Plant Prep for Enclosure

[nwbrewbot]

Hello everyone! I am have yet to pick up my veiled chameleon and I am total noob at keeping them. But I am working on my homemade enclosure and I have many plants that will work but I am curious as to prepping them. I have read about putting them upside down in a soapy bath and rinsing them(*3). But what I am unsure of is the substrate. I know that you don't want any time release fertilizers present. But what about pumice, perlite or vermiculite. Should my soil contain none of these. Or can I cover my soil with mesh and a layer of large smooth rocks? What has worked for you or what would you do if you had to do it all over again? Also I have fresh cut bamboo sticks for climbing, what type of prep would you do for them and what should I use to plug the hallow cavity to keep critters out? Thanks for reading! Cheers!

 

[Zen Reptiles]

I would skip the bamboo. It's meant more for geckos with sticky feet.

Since it is so smooth, your chameleon can and most likely will slip/fall on the
smooth bamboo surface.

As for prepping plants, you can wash all the crud off them in a big bucket.
You should remove all the perlite and vermiculite. What I do is just swish them
around, the roots completely submerged in water, and lightly 'fondle' the roots
until everything is loosened up and floats off.

Alternatively, using screen mesh and river rocks is a great idea and would look nice.

Keep the bamboo in case you do get some geckos. Day geckos would love it.

 

[nwbrewbot]

I would skip the bamboo. It's meant more for geckos with sticky feet.

Since it is so smooth, your chameleon can and most likely will slip/fall on the
smooth bamboo surface.

As for prepping plants, you can wash all the crud off them in a big bucket.
You should remove all the perlite and vermiculite. What I do is just swish them
around, the roots completely submerged in water, and lightly 'fondle' the roots
until everything is loosened up and floats off.

Alternatively, using screen mesh and river rocks is a great idea and would look nice.

Keep the bamboo in case you do get some geckos. Day geckos would love it.

What would you use for soil after washing the plant?

 

[dodolah]

I know couple of people actually use bamboo stick inside their chameleon enclosure with no problem at all (real bamboo/ not the one called lucky bamboo).
They usually trim the bamboo length so that it fit the width of the cage. Then, they use 2 thumbtacks at the outer screen pushing into the bamboo both ends.
I use superspoil potting soil.
Get anything that is organic without any chemical plant food, fertilizers, perlite, and so on.