How many use real plants?

ChamFreak

Avid Member
I am just curious to see who has what. I am sure they are fine but, why arent more people using live plants? Did you know a good plant can almost provide enough humidity for your cham's? I read 30% just from plants and drip system, then get rest from rainmaker.
 
I use live plants. To be honest I use it more for drinking purposes than humidity (although I welcome that too). From my experience the leaves on silk plants do not do as well with holding water. Live plants also look nicer and are cheaper. If you are raising a Veiled, you should really have live plants as they sometimes eat them.
 
Yes very true, however I have not personaly seen them eat the foilage, they always have mention that they do. You bring great point up brad, they are better for drip systems and holding water. Also it helps circulate the air in the setup as well as great foilage to hide in.
I also had fake plants and they did'nt like at all!
 
Air circulation is something I did not think about. Very true. What plants do you use? I would love to find a flowering plant that does well indoors (that is safe of course). Something to add some color; there has to be something out there. Hibiscus is nice, but does not do well indoors for me. I usually have to rotate 2 or 3. For non-flowering plants, I usually use shefflera(sp?), pothos, ficus. Shefflera do very well for me in the chameleon cage.
 
I dont have flowering plants but that does sound good :)

I have all ficus tree's and plants. They really do well for me. When you find some safe flowering plants, it would be great if you could post names. thx

And welcome, Glad to see and meet you.
 
Ficus Warning

I used Ficus trees for a little bit but I found that they weren't strong enough for Herbie ( My veil Cham.) Also On my last trip to the vet found some info from the Dallas Zoo saying that they are toxic when eaten, along with ivy, pothos, and orchids.
 
Make sure you read for safe plants and don't use anything not listed. You might wanna try weeping fig. I use 2 of them for my setups and the veiled has eaten foilage and had no problem. It also supported him with no problems
 
anyone personaly used online for getting your plants? I was think if they had good experiance and reasonable priced I would give it a shot.
 
I have not ordered plants from them, but reptiledepot offers pesticide free plants. I think they are pretty small though. I have looked before and have not been able to find a good online plant dealer.
 
I saw those, I was wondering if they were big enough my self. I was hoping to find em for cheap to save time, I work 60-70 week at my 1st job and part time for other. Time is of essence.
 
I love the look of my plants inthe corner of my room. My cham loves to munch the Hibiscus buds while cruzin his cage. :D
 
My son and I have a lot of live plants in with his juvenile veiled. He has eaten the foliage on the Wandering Jew, Baby's Tears, and Money Tree. He has also eaten parts of our Phalaenopsis Orchid blooms. I have 4 varieties of Air Plants & he has nipped the tips off of all of them. We have some Pothos & Schefflera also, but he hasn't eaten them yet.
 
I am just curious to see who has what. I am sure they are fine but, why arent more people using live plants? Did you know a good plant can almost provide enough humidity for your cham's? I read 30% just from plants and drip system, then get rest from rainmaker.

I suspect people who don't use any live plants simply don't understand why they are beneficial. They don't want to buy them, bother caring for them or don't know how. Once they get into trouble keeping the cage humid or the cham drinking enough, they learn.
 
I suspect people who don't use any live plants simply don't understand why they are beneficial. They don't want to buy them, bother caring for them or don't know how. Once they get into trouble keeping the cage humid or the cham drinking enough, they learn.

Oh my word, I would hope that caring for a plant is considered LESS work than caring for a chameleon! But I'm sure there are people like that.

I prefer a mixture of fake and real plants in my enclosures. I use Pothos and string it's vines throughout the cage because the leaves are large and can hold a lot of water. I have Ficus as well and I'm hoping to get some Baby's Tears and Schefflera soon too. Winter time is not the best to get plants in Winnipeg so this may have to wait until Spring. For fake plants, I mainly use along the walls of the enclosure for cover and climbing substance as well as eye appeal. Although the ones you can buy from Exo-Terra, for example, are great...I have found a number of good fake plants from the dollar store and they work just as well for a fraction of the cost.

You don't have to worry about watering the plants because they get enough water from regular mistings and when the soil gets too damp I simply take them out and place them on a windowsill for a few days to get some natural light and dry out. Works best if you have a few you can rotate. They add natural beauty to an enclosure, help to raise humidity & air quality as well as being safe to eat if you are careful what you choose. My guy has only been caught nibbling once or twice when he was smaller so I don't have to worry about that much at this point. I have to be more careful to keep the soil covered because he does like to go munch on that if he can see it.

I think that if someone is using only fake plants, they are reducing their chams quality of life by just a smidge. Although not harming it.
 
I have a schefflera, pothos, wandering jew, and a parlor palm with my veiled! He LOVES to munch on them, which is why I have a variety. Also.. in my opinion.. he's a real chameleon, why shouldn't he have real plants? And it definitely helps with my humidity!!
 
I use a combination of both. I use live plants at all my misting stations and outside and artificial plants in many of my free range areas.
 
I use giant pothos as the base and I line the upper and some of the side with fake for all 8 of mine. The fakes definitely help and I have not had any adverse affects with the. Actually it helps my cham as the cricks will climb up to them and the cham follows. Also helps spread my aqua zamp mist domes. BUT GIANT POLE POTHOS are the way to go!!!
 
I suspect people who don't use any live plants simply don't understand why they are beneficial. They don't want to buy them, bother caring for them or don't know how.

Or they kill them despite their best efforts! ;) I had quite the black thumb when I first started keeping chams and didn't want to have to keep buying them because no matter what they always died. Now I have lots of live plants successfully, in almost every cage.
 
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