Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First off, let me say that I purchased some dried bamboo that has an inside diameter of about 1.5-2" and my cresteds love it. The climb on it at nite and sleep inside the holes during the day. I have had a great experience with bamboo thus far, and would like to know if anybody else has used bamboo with their cresteds.

I also noted that in the new Rhac book, it says that Ficus Benjimina is the preferred plant for cresteds (based on the authors' experiences). I recently bought one and my pair will not even climb through it. I actually put them on the plant to see their reactions, and each of the two struggled to get to the bamboo and/or screen side asap. I think I am going to go back to pothos. They seemed to enjoy climbing through pothos and would often sleep in the leaves. What are your experiences with plants??

I have found that bamboo and cork bark are the best for low maintenence setups. I also went to a craft store (i.e. Michaels ) and bought a chain of silk leaves. I have noticed the the silk leave are easily arranged and washed.
Bamboo and cork bark are great because of their resistance to mold.
As for ficus...i have never had luck with them. They seem to be tempermental and not rugged enough for the weight of the cresteds. Usually in about a month or so all the leaves are on the bottom of the cage instead of the plant.

Pothos is good because of the low levels of light it requires and the size of the leaves i used pothos quite a bit in the past. However pothos from garden centers or supermarkets many times contains fertilizer and maybe bugs. Fertilizer is bad if the animals ingest it. Also I hate bugs and since i keep my animals in my living room i want a nice clean looking enviroment. so i ended up going with the silk plants instead.