Live plants and habitat setup help

[jadecactus]

I'm working on setting up a new habitat for Morpheus (veiled cham, about 2 yrs old) and I'm hitting a wall on the whole plant issue - again... It is just so hard to find organic plants that are big enough for the enclosure, and for him to climb around on - so I don't know what to do with the new enclosure.

I just got a 260 gal. Reptarium - and there is absolutely nothing large enough for it, and if I don't get him something tall enough he'll climb on the nylon itself (and probably wipe out at some point LOL) so does anyone have any ideas? I'm all out. Thought about somehow creating a cascade of plants and vines, but I'm not very creative in that area, so any ideas would be awesome, I'm hoping to create a natural look though, so no visible boxes and buckets.

I've searched for so long to find organic trees and plants, can't find much available, and I was going to get him a hibiscus, but there are no organic ones out there that I can find. I've read about washing plants here in the forums, but how would I wash the petals of a hibiscus???

I saw the post from LLLReptile and checked their site, they have ficus and umbrella trees, but they are really small (for this guy anyway). Anyone know where I might find larger organic trees online? I saw a site a while back and now I can't find it, but remember seeing larger trees for chams available.

Thanks!

 

[SocialNumb]

Live plants are "organic". What you're looking for is pesticide and maybe fertilizer free. Although some fertilizer are "organic" as well. Find the plant you need, and if you do let me know where because I'm also looking for large ones , get it and wash it if you're not 100% convinced it's free of nasties. You probably want to repot it into some clean and or "organic" soil too. Tada, "organic" plant.

That word gets thrown around like it's magic sometimes. Serves to confuse imo.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums! I have a section in my blog for new keepers that I'll copy and past below for you about plants and branches for the enclosure. Any pictures of your veiled?

Branches from outside are ok from most trees. Clean them well and some member bake them in the oven. Cut the branch the size you need and thumb tacks can be use on each end to hold the branches up. You can also get vines and branches here: http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...arium-accents/

You will need live plants for your cage to help keep up the humidity. I really like the Pothos it seems to hold the water for a long time and also does quite well inside. The Ficus and Schefflera also do great indoors. The Hibiscus is a favorite of the veileds but needs allot of light so your need to use hibiscus outside or have a couple to rotate from inside to outside for sun. Your plants will need to be washed and rinsed well and replanted before you use them. Use organic soil and buy large river rocks to cover the soil so your cham will not be able to eat the soil. Make sure the rocks are very large so the cham cannot eat the rocks.

My entire blog for new keepers: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[jadecactus]

True, the word 'organic' is tossed around a lot, it's a label that's always associated with 'pesticide-free' so maybe I need to search with different terms. I still haven't found anything other than the 1 I mentioned, but if I do find any large plants I'll post.

That's a great idea with the river rocks to cover the dirt! I haven't used substrate before, this habitat is going to be different than what I've always had for him before. I've had Morpheus since he was a few weeks old, so a little over 2 years now. He's always been in Reptibreeze enclosures, so that white base was covered with a trash bag for cleanout, no substrate before. But he needs more room now.

The Apogee Reptarium I bought is 29" square, and 72" tall. I'm actually waiting for a replacement because the zipper got stuck as soon as I assembled it (it's not made well) but hoping that gets here soon.

I bought a shallow round drain pan from Home Depot and some bendable garden edging to form around the inside to make it deeper. Then I planned on using some sphagnum moss a little to hold moisture and make it look nice. I know I have to be careful with that, so only a little in there, if I use it at all. It's the plant issue that's driving me nuts.

I also bought that new BioBubble Water Fountain so he can drink whenever he wants and there's no water build up on the floor, and then he's got the Reptifogger that I have to set up in there for him. It's all going to be hidden (somehow) so there's little equipment showing. I'm not sure how I'm going to prop that up yet though (they have a rock shaped thing to hold it, but that's like $30, waste of money). And I have some long bamboo sticks from the garden dept, he always loves those - perfect size for him to climb on, and then there's a few of those magnaturals bridges (he also loves those).

The best pic I have of him is a year old, he's very solitary, doesn't let us hold him anymore at all, so when I take him out to clean I have to bring over a tree LOL! And he just climbs on that and hangs out. If we try to pick him up he just puffs and hisses, so gave up on that a long time ago.

I'll keep searching for plants and pics of other enclosures to get some ideas for this new one, still going through the forums too for ideas.

 

[jadecactus]

So I must be missing something, anyone know where I can find a gallery of Enclosures? I checked the gallery here, but that thread is empty. Just wanted to get some ideas.

 

[SocialNumb]

He's beautiful.

I don't know about a gallery but this is pretty cool imo. Great idea, I might do something like this with the chains. https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-cage-setup-111202/

I gave up on finding a plant to buy and I went outside around my neighborhood and found me a monster Golden Pothos growing wild around a tree. It had leafs bigger than I imagined they could get at the top. I sniped me a 26 in cut in length including roots, washed it like crazy, made some soil out of sand and coconut husk. I planted it in an 8". I hope it makes it. Just in case, I got me a smaller cut with roots and put that in a 4" pot. I also found me some white rocks to cover up the soil with. Nothing fancy but very clean. While I was at it, I found tons of Hibiscus plants around too. Snipped me some off a red one, I couldn't get to the roots, and I'm hoping it roots. I figure I'll let my mine hang on that from time to time if and when it grows.

 

[jannb]

So I must be missing something, anyone know where I can find a gallery of Enclosures? I checked the gallery here, but that thread is empty. Just wanted to get some ideas.

You might find these helpful.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/official-enclosure-picture-thread-49688/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/official-enclosure-picture-thread-2-post-your-pics-94781/

 

[jadecactus]

That's a great idea, thanks for the link! I was actually thinking the same thing about how to create some paths in there using these 4 ft. bamboo sticks. I was thinking of getting some zip ties and creating a teepee type thing and then somehow securing an additional level of bamboo, but couldn't think of how to do it so it was secure. Maybe the chains idea would work somehow. Also like the coroplast, I have some of that too, with some plastic edges that you get on report covers to shield the cut edges (that stuff is really sharp).

And the other links from jannb - thanks! That's super helpful, I don't know how I missed those. I think I just clicked on that Gallery link instead.

Bookmarked all of these for inspiration