Making your own artificial vines for Melleri

MSAquatics

New Member
I've been contemplating a way to make my own artificial vines for my Melleri free range room. I'd like to put eye-screws in the ceiling and loop the "vines" all around the room from plant to plant, above head level. My first thought was to use some heavy plastic braided rope, the kind that's used for pools and boating, but I don't think it will have enough stiffness to it. So tonight while walking through Lowes, looking for deals on tropical plants, I saw the soaker hoses, and thought the texture looked perfect. It's very similar to the jungle and repti vines, but about 1/2" in diameter. I'm going to try to put some solid coated wire through the center of it, so I can shape it just like the other artificial vines. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone tried it?

Leland
 
I have used thick rubber coated electrical wire,it's cheep,does not hold bacteria,easy to clean and flex able. I get it from lowes in bulk off the reel.
Just a thought,I do clean it with soap and water before use!!!
 
I've been contemplating a way to make my own artificial vines for my Melleri free range room. I'd like to put eye-screws in the ceiling and loop the "vines" all around the room from plant to plant, above head level. My first thought was to use some heavy plastic braided rope, the kind that's used for pools and boating, but I don't think it will have enough stiffness to it. So tonight while walking through Lowes, looking for deals on tropical plants, I saw the soaker hoses, and thought the texture looked perfect. It's very similar to the jungle and repti vines, but about 1/2" in diameter. I'm going to try to put some solid coated wire through the center of it, so I can shape it just like the other artificial vines. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone tried it?

Leland

Here is the only solid drawback that I know of with the use of any plastic that the chameleon may perch/sleep on. Unlike any wood-bark-tree-vine, it does not wick-away moisture.

What that means is that should a chameleon choose to perch on such as rubber coated wire at night, if there is any moisture between its foot palms, and the plastic, it will remain there. This can cause a condition not unlike athlete's foot. The chameleon will develop a fungal lesion right in the middle of each palm grip. Sometimes hard to spot because it is the last place most folks ever check.

It can be remedied with such as Tinactin, just as we do for humans. But you must then rid of the plastic-rubber product.

Best advice .......... be as Mother Nature. Stay natural.
 
ive used coated electrical wire as "vines" for years, no issues.
easy to keep clean, easy to position, lots of colour choices, lots of thicknesses to choose from.
Does not retain water, in my experience they do not stay wet?

soaker hoses might be okay, so long as you don't run water through them - they leach toxic into the water.
 
Last edited:
I use soaker hoses wrapped with green horse bandages. I also use the green plastic coated landscape stakes you can find at Lowes. They are very sturdy. In addition, I use wood coated with brown silicone. It's very sturdy, you can make it any thickness you want, and you can make it look like it has a wood grain.

Deb
 
Rope, Wire, Cable really, if you want some stiffness to it use wire, you can even take a few strands of 12-2 or some other moderately priced stuff and braid it and shape it. Best way to get the natural look to it is to cover the the finished wire in epoxy or gorilla glue and then coat that in vermiculite, coco coir, sand or any other herp friendly material for both grip and the natural look to it.

You can then braid fake plant vines, or safe species of real ones around it to get some greenery.

Michael
 
That's an awesome idea to coat the braided wire in glue & bond substrates to it. I would need 75-100' of it, which could be a massive task to make. I ended up using sections of soaker hose with a wire sleeved through the center of it, and it turned out great. I'll post some pictures tonight.

Leland
 
I just received a new melleri over the weekend, it might possibly be a female. She's still very dehydrated from shipping, and very aggressive. She tries to bite at anyone who gets withing a few feet of her. The picture shows the soaker hose I used as vines. The second picture is very dark, but I included it because my other melleri is photo bombing it.lol He thought I was feeding the new cham and wanted to see what was going on.
044.jpg
041.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom