Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I used to post here around the time I got my first leo, a 4 month old female pastel. Well she's about 3.5 years old now, and doing great. The advice I got from the forumites here helped a lot.

Anyways, I've been thinking of doing a little home renovation for Harley (that'd be her name). Right now I've got her in a fairly spartan setup. repti-carpet on the floor, a humid hide made from a gladware container, a dry hide made from some slate rocks, a water dish, food dish and calcium dish.

What I'm interested in doing is getting a more 'natural' look to her enclosure. What brought me around to this idea were two things I noticed while checking out a new PetCo in my area this morning. One was a rack of small, live desert plants, designed for reptile terrariums. The other was a type of reptile sand I haven't seen before. Every other type of sand substrate has made me laugh, due to it's large grain size along with a picture of a leopard gecko on the bag. However, this sand was "Vita-Sand" by ZooMed, and it seemed to have a super-fine texture.

So, I've got a few questions now.

- Is it ok to have live plants in a leo's enclosure? Are there plants that are toxic to a leo?
- Is this vita-sand safe (as safe as any calcium carbonate substrate can be) for leos (as it says on zoomed's website)
- What substrates could plants live in? Soil? Sand? Calcium Carbonate?
- What about a substrate composed of a layer of soil, topped by slate tiles, with holes for the plants to grow through?
- Outside of what I've mentioned, what are my options for making a more natural looking enclosure for Harley?

Thanks.

Vita-sand is not very safe, is as dangerous as all the other calcium sands. It also has the added unpleasantness of turning your leos the color of the sand, at least their feet and their legs!

I dont know much about desert plants, but i do know that a leos natural habitat is not loose sand. They live on hard packed soil/sand in the wild. Watch them when they walk, you can see they arent cut out for living on loose sand because they are so heavy, and have such spindly little feet...they sink right in! Sand is also dangerous and difficult to keep clean...it harbors bacteria and would need to be completely changed 1 weekly to once every other week. Im not sure how you could grow plants and still do that?

As for a more natural look, go with something like a nice richly colored textured tile. It would look like hard packed sand. I have seen lots of tanks set up this way and they look awesome! Its also safe and easy to clean. You can add some natural looking hides by using rocks (either staccking them or buying a rock type hide space),occasional rocks make good decorations to. I have also seen some awesome work done with styrofoam and glue to make a super cool textured background for the tank.

A second layer always spruces up a tank! You can add a second layer to your tank and make it from styrofoam. You can sculpt it into rock type formations and paint it if you want.

There are much safer and really attrictive ways to spruce up a tank or make it more natural looking!
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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
1.1.2 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo, Louise, Orion, Jeffrey Nothing)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)

I had a feeling that would be the general response. I've been reading around today, and I saw a few images of people that did the tile floor thing, and it looked pretty good. Also saw one or two with a second level.

Where would one go to look for a rock/tile type material to use as a substrate? I'll be in the area of a Home Depot tomorrow, so I'll stop in there, but anywhere else?

And it's funny you mention the styrofoam background thing, because at the PetCo I was at I saw these vivarium setups by exo-terra i think, that had styrofoam backgrounds carved to look like rock.

I use high-quality fish tank plants in my 2leopard geckos viewing areas (rest are in racks) because there aren't that many plants I can think of that can take the high heat, dry climate. Cacti are OK but its hard to find nice ones that aren't spiky.

Jade, snake plants (Sanseveria), caudexed figs, aloes, small pony-tailled plams, Haworthornia, Snake plants (sanssevieria), , philodendron (a succulent), climbing aloe, & Consolea falcata (a cactus) are supposed to be OK. I know someone else that has used African Violets and says they're fine...but don't quote me on that!

BUT people have warned me that while some succulents may be thornless, they emit small amounts of sap...the geckos don't eat the sap but crickets might and when the leos eat the crickets that have ingested the sap, it can harm them.

I personally do not think that aloe is bad. Many people use aloe in their leo tanks...and succulents...and thornless cacti. Many people. I do think its probably safest to have the plant in a pot or something that is slightly higher than the geckos' eye level though.

As Altered said, Calci-sand, vita-sand, etc actually pose even MORE of a nasty risk of impaction that playground sand. I have the necropsy results from poor abuse cases to prove it.

My first choice would be to put any plants in little "beds" or pots on their own in the cage. I think free soil in minute areas might be OK, but it definitely increases the risk of bacterial/parasitica/fungal/insect breeding...not a risk I'm willing to take. I'd seriously section it off and watch feeders carefully to make sure they weren't propogating in the plant areas.
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Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

Home depot has a great selection of tile. Any home and gardens type store will.

I have seen those exo-terra things to, they are cute, but its great to know you can make the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost!

If you want to see some nice examples make a post asking for pics, lots of people have made awesome two level cages and they would be more than willing to help you out
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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
1.1.2 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo, Louise, Orion, Jeffrey Nothing)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)