googling how they’d do. I also gradually put the temps up with the oven light on to keep an eye out for any cracks. I think it’s rock types that might have air bubbles in that are the problem, can’t remember which ones they are off the top of my head though.

Hi! I’m not sure what kind of rock it is to be perfectly honest, i’ll get googling and see if I can figure it out, if I can’t i’ll take a photo of the troublesome rock and pop it on here, see what you think . If not I will do the same as you and clean this one until I’m sure there couldn’t possibly be anything left on it to harm.
You’re brave to oven them, I bet it’s a tense time when watching for cracks!!
Thankyou for your help so far, I will find out more about the rock type and get back to you.

Haha, yeah the first rock I think I sat and watched it for the first hour, maybe even more boring that watching paint dry but much more tense! After that we just left them. I’ve been doing some rearranging in the vivarium today so thought I’d take a photo of how the still slightly black rock looks, I didn’t realise how much black there is still left after all the cleaning over the years. Good luck with the scrubbing

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Ah ace yes that’s like the one I have!!so you baked that once it was dry?

Sorry that’s the one you didn’t bake isn’t it gaha I’m getting myself confused.
Seeing yours look similar to mine now has made me a bit more confident about putting mine in for him once it’s all dried. Thankyou v much for your help, I appreciate it!

Yeah, I baked that one and it was fine. I think it's the rocks that have air pockets in that are the main problem so it depends on what kind of rock it is. I think mine are sandstone.

I don't know much about BTS so good to know I could help with something Hope you find out what kind of rock it is and it can be baked. Without it I'd still think that enough washes would kill most things. Not sure how much the baking did, I've read a few on other forums recommend just soaking and scrubbing is enough with most rocks.