plants - fake and real

[drache]

okay
here's the deal:
my tanks are barren of greenery and while they have sufficient hiding and climbing places, more is always better
I'm not fond of plastic and if you saw my one remaining fish tank, you'd see that I'm okay with growing live plants. Of course with aquatic plants there's no worry about their watering needs.
I realize that with herps it's a whole different realm and I'm not eager (yet) to get into maintaining live plants that'll need watering
I have on occasion considered getting a flat of wheatgrass and sticking in a tank. I've considered giving my beardie a potted chard
considering is all I've done
I've seen pics of many of your cages and I'm assuming that most of the greenery is fake. There's probably a couple of members here who do the live plant thing and will be ready to help when I get there, but right now I'm primarily interested in fake plant advice.
Are there different kinds of fake plants and which do your garters like best?
thanks for your help

[Stefan-A]

Fake plants.. I have four different kinds in use at the moment and about half a dozen more somewhere. The good thing about fake plants is that they're easy to clean, cheap and much more durable than live ones. Climbing snakes can quickly destroy unsupported real plants.

I really don't think snakes care one bit what they are hiding under or climbing on.

There's a whole lot you can do with fake plants. You can wrap fake vines around real branches, to give the snake something to hold on to. Garters aren't the best climbers and might need a bit of assistance if the bark is smooth. Or you can drill holes in a piece of wood, stick a few fake plants into the holes and just cover the wood with substrate. I probably showed my hide earlier, but it's got tubes for holding fake plants. Pictures would probably say more than words in this case, I'll post more of my solutions later if anybody is interested.

I also find that fake plants make excellent hides, especially during transportation. If I try to put any of my snakes in a box without a hide, they'll launch themselves out of it in a heartbeat. But a 30 cm piece of fake vine is enough to give them a bit of shelter and that makes them much calmer. In my limited experience, that is.

[garterchick]

hi rhea
i've tried the live plants and didn't do so well, so now i use silk plants that i buy at hobby lobby or some other place like that. the nice thing about that is that, like stefan said, the clean-up is much easier and you have more options in how to use the plants. for example, i don't use pots for the plants, therefore not taking up floor space for the snakes.
tina

[Gijs & Sabine]

I agree with Stefan, fake plants are quite easy to work with.
When we started with garters we did use real plants, but they'll destroy it and we noticed small mite-like creatures. Maybe they were no harm to our garters but from that day on we didn't take any risk and only use fake plants.

Here are some pics how we use them. We put screw rings at the top of our terra's and put the fake plants in it and drape it over the branches. This is really simpel and it looks nice also. And the garters can climp in it. Aspecialy ribbons like to be above the floor.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010234Small-4.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010232Small-2.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010238Small.jpg

And like Stefan said I also don't think that garters are very picky in the type of fake plant you want to use.

[Stefan-A]

I did something similar with my older terrariums, but I just pulled a wire through a small hole, around the plant and back out through the same hole. Sometimes I attached it to the mesh lid in the same fashion.


This is what I did with the hide:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/thamnoph/photos/terraplants2.jpg


http://koti.mbnet.fi/thamnoph/photos/terraplants1.jpg

[garterchick]

that is a beautiful set-up, stefan, it makes me want to be more creative with my own tanks.
tina

[adamanteus]

I agree with everything Stefan just said! I like his use of plants too, looks great.

[drache]

that's cool
I knew I could count on you guys to show me some really great ideas here
thanks
I do have to say, Stefan
- I don't think I've ever seen the kinds of fake plants you have here, but then I haven't seriously shopped around yet
and what's the substrate in that tank?
it looks like dry leaves

[Stefan-A]

Thanks.

rhea,
The substrate is a 50-50 mix of peat and dry leaves. The plants were really cheap, definitely not from any pet store. They sold them molded in plastic pots with something like concrete. Took about 2 minutes to get the plants out with a hammer.

[adamanteus]

Stefan, do you collect the leaves yourself? Do you do anything to clean them before use?

[Stefan-A]

Yes, I collect them myself. What I do to clean them, is to heat them up. One of the benefits of living in Finland, is that there's a sauna in every household. ;) I heat them to 80-100 degrees Celsius for a couple of hours. I don't know if it kills every single organism, but not a single arthropod has survived the treatment yet.

I do the same with branches and rocks. Found a couple hundred dead ants after one treatment. :)

[drache]

Stefan, do you collect the leaves yourself? Do you do anything to clean them before use?

I was going to ask the same thing
and also - how is cleanup with this substrate?

[drache]

one of my secret desires for the house we're moving to, is a sauna
but just for the leaves one can probably use an oven on a low setting

[Stefan-A]

Absorbs everything, including the odor. :) And it dries quickly. All you really have to do is scoop up the droppings and some of the surrounding substrate.

The leaves, oddly enough, also seem to help to keep substrate off food items. They're too big and too heavy to stick to the food and they sort of scrape peat off whatever it is that the snake is swallowing.

And the snakes just "love" (for lack of a better word) burrowing. ;)

[Stefan-A]

one of my secret desires for the house we're moving to, is a sauna
but just for the leaves one can probably use an oven on a low setting
Absolutely. It's just easier to heat larger objects (or volumes) in a sauna.

[adamanteus]

You seem to have it sussed with your choice of substrate, Stefan. Looks really good too.

[Stefan-A]

Not really perfect, though. :) There's always substrate in the water bowl and peat still gets swallowed.

[adamanteus]

I guess that happens in nature. I doubt that there is one perfect solution.

[Stefan-A]

The soil is much more compacted and held together by vegetation in nature, I doubt that the snakes have to deal with stuff sticking to their food to the same extent as in captivity.

[Sputnik]

You could probably sterilise rocks and branches in the dishwasher is you used it without detergent or salt. Can't see it being quite such a good idea for leaves, but maybe an electric steamer might be useful. Or those microwave sterilisers you get for babies' bottles.

[adamanteus]

I usually microwave smaller stuff, and pour boiling water over larger branches etc.

[Lee]

I have a 2ft or so planter in my tank where I've planted some succulents I got at the local gardening center. They look cool and don't need much water/sun so they work out great.

[KITKAT]

You could probably sterilise rocks and branches in the dishwasher is you used it without detergent or salt. Can't see it being quite such a good idea for leaves, but maybe an electric steamer might be useful. Or those microwave sterilisers you get for babies' bottles.

Gotta be careful with rocks in the dishwasher! They can shed SAND.

I boil my rocks every 4 - 6 months. And I either bleach the plastic plants, or replace them... but I tend away from using them altogether for the most part.

[GarterGuy]

I use the fake silk plants for just about all my critters...snakes, to skinks to tarantulas. I like the silk better than the plastic, because the silk seems to have a more natural look to it and isn't as stiff looking as the plastic plants, although I've actually used them together before as well. One thing to beware of, if you get your silk plants from a hobby shop or florist, make sure that they haven't been treated with anything. Some are treated with antifungal agents to keep mold from growing on them if they are used outdoors. Also watch for exposed wires (what is used to give the "stems" of the plants their rigidity), these are very sharp and should either be trimmed back or you can put a small "glob" of aquarium or other silicone sealant over it. One more bit of advice, don't try to sterilize silk plants with boiling water. I tried this once and the entire thing shirveled up and almost looked like I had put a live plant into the water!:eek: I usually use hot water and Quatricide ( a antifungal-viral-bacterial cleaner sold for pet use) to clean up my plants. Hope this helps.
Roy