Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thank you all for the wonderful insite
I have some red rock to put as a base for the tank, and some Petstore bought soil (with sand and vermiculite) and some potting soil (with no sand or vermculite)
I was going to put an inch or 2 of stone, then the rot balls, then cover with the dirt
I figure this will end up being about 4-5" deep (the pots are all about 6 or 7" deep)
I plan to use the stones for drainage, that way there will not be to too much moisture for the plants
I know SOME worms will make it into the substrate, and that is not a bad thing
Would some type of moss be a good ground cover?
the guy at the plant place (who has snakes) recomends irish moss (he says it stands up well, and covers soft and thick)
I was told by one person that creaping Thyme and mint are ok, but I think I read somewhere that mint can burn their skin (although snakes in the wild LOVE it, I know from experience)
Ok, is that enough for one day?
-----
Elizabeth (ecb)

'Good Judgment Comes From Experience
but Experience Comes From Bad Judgment'

I don't see anything wrong with any of the plants you mentioned. I am not sure about mint burning their skin but it seems to me that any thick skined, scaled reptile should be pretty safe around it. Besides, its not like they will be rolling in it all of the time anyway. Beware though, mint will go wild and take over everything in no time and has very thick woody roots. Thyme is in the same family but may be a bit more easily controled.

As for the Irish moss, I am not familiar with it but would think that it would be alright. I tried some moss with poor success but didn't keep it wet enough. I really don't know what wouldn't be safe since these guys don't eat the plants!

I wrote an in depth answer on plants a while back and if you would like to read it for ideas you can find it at forum.kingsnake.com/mountain/messages/5770.html

Good luck with the planting,
Marcia

I tried a moss in one of my cages but the dragon's toenails were too much for it and eventually it was shredded. Now I use heart leaf philodendron and just let it grow around on the ground instead of training it up onto the branches. It is able to suffer more running over damage than mosses and seems very tenacious. I am also be concerned about the possibility of a dragon eating moss with a mouthful of food. I have seem mine work non food items out of their mouths but I have also seen non food items get chewed up and swallowed with food. One of the babies from Lucky's clutch was gagging on a piece of moss seconds before it died. It is easily possible that the early hatching caused an inability to handle that type of problem, but it made me change my planting practices anyway. Lucky was the first hatched in the US and we had opened the first eggs of her clutchmates early not knowing how long they should be incubated.

I don't have a lot of ground cover plants but many of the ones I choose have leaves that bend outward sort of like umbrellas or are vining plants that can either be left to cover the ground or draped over and around branches. I have a few very tall plants and some mid level ones and the phil. on the ground. This seems to provide the open ground they can use when hunting crickets yet also allows for them to hide under a "bush" should they feel the need to. I think a lot of it is based on personal tastes. Once you have found the plants that wont be dangerous if accidentally ingested or ones that are tough enough that the dragon can't bite into it you can pretty much plant however you want. I know people who provide only taller upright plants and have wide open ground space and people who concentrated more on ground covering and bush type plants leaving the upright branches more open. I choose to provide covering/hiding type plants because we have other pets who might be scary to the dragons and I want them to feel like they can easily hide themselves. As long as it doean't make tending the cage or life for your dragon difficult I say plant how you want to see it grow.

Good luck
Cheyanne
Spitfire Reptiles