What plants do you use in your cage?

ramhemi55

New Member
Hey everyone. Well Leonidus is now big enough where his vines (fake) in his cage are not holding him to much anymore. Im looking at putting a live plant in his enclosure and i saw the live plant database that the site has posted. I was just wondering what all of you are putting in your cages for these little guys to crawl around on. i saw a lot of them and they look like he might break the leaves if he climbs on them. Im leaning more towards a corn plant or jade plant cause i have a bunch around my house. what do you all use?
 
im just in the process of getting everything set up for my first cham that i will purchase soon but i have an umbrella tree and Dracaena (corn plant)..........

i like the umbrella tree alot but have my doubts about the Dracaena, it is really easy to overwater and i doubt my cham will use it much :rolleyes:
 
I have had the best luck with pothos and scheflera(umbrella tree)
I have two hibiscus that are very nice but as soon as you change anything they drop all their leaves and start over. Then you are left with a stick plant till all your leaves grow back.
Short answer: best looking but hardest to thrive = hibiscus
hardiest with lots of leaves = pothos and umbrella tree
 
I highly agree with Goggles, my hibiscuses were thriving until I took them out to clean out the cage. I put them back in and they all lost their leaves by day 3. Inexplicable! haha. I have two pothos and those are going great so far, but I will be replacing the "stick plants" later this week with something much hardier.
 
I have had the best luck with pothos and scheflera(umbrella tree)
I have two hibiscus that are very nice but as soon as you change anything they drop all their leaves and start over. Then you are left with a stick plant till all your leaves grow back.
Short answer: best looking but hardest to thrive = hibiscus
hardiest with lots of leaves = pothos and umbrella tree

I have the opposite luck then you. Whenever I would get a umbrella plant, it would never grow, and stay the small plant as always. Same thing with my ficus plants. It seems like there was never enough light for my ficus or umbrella plant. Ive had the same ficus for 2.5 years now and it hasnt grown much since ive gotten it. My hibiscus plants just seems to thrive in my cage, and I am forced to prune them once every 3 months.
 
I have the opposite luck then you. Whenever I would get a umbrella plant, it would never grow, and stay the small plant as always. Same thing with my ficus plants. It seems like there was never enough light for my ficus or umbrella plant. Ive had the same ficus for 2.5 years now and it hasnt grown much since ive gotten it. My hibiscus plants just seems to thrive in my cage, and I am forced to prune them once every 3 months.

What's your secret? I've gone through 6 hibiscus plants since August and I don't know what do lol. Like I said earlier, they thrive until I have to take them out to clean the cage. I put them back in, everything is back to how it was, and bam! They drop every single leaf and never get them back. It's mysterious.
 
What's your secret? I've gone through 6 hibiscus plants since August and I don't know what do lol. Like I said earlier, they thrive until I have to take them out to clean the cage. I put them back in, everything is back to how it was, and bam! They drop every single leaf and never get them back. It's mysterious.

Hm, I don't no. I never really do anything but prune them. My mister waters them and I don't no if they ever dry out either, but they seem to do great. I have a lot of light on my cage so that might help out with the growing, but other then the trimming I just never touch it. It must be the nice cold Chicago area weather.
 
Pothos, umbrella plant, and a corn plant. My rudis' favourite is the umbrella, by far. They like to sleep in in at night. I liked the hibiscus, but it always died.
 
I have,

Ficus Benjamin
Majesty Palm (lots of light, lots of water)
Cat Palm (Chamaedorea cataractarum) (lots of light, lots of water)
Schefflera arboricola (lots of light)
Swamp Hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) (lots of light, lots of water)
Pothos
Boston Fern
Native Florida Sword Fern (unknown species) (doesn't handle roots being messed with)
Snake plant (Sanseveria trifasciata) (prone to root rot if over watered)
Random Succulents
In my enclosures.
 
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yeah but what kind of plants would be good for like a 28 1/2 inch tall and 16 inch wide screen cage indoors? i cant exactly stick a tree in there haha. itd take up the whole cage!! i have like fake leaves and fake crappy vines. and i want to get something live in there. also...what about sunlight for the plants? will the UVB help photosynthesize?
 
yeah but what kind of plants would be good for like a 28 1/2 inch tall and 16 inch wide screen cage indoors? i cant exactly stick a tree in there haha. itd take up the whole cage!! i have like fake leaves and fake crappy vines. and i want to get something live in there. also...what about sunlight for the plants? will the UVB help photosynthesize?

The uvb tube is sometimes good enough for some plants but sometimes people put a grow light in another fixture on top just to help out some. It wont hurt your cham, and itll make your plants happier. If you go to w-mart or places like that they usually have small plants that you can put in there. my hibiscus were only like two feet tall, and now after one summer are like 3.5 pushing oh most to 4.

-Matt
 
Plants do not utilize UVB for photosynthesis. The "temperature" or Kelvin of the light is more important as is intensity or lumens. Most low light plants will do just fine under a UV and heat bulb. For the higher light demanding plants you will want to add a bulb (or 4) in the 5500-6700 Kelvin range with 6500K being "ideal". You can find these at online plant stores or at local pet stores that have aquarium supples. You may be able to find them at specialty lamp/light stores as well.

If you don't want to fool around with more lighting, then stick with ficus and pothos.
 
yeah but thats too big man. i just got this cage and like i said its about 30 inches tall. i need something more compact for right now untill i can get possibly a bigger cage in the future. i do however have a couple really really small (and i mean small as in about as small as what a flower looks like when you take it out of the individual container at like lowes or home depot) vine thing on the bottom. figured it would help retain humidity to have a couple live plants in there. but like i said. its pretty much the fake pot leaves and vines that make up the cage. you can look at my pics (or at least i think i posted them) and see what the cage looks like. id be happy to have suggestions and such
 
Do you think these plants go from seed to trees in the blink of an eye? Do some shopping, make some phone calls. Smaller versions of these plants are out there. I used an 18 inch ficus in my baby veiled cage.
 
i dont believe i displayed ignorance like that. and i am fully aware that you can trim trees to fit in there anyways. was just looking for advice, not a seemingly insult. but thank you for your help oh god of the chameleon
 
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