Is it okay to grow plants...

[Aurren]

In my beardie's terrarium? I was thinking something like Dandelion, since they're easy to grow and very healthy for them. There's a particularly boring section of their terrarium, and I thought it would make it look nicer, and also be a cool play area.

 

[Aurren]

*Sigh* May I please have an answer...?

 

[Floof]

There shouldn't be anything wrong with growing plants in the tank. I have a planter of lettuces and pansies for grazing in one of my tanks and have no problems. Just be sure the plant isn't too close to the heat lamp, so it doesn't dry up.

The only issue you might have is the choice of plant. Dandelions, though tough, actually need a relatively deep soil to grow, because of the root system. Unless you're planning to have a reasonably tall/deep planter, you may want to look into some moredifferent plant options.

 

[Jess]

Just wondering, Floof, how do you keep your beardie from messing up/eating the soil? I want to do something like that for Dud, bit I'm worried he will eat the dirt or knock over the plant and mess everything up, LOL.

 

[Floof]

The planter is tall, heavy, and heavily planted. It's tall enough that she can't get in it to dig, and, even if she does get in it, there's enough plants in the way that she can't really get to the soil. Not to mention the dirt makes it pretty heavy, so it can't be knocked over (at least not by a beardie). Plus, it helps that Buttercup is pretty well-behaved, lol.

 

[Denduran87]

You guys have me thinking now. What if you use that clothlike material where you can cut a hole for the plant to come through similar to like a weedblock liner. You would have to have the plant already at a decent size but i think it would work to seperate the soil from a beardie?

 

[Floof]

Denduran, that actually sounds like a great idea for troublesome beardies! It would give you the freedom to do relatively shallow planters, too, as well as use soil with things like perlite in it, without worrying about the beardie wreaking all havoc. That would be a very useful trick!

Another thing that comes to mind, if you have a beardie that really likes to feast on the plants in its enclosure, is to have more than one plant to rotate out when the one in the enclosure starts getting beat-up. It's a method used a lot by tortoise owners, since torts are such gluttons.

 

[Jess]

I demand plant pictures!

And I had been thinking of covering the pot with fabric and cutting a hole for the plant too.

I actually bought seeds for turnip, mustard, and collard greens. I'll plant them outside, but maybe one they start gowing I can take a few and put them in pots and rotate them. IDK if Dudley would figure out that they are edible though, LOL.

 

[Floof]

Here's a few pics of the planter. I've been contemplating swapping the hide and planter around so it's a little less complicated to access (Buttercup isn't terribly smart... lol). The planter is around 12-14" high. A little too high for a beardie to access easily, but I didn't realize that until it was too late. =P Next time I'm thinking something shorter, more accessible. Maybe something like this (cheap plastic window box planter):

The plants are oakleaf lettuce and "Mesclun mix" greens, 3 plants of each, and one big pansy in the middle.

(The planter takes up a LOT less room than it looks like in the pics. The second pic only shows a little under half of the 6' long tank. )

On the greens, that sounds like a great idea. I might have to steal it later on. Turnip/mustard/collard greens seem like a much more appealing choice of in-tank planting than lettuce.

As for getting him to realize it's food, my girls figured out pretty quick that the "green stuff" in the garden is edible once the pansies and violas (their favorite treats yet) started blooming. Placing his favorite treat on/in the plants should help him get the idea.

 

[Goonie]

[Moved from General to Enclosures]

 

[Jess]

That looks great! I didn't know they could eat oak leaf lettuce, I actually have some LOL.

What kind of soil did you use? One without fertilizer and stuff I'm guessing?

Are the leaves and stuff on pansies edible for them too, or just the flowers? My mom has a bunch of pansies, LOL. I'm so paranoid about if they were fertilized, and if they have pesticides ect. though! Haha, maybe I should just grow my own from seeds.

 

[Floof]

Yep. It's not the best for them (like any other lettuce), but it's fine as part of a varied diet. Other than having it there for grazing, I only really trim it (and the Mesclun) for salad use maybe once a week, and even then it's not much since they haven't grown very much yet.

Re: Soil, I've been using a mix of cheap top soil and some "moisture control" potting soil (found it in the garage after figuring out what total crap the top soil is). It's mostly the moisture control, mixed with some top soil, and a couple inches of just top soil on top to keep them away from the not-beardie-friendly ingredients in the potting soil (i.e. perlite). I don't use any extra chemicals. The only fertilization is the manure and fertilizer pellets in the soil mix... Not enough chemical, I don't think, to cause any issues for the dragons, but still enough to give the plants a little kick in the growth department.

If you're really worried about chemicals or things like that, Miracle Grow sells an Organic Potting Mix that's pretty good. It doesn't have any "extras" in it (not even perlite). My spider plant has been doing really well in it for a year and a half now--even grew back from being eaten to the ground twice (before I figured out tortoise and beardie enclosures make very hostile environments to yummy green stuff... lol).

The entire pansy plant is edible. My girls actually do enjoy the taste of the whole plant... They wiped out at least one of my pansies in the garden, little snots. I got all my pansies and violas from the local nursery and Walmart. I'm impatient, so I didn't take any time to let them "grow out" possible chemicals, but the beardies don't get nearly enough of the pansies to cause problems. I would never recommend my nonchalance with a baby/juvenile beardie, of course.

It helps (or, you could argue, doesn't help at all) that I used to work in a nursery. We never added chemicals to the plants, even the plants we started from seed ourselves or when repotting plants at the facility. Whatever they came from the wholesaler with and whatever was already in the soil was it, and it seems to me that most nurseries would follow this mindset, as well... After all, the plants do fine without them, and all those chemicals cost money. As well, pansies and violas are actually used a lot in salads (for people)... I like to think nurseries/garden centers realize that and treat them more like veggies. But I don't have any evidence to support that. =P

Starting your own from seeds is time-consuming, but definitely the best way to ensure the plants you grow for your beardies are safe.

 

[Jess]

Awesome, thanks for all the input! LOL, my mom uses the Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil, and I was just looking at the ingrediants in it, and it says it is made from poultry manuer. Yum.

There are a lot of little greenhouses around here, so I could just ask what they use the grow them. Good point though, I didn't even know that humans could eat them before I started looking into this!

 

[Floof]

Happy to share! It's funny, we've had this long, productive conversation about plants in the terrarium... And the OP never came back for his answer. Haha

Well, there you go, your mom's pansies are organic... Perfect! And good idea on asking. One of those things that seems so obvious, yet it seems no one (myself included, heh) ever thinks of it. lol

My last tortoise's first taste of pansies was actually when a family friend sent a baggie full of the flowers over for my grandma to mix into salad for dinner. Before then, I had no clue people ate them. (And, lucky for the tortoise, my grandma wasn't interested in pansy salad... lol!)

 

[BadCon]

What are the humidity levels like with the plants in there? I'd love to add plants...my female would get a kick out of eating them...but I'm worried about the increase in humidity to an otherwise desert loving lizard.