Chewing tree branches

[callimico]

In summer and spring I've been giving my gerbils big and small maple, birch, and willow tree branches to chew. I froze them in the freezer for a couple days to make sure no insects could get in the house & spread. Now that it's winter, I"m wondering what I'm supposed to do too sanitize the branches without poisoning them to gerbils?

It got to -37(F) monday and today it's "warmed up" to -16 but either way the insects are hibernating in the branches, and putting them in my freezer isn't going to affect them, well maybe it'll warm them up a little

Anyways I need to give my gerbs more things to chew beacuse they tear through everything so fast, and I'm not sure freezing the wood'll keep the bugs out of my house.

[simcoe]

I cut some lovely aspen branches in the woods this summer and tried freezing them for a few days so I could give them to the gerbs, but when I thawed them out something had gone quite wrong inside the skin of the branches. They smelled awful, as if they were rotting inside. I tossed them all out and scrapped the entire idea.

I haven't tried it again, they really did smell terrible.

[Ritzie/Admin]

IF the branch is completely frozen, including the insects, than they are dead! Even when they are hibernating or just hiding. They do that on places where they cannot get frozen!

I know some people also sanitize them in the microwave!