Are Fruit Trees Safe For a Panther?

[Pugtona]

Are Fruit Trees Safe For a Panther?

I'm looking for a tree for his enclosure, and thought a fruit tree would be nice, my local shop has

Wild Cherry
Cooking Apple
Plum

Would any of these be ok? I know with panthers there's no worry of them eating the leaves like veiled might but I wanted to check first

 

[ChuWuti]

Hi!

chameleonforums.com has a list of plants here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/plants/

However, just looking for apple (Malus domestica), I was unable to find it, so I went farther afield. One of my favorite lists of safe and harmful plants for herps is published by anapsid.org (Melissa Kaplan's website). Regarding harmful plants, she offers this:

Harmful Plants
The most extensive list of harmful and poisonous plants that I have found is in Sue Barnard's book Reptile Keeper's Handbook (Barnard, S. M. 1996. Reptile Keeper's Handbook. Krieger Publishing Company, Kreiger Drive, Malabar, FL. pp. 167-184. ISBN 089464-933-7). Permission to reprint the plant appendixes has been graciously provided to me by Sue Barnard and Krieger Publishing. To speed loading, I divided her Poisonous and Mechanical Injury appendixes into the following sections as well as made them available in PDF format.

Harmful & Poisonous: A-G, H-N, O-Z; Plants Causing Mechanical Injury

Before there were as many good plant resources on the web, I started compiling my own lists of Toxic and Harmful Plants.

Source: http://www.anapsid.org/resources/plants.html#harmful

You can click on each of the alphabetic sections I bolded or the Plants Causing Mechanical Injury link to check on the issues associated with each of the plants you mentioned, if any. For example, she indicates that the entire apple plant is cyanogenetic. However, according to the free dictionary, cyanogenetic means that

potentially poisonous cyanide radicals are found in plants in the form of cyanogenetic glycosides, in which form they are not poisonous. The glycosides may be broken down by plant enzymes or by rumen microorganisms and the material then releases its cyanide.

(Source: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cyanogenetic)

To me, the above definition indicates that a herp that does not eat the plant is in no danger, as the cyanide would only be released by the digestive process.

So IMHO, apple would be safe; on the other hand, I am NOT an expert, so you will probably want to look at these sources and decide for yourself as well as take others' thoughts and information into consideration.

Good luck!

Sandy