Deterrent for fake plants??

I've looked, but didn't see anything like this. Is there a deterrent, such as bitter spray or a flavor type, that can be put on fake leaves to prevent Veiled chams munching on them by mistake?

I ask because, although I have live plants they are still rather small and my cage is rather large. To fill in the 'gaps', I want to add fake vines and possibly a fake tree until the real plants grow up. However, I don't want my fella mistaking the fake leaves for a snack. Is there something you can put on the leaves to keep chams from eating them?

Or, is there something else I can do/use to fill in the space in my cage? The finished cage will be 28"x28"x48" for a 6-7 month old male veiled, and my plants (a hanging pothos and a shefflera) are still rather small. I have a larger pothos with long vines that I thought of placing on the cage floor and clipping the vines up the cage wall, but its not very bushy. My local Lowes hasn't gotten in larger plants yet, so they don't have any good sized ficus right now, save one remaining med. sized tree for $22.

Suggestions? Comments? Help is appreciated since I'm almost finished putting this cage together and want to have my little guy shipped out soon!

Not too sure they can eat it depending on the type of "fake" plant they are... I don't even think I could rip apart the type I have, they're pretty durable.

don't use cheap fake plants that are flimsy or can be pulled off the "branch".

A subdult female I bought fro a breeder long ago died several months after I bought her. She even mated and laid a healthy clutch in the time I had her. She died shortly after.

Her stomach was completely full of those cheap, "silk" plants you see so many breeders use at reptile shows. These had not been bitten off, but had been yanked off the rest of the "vine" and swallowed whole. They stayed there for a long time, lead to impaction and death.

I used fake plants, even with veileds. I make sure they're not going to be able to pull them apart. SOME veileds are big plant eaters, and should never be housed with fake plants.

Hmm... I'll check with Chad and see if this guy is big on leaves. Regardless, I'll make sure any fake stuff is very strong. I don't like the 'cheap stuff' as it is, since it looks so obviously fake.

It's only for a short while, until the real plants 'grow up'. And, all things considered, I guess I'll spend the $22 for the Ficus and just vacuum every morning.
I'd love a Hibiscus...but I know it would be dead within a week. I'm not good with tropicals.

I would hang the larger pothos and drape its vines about. My veileds have plastic plants and from what i can tell don't try to eat them or chew on them. The pothos plants I have in the cages on the other hand have nice bite marks....

One of the fake plants I hung in Jake's cage had fake yellow berrys in the vine, I removed the berries after the vines were in the cage for one day... I did not see Jake do this... but I found one of them at the bottom of his cage (when I went to remove the berries). I'd imagine he might have tried to take a bite out of it and realized it was fake and spit it out.... or he was crawling on it and it got pulled off the vine. He has been pooping no prob since, so i don't think he ate any. If he did eat one it hasn't effected him.

summoner12 said:

The pothos plants I have in the cages on the other hand have nice bite marks....

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Aren't pothos at least mildly toxic to chameleons? I know they're recommended (and I'm growing one right now) but I swear I've read that they're toxic...

zelink14 said:

Aren't pothos at least mildly toxic to chameleons? I know they're recommended (and I'm growing one right now) but I swear I've read that they're toxic...

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If they are it must not be very much......

My veiled, Fred, ate an entire leaf once when a HW was stuck to the leaf. He shot the HW and had to walk over to the worm to get it in his mouth because it was holding on so hard. After he chewed on the worm a bit he got frustrated and just started chomping on the leaf and broke it off the stem and swallowed it with the worm. Needless to say he didn't eat for a couple of days and he looked really full...... but be began to poop like normal and was eating again two or three days later.

Pothos are mildly toxic, yes. I use them almost exclusively in my cages, including with one who loves to eat the leaves. Has caused no harm. If you have something tastier in there, a nice romain or some fruit, the leaves are less likely to be sampled.

I also want to add that my guys don't really EAT the leafs.... I think they like to chew on them cause you'll see teeth marks... not really many cut outs where they took a bite and ate it.

My chameleon loves his Ficus and has nearly eaten the thing bald!! I sometimes see him really tugging on some of the plastic vines he has and it really worries me even though the plastic is strong and hes not managed to pull any off (I always check) He even tried to eat the plastic xmas tree when i put him on there while i cleaned his cage once! I dont want to take the plastic vines out as they allow him to get the basking area as the basking temp is too high for the ficus and would kill it if it was too close

When my female Sookie was younger I would watch her sit and chomp at a leaf until it was gone ... and sometimes go for a second. Hibiscus, Pothos, Sheffs... Didn't matter, she would would grub them down. Never really used fake plants with her so I'm not sure if she would go for those... but I wouldn't doubt it. After her Juvie months this really slowed down and now I haven't seen her eat a leaf in a long while.

I think real, safe plants are the way to go.

Aren't pothos at least mildly toxic to chameleons? I know they're recommended (and I'm growing one right now) but I swear I've read that they're toxic...

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Ive seen my veiled eat a small peice of pothos leaf (once so far), no harmful effect. However if your cham is a big plant muncher and particularly keen on pothos then id avoid it.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Epiprau.htm

Thanks for all the great advice. My issue now is what to put in the huge cage to fill it in until my plants are bigger. I also don't have much money to spend on more plants since my Cham EQ budget is pretty much used up.

I think I will still get that live Ficus, but that still leaves quite a bit of open space even with the biovines and branches I have.

Oh, and I wondered - is there any way to waterproof rope? I was given some of those stiff, bendable rope perches by a friend and want to use them, but I know what happens to rope when it gets wet.

Also, what natural branches are safe, Where would be the best place to get some, and how would they need to be treated before adding them to the cage?

Sorry for all the questions...I know nothing about planting and branching.

Argentra said:

Thanks for all the great advice. My issue now is what to put in the huge cage to fill it in until my plants are bigger. I also don't have much money to spend on more plants since my Cham EQ budget is pretty much used up.

I think I will still get that live Ficus, but that still leaves quite a bit of open space even with the biovines and branches I have.

Oh, and I wondered - is there any way to waterproof rope? I was given some of those stiff, bendable rope perches by a friend and want to use them, but I know what happens to rope when it gets wet.

Also, what natural branches are safe, Where would be the best place to get some, and how would they need to be treated before adding them to the cage?

Sorry for all the questions...I know nothing about planting and branching.

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Try doing some searches... I know there are threads out there that can help.

but to touch on some of your questions... if you get some sticks from a tree or fallen sticks out in your yard, people say its a good idea to bake the branches. It will sterilize the sticks.

As for the rope there was a thread out there about making vines from rope and using a coating to seal it all up from water.

I've also heard some people use old cord (electrical cord) because it's pretty much water proof.

I use the fake vines that walmart has, and i have never seen my guy try to eat the leaves. I got the ones with the biggest leaves and it was like 2 dollars for 3 feet or something like that.

As said earlier it could be bad if they ate them, but maybe if you have really large leaves on the fake vines it will be to big for them to eat.

Rocky said:

I use the fake vines that walmart has, and i have never seen my guy try to eat the leaves. I got the ones with the biggest leaves and it was like 2 dollars for 3 feet or something like that.

As said earlier it could be bad if they ate them, but maybe if you have really large leaves on the fake vines it will be to big for them to eat.

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In the case of Sazzy's cham I don't think size matters.

Her cham seems to widle away the leaf till there's nothing left