Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey thare. I've got a beautiful panther chameleon and want to fix him up with some great live plants. I've started off with a golden pothos. Now, the greenhouse I bought it from wasn't sure what I meant when I asked about chemicals in the fertilizer, however they did admit they spray their plants with pesticides. I understand I need to wash the plant off very well to rid it of any pesticide still on it, but what about the fertilizer? I fully intend on replanting it into organic soil. When I do this, should I make sure that absolutely none of the dirt it's already in goes with it? Also, should I wait and if so, how long should I wait before the plant would be ready to put into his enclosure?

About the Peperomia, it's a plant I bought also spur of the moment kind of thing. It looked very neat, but I can't find any information on whether or not it would be safe to house with a chameleon. So if anyone can spare any information on this, that would be treeeemeeennddouusslllyy appreciated, you have no idea.

That's about it.

OH!! The breeder we bought him from claimed we shouldn't need to worry about the humidity too much with him. We DID own a graceful chameleon for about a year, though, and she required careful watch on her humidity throughout the time we had her. Should we go by what the breeder told us? He says he's been breeding for years and never had a problem. But I'm reading several opinions on the humidity. Right now he's doing fine and looks healthy, is active with beautiful colors so I'm not too worried about it. We've had him for about a month.

I'd remove the majority of the soil, and replace with organic. Wait a month or so to ensure anything nasty works out of the plants leaves (wash again just before putting in the cage). Cover the dirt with large stones, and that should take care of the concerns.
In my opinion, humidity IS important. Keep it above 40% or your panther will be at risk for shedding issues. Its possible your breeder has had no issues because his/her relative humidty remains above 40% naturally. My chameleon room does, as I also have a fish tank and a hermit crab tank in there, along with multiple other "wet" things, along with daily misting of the chams, so my humidity rarely goes below 50% in Summer, and even with winter heating things I keep it above 40% as much as possible. But where I lived previously, maintaining higher humidty was more difficult and thus I had to mist more often to prevent shedding issues.
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Sandra
BC Canada