Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here I sit wondering if i'm a bad lizard mom because i have fake plants in my cages...

drake needs more more more foliage. do you all think live plants are better? it just makes me nervous because of pesticides and such....

amy

Amy, You don't sound like a bad dragon mommy to me

I use fake plants in temp tanks or hospital tanks but find that the live ones help with the humidity. And they seem to look a lot nicer, you can get a real jungle look using them.

To take care of the pesticide and other worries just wash the plant well under running water. I usually remove all soil and rinse the roots to remove the perlite and/or foam pellets they use in the soil. Then you can plant directly in the tank or back into a pot using peat or some other planting medium that doesn't contain fertilizer, perlite, or other hazards. Since the dragons don't eat plants you won't have to worry about anything other than things in the soil that they might ingest while eating their insect prey.

Hope this helps,
Marcia

thanks marcia that was helpful...
i never knew how to clean the plants...now i do

last night i put in a few fake plants and 2 more limbs. drake is in a 55 gallon aquarium.

do you know what that little fuss bucket did? with all that foliage and extra limb action, the little thing climbed up on the screen top and just hung there....sheesh!

amy