Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm setting up an enclosure for a savvy and wanted to know if a sedum plant would be harmful. Thanks

Hi, I think if you want to put plants in the enclosure, it`s best to use artificial, the monitor willl quickly trample the real ones (if not now, then when he/she gets to a larger size), which under optimum conditions, can happen very quickly!

From the standpoint of being harmful the majority of monitors do not consume plant material, the exceptions are a handful of Philippine monitors that are virtually unavailable to private keepers. Some people claim green tree monitors will eat some bananas, I don't know if they do or not, as I do not work with them.
Even if there was a possibility of savanah eating sedum it is actually an edible plant, however the true risk of plants to monitors would be if it were an extremely thorny plant or something capable of irritation upon contact such as poison ivy. sedum does not fall into these categories.
the actual problem with sedums would be that they require very high amounts of light to thrive (on the level of a growhouse) which you most likely are not going to provide due to the high cost of such lighting. then there is the factor of the plant being trampled or dug up by the monitor. That could be overcome by cage design, but plant wise sedum would be a poor choice..
Sanseveria would be a much better choice it is an extremely tough plant that can tolerate low light and varying levels of humidity as well as a range of temps above freezing. You can also just about throw it into the street and have it take root. I have literally trimmed some in my yard and thrown the leaves off to the side somewhere only to find they grew into a plant later on.
some varieties can grow to almost 4ft tall but there are smaller varieties as well. including "birdsnest" sanseveria which seldom grows taller than 4 inches and has a nice rosette type growth pattern to it. most people don't include real plants in their cages for monitors, but if you think about how you plant them and carefully consider your plant choices it can be done quite successfully.

Thanks everyone. I used aquarium plants and yeah he's already just throwing everything everywhere lol.