Live plant users question?

[jojackson]

Folks who use live plants in your terrariums, how do you cover/prevent your cham from ingesting the potting soil?

Ive been considering artificial hydration crystals Hydrogel (covered somehow)
with soil on bottom, hydrogel ontop

e.g

http://rockywater.com/rockywater.php

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/water-jelly-crystals-superabsorbent-polymers

http://www.biconet.com/soil/hydrogel.html

Your thoughts?

Might ease some dripper problems too?

 

[Lizardlover]

Thats a good idea, ill have to try that, i dont use anything to block the soil, i just have organic soil.

 

[jojackson]

and does your cham ever ingest the soil when he sticks insects? At present I keep the soil covered with a heavy layer of large smooth pebbles, so if I try the gel itll be covered too. I was thinking the gel could be a good drip soaker, because my live plants start bone dry but are saturated by the dripper after 1 day and has to be changed or the plants die from being too wet

 

[BocaJan]

I use river rock. I can buy a package of it at Michaels (a craft store) and it will cover 2 plants. My chams will eat the soil.

 

[jojackson]

They deliberatly eat the soil? or unintentionally?

Another thought was replanting them in pure sand for better drainage, you could supply liquid nutrients provided the water from the pot did not accumulate anywhere.
sand would still need to be covered though.

I guess ill try these things out, if they fail I may use use artificial plants and provide live vegetation (pothos, hibiscus veg etc)

 

[BocaJan]

Purposefully. I have seen them go down and zap the soil.

 

[jojackson]

I wonder if they gain some benifit, roughage, nutrients etc?
These are the questions I seek answers to.
perhaps they just assume an intresting speck of soil they see, might be a juicy insect?
Though this suggest other than instinctive behaviour, I cant see how consistantly ingesting
'might be' insects would benefit them in any evolutionary sense so maybe my first idea is correct and it is deliberately.

The idea that they are especially prone to ingestion/impaction mortality just dosent jibe with the above idea. I think most herp husbandry tends to ignore wild conditions/behaviours outside the basics.

Can anyone point me to some scientific papers on chameleons/wild biology/behaviours?

 

[dodolah]

as far as I know, geophagy behavior is often found in veiled than panther chameleon.
The reasons are, off course, unknown.
But, if we have to speculate, they probably trace some nutrients or minerals in the soil that they need.

so far, i am not familiar with any research papers that specifically deal with this behavior in chameleon.

http://chamworld.blogspot.com/2008/03/chat-with-dr-gary-w-ferguson.html

I wonder if they gain some benifit, roughage, nutrients etc?
These are the questions I seek answers to.
perhaps they just assume an intresting speck of soil they see, might be a juicy insect?
Though this suggest other than instinctive behaviour, I cant see how consistantly ingesting
'might be' insects would benefit them in any evolutionary sense so maybe my first idea is correct and it is deliberately.

The idea that they are especially prone to ingestion/impaction mortality just dosent jibe with the above idea. I think most herp husbandry tends to ignore wild conditions/behaviours outside the basics.

Can anyone point me to some scientific papers on chameleons/wild biology/behaviours?

 

[Vince]

Ive always used river rock, works great. I also sit my plant on top of river rocks for proper drainage. Drainage is a important thing to think about because like you said your plants will die also, gnats love soaking wet dirt!!

 

[jojackson]

Thanks for the link dodolah, ill check it out!

 

[Kentonk]

My guy is free range so he doesn't ever go near enough to the plant base to really worry, but before that I used rocks.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Grow most of my plants in straight water. The others I cover the soil in rocks. Screen is another option.