I can't say I agree with that statement.



A well looked-after tree should outlive a chameleon by many years.



Whilst it is true that some plants (particularly Ficus) will drop their leaves when you change their location, if you plan your relocations/repotting/pruning properly (ie. at the start of the growing season) you shouldn't have too much trouble rotating plants.



I think the main reasons trees in cham enclosures die off and have to be replaced is because most people just put them in there and pay them no further attention.

Trees need regular watering, fertilising (a tricky job in cham enclosures because you don't want to use anything that could harm your cham), pruning, re-potting.

Also thought should be put into the lighting in the cage. Heat lamps can kill off some plants, whereas others are stimulated by the heat. Placing the more heat tolerant plants under the heat-lamp, and the others in the cooler areas of the cage would help.

And UVB bulbs don't provide much useful light to plants. It can help to put in another ordinary flourescent bulb (or even ones specifically for plant growing) in conjunction with your UVB lamp.



An indoor Ficus in an office environment can live for 20 years. There are some indoor bonsai Ficus that are even older than that. But they all require maintenance and attention.



Or you can just buy another plant every time your old one dies.

Keeping chameleons is expensive.

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