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 Live plants in vivarium?
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Sara3502
Hatchling

111 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  03:43:00  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
What if I were to stick some live plants in my snakes 10 gallon? In my house we have a sunroom with lots of windows and plants grow in there without hesitation, so what if I found some small ferns, etc. and put in snake friendly dirt? I thunk it wold be good because it would look nice, and my snake would have some plants that aren't plastic. What do y'all think/ what plants you would recommend? Thanks!!!!

Razee
Fully Grown Corn

United Kingdom
2525 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  09:37:04  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
It's a nice idea, but you'll have lots of problems. Live plants will raise humidity so unless you have a very good ventilation , it will be too humid for a corn snake. The snake will crawl over them and eventually totally destroy them. They will also dig in the soil - first thing one of mine does, when she sees a pot plant - dig in the soil and uproot it. You'd also need a plant growing light in the viv, otherwise the plants would slowly die. Difficult to clean, if the snake poops all over them.

It can be done - but it means huge ventilation grids- something like half of a viv side, plant lights ( Daylight bulbs ), certain types of plants that could withstand the snakes crawling over them repeatedly, and having to change the plants periodically to allow them to recover. Probably not worth the constant hard work, unless you go for a totally naturalistic enclosure...

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1.0.0 CB11 Abbots Okeetee- Little Twiddler
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Callazagy
Yearling

United Kingdom
506 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  09:52:52  Show Profile  Click to see Callazagy's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
With snakes that don't like a lot of humidity their is a risk when keeping the plants watered, it may be to much. If you get some plants that tolerate dryer conditions then that may work, perhaps succulents, some types of grasses, and maybe take them out to water and drip off before putting back. Certain ferns won't tolerate so much sun, also the viv might get too hot in direct sunlight.

Here is a seller that grows tropical plants specifically for terrariums, so you no they have been grown safely with animals in mind (except the cacti and carnivorous), Ive had Bromeliads of him and they are really nice, but they are in my more humid gecko terrarium. But perhaps some of the foliage plants and succulents may be suitable. If you read descriptions of some other plants they may say keep soil damp, can cope with neglect or don't over water, - you may get away with these in a dry environment.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Terra-World-Products/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=129476361&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1581&_pgn=2

Also don't put moist pots over the heat mat, or else the humidity will get really high.

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Razee
Fully Grown Corn

United Kingdom
2525 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  11:32:54  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Good point Callazagy has made - were you thinking about having the viv in the sun room? Because the temperatures would get way too high for a corn snake, even having a viv by the window might cause " greenhouse effect ", as the sun shines through the glass, and the temperatures quickly mount up...

I suppose you could try some of the " air plants "? Also, some people use sansevieria ( mother - in law's tongue ) - the low forms, as they are quite robust, and can cope with low light. You could have two plants, and have one in the viv, one in the room recovering, and keep swapping them every now and then. But even that was for a hight moisture requiring species.

0.1.0 late CB10 Carolina corn snake - Bazilishka
1.0.0 CB11 Abbots Okeetee- Little Twiddler
1.0.0 CB11 Hypo corn- Sebastianek
1.0.0. CB14 Butter Motley - Squidwood
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0.1.0 stable cat
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Kellog
the nice one

United Kingdom
7308 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  12:21:32  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Lots of good points have been brought up. I just searched 'live plants' and this thread may be of interest - http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8164

This is a thread on toxic plants, so if you do go ahead you know what to avoid - http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2402

Xxx


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Sara3502
Hatchling

111 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  14:56:08  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
okay, i'm going to take a look at air plants. And I didn't realize that it would get too hot for her in the sunroom. I'll go take a look at those threads you linked to, Kellog :) I was planning on putting it in a corner between 2 windows. Our sunroom is a normal room but with 5 bay windows next to eachother. It has enough sunlight to sustain plants without dylight bulbs because we keep a 6 foot tree in there and various potted plants and they thrive. On the tank I have a screen top as well. I was thinking about maybe the succulent cactuses because of the humidity problem, so it would not be as bad. If I wanted to try grass, how would I plant it, and in what?

Edited by - Sara3502 on 12/07/2013 15:33:39
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Boomslang
Hatchling

United Kingdom
340 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  16:41:39  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Normal uv strips will be fine for hardy plants..Like others have said,cleaning will be a pain plants will die kinda fast.And he will ruin everything hehe

Air plants are even more fragile,Will most likely pull them down etc.you'll spend all your time remounting them.

Grasses are fine,but will start to look tatty after awhile.Could put afew potted plants inside of your choosing.Hide the pots using cork or something.

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ScaryVonHayleystine
Sub Adult

United Kingdom
1773 Posts

Posted - 12/07/2013 :  22:36:53  Show Profile  Visit ScaryVonHayleystine's Homepage  Click to see ScaryVonHayleystine's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Love the idea, but it take alot of work to pull off in my oppinion

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