Hello, I need some advice, I'm trying to improve my yemen chameleons set up, I want to make it more of a bioactive set up, I currently have no live plants and was wondering which ones would be best. My curent plan is to have half real and half fake plants and hopefully change that to 100% real later on. The main issue I have is I dont have an extra enclosure for him to stay in while I do it so I can spend multiple days making it nice i only have a few hours. So if you could give me some advice on plants to get and how to set it up fairly quickly that would be fab, thank you! (I already have/know what to do for soil/drainage layers just need help with the rest)
First bioactive set up
- Thread starter denvour
- Start date
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Hi. It really doesn’t take too terribly long to set up. Make certain you have enough of everything needed and a plan. You can put your chameleon in a small box while doing the set up…he will go to sleep in the dark. When I had a more intensive set up to do, I actually did it at night so my guy was able to get a good nights sleep and wake up and move into his new palace.
For plants, I like having a taller center plant, like a schefflera. There are several nice plants which are veiled safe. Maybe try a croton for some pops of color, nerve plants or polka dot plant for a bit of color and interest. I’ve planted a spider plant on the ground and it looks really nice. Of course, pothos in its many varieties is always perfect. Plant one on the bottom and have it vine upwards for some huge leaves. I would do my best to avoid fake plants. Even if all you start with is pothos, that is fine. You may find in time that some plants don’t work or do well and others thrive, and you can always add more. I hope I’ve been of some help.
Oh…don’t forget your clean up crew. I end with a nice thick layer of leaf litter and some scrap pieces of cork bark for the isopods to hide under. Even well hidden, my chameleons all know they are there and hunt them.
For plants, I like having a taller center plant, like a schefflera. There are several nice plants which are veiled safe. Maybe try a croton for some pops of color, nerve plants or polka dot plant for a bit of color and interest. I’ve planted a spider plant on the ground and it looks really nice. Of course, pothos in its many varieties is always perfect. Plant one on the bottom and have it vine upwards for some huge leaves. I would do my best to avoid fake plants. Even if all you start with is pothos, that is fine. You may find in time that some plants don’t work or do well and others thrive, and you can always add more. I hope I’ve been of some help.
Oh…don’t forget your clean up crew. I end with a nice thick layer of leaf litter and some scrap pieces of cork bark for the isopods to hide under. Even well hidden, my chameleons all know they are there and hunt them.
Thank you!! I didn't even think about doing it at night to make sure I had enough time, thats genius I'll probably end up doing that! I'm going to go round to my local reptile shops to get some of the plants you recommend, thank you very much!!
Hello sorry to be a bother but I've just been to the reptile shop and they told me these plants will be fine, i just wanted to double check because 2 of the 3 I got I cannot find on the photos you attached (im geting climing ones tomorrow) and the shop didn't give me the names of the plants they just told me to get the ones labelled "edible". (I havent pruned them just yet so please ignore any dead/dying leaves) also the one that looks like a spider plan doesn't have the white marks so I'm unsure if that is what it is, I believe the small one is a money plan and I have no clue what the purple on is
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MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
The first is a succulent…a jade plant maybe? While it is safe, it won’t last long…succulents need it much dryer. The last is indeed a spider plant. Some have white, some don’t. The purple is a type of tradescantia. Tradescantia zebrina is definitely safe and this one should be safe as well. I haven’t really noticed that my veileds ever ate their tradescantia. Try checking with places like Home Depot or Lowe’s. They have houseplant areas. Depending on your location, now is the time to look for schefflera, croton and some of the outdoor plants too. Of course, we can’t forget about Walmart’s plant section. What I and others do is get a big bushy pothos and separate it into 2 or more plants. Whatever plants you do get, you will need to remove all of their soil (I go down to bare root) and wash the leaves gently with soapy water (I use Dawn dish soap). I do this outside and with the hose. After getting rid of the soil, I dunk the plant upside down down in soapy water and gently swish around the leaves with my free hand. Then rinse rinse and rinse some more. The goal is to remove any chemical pesticide or fertilizer used as well as wild animal dirt. It also helps to assure you aren’t introducing unwanted bugs into your set up too.
Thank you for your response, for the tradescantia I've done a bunch of research and every sorce I have found is telling me it will kill him if he eats (he eats literally everything) it so I really do not know what to do with that. For the jade plant after figuring out what it was I had an idea it wouldn't survive long so I may just keep that out of his cage and as for the spider plant I've had a lot of contradicting views on wether it is or not and also as I was cutting off the dying bits i noticed these black dots on the back side of the leaves (image below) is that ok or is that a big issue? Also I live in the UK so we don't have Walmart, lowes, or home depo so I kinda have to stick to whatever the pet shops have as other shops neer me don't have very good plant selections. And yes I will be sure to thoroughly clean the roots and blast off any soil on the plants I do get.
