Live Plants?

Hey, so I'm considering trying out some live plants in my BP's terrarium at some point.

Any advice on what plants are safe for BPs, and what ones could be toxic to them?

Also any that are relatively small and won't grow too much as I'd like them to not outgrow the current enclosure. :)

Thank you!

I have Pothos Ivy in my glass BP terrarium. LOVE it!

1)Easy to care for.

2)Grows nice and bushy.

3)Hardy.

4)Awesome looking plant.

Good luck!:)

I currently have golden pothos, silver satin pothos, spider plants, red prayer plants, nerve plants, and a pink star cryptanthus with my BP.

Pruning and cutting plants back is a part of plant maintenance, especially if you plan to have them for a long while.

this is in with my bp: wandering jew in a couple varieties, variegated ivy, some ferns, a button fern, croton, creeping fig and other ficus, cateracterum, vivarium grass, ponytail palm, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

as long as the plant is pretty tough you'll be ok. I like to smack em around a little bit. if they kinda bounce right back, they should be tough enough. also as a rule of thumb I stay away from plants that have a sticky sap or thorns.

True ivy are actually toxic. I personally use all the the pothos like jade, golden, njoy. I used Prayer plant and parlor palm too but they didnt do as well. Pothos flourishes even with just LED lighting.

What do you do when you need to sanitize? Are these rooted into substrate or potted? Just curious because I would like my nicer snakes not in tubs and nice 40G breeders or larger with real plants sounds nice. Also wondering about spider mites or anything else ... I would assume some predatory bugs would need to live in there. More research needed, but off the cuff questions.


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Originally Posted by AnnieHeart

I have Pothos Ivy in my glass BP terrarium. LOVE it!

1)Easy to care for.

2)Grows nice and bushy.

3)Hardy.

4)Awesome looking plant.

Good luck!:)

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Just a heads up. I googled Pathos ivy plant to get a visual (it is beautiful by the way) and read that it is toxic. I don't know if it would be harmful for BPs but maybe better safe than sorry.

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Originally Posted by Jmarshall

Just a heads up. I googled Pathos ivy plant to get a visual (it is beautiful by the way) and read that it is toxic. I don't know if it would be harmful for BPs but maybe better safe than sorry.

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those plants are toxic when eaten, and in humans if you have sensitive skin the sap of English ivy can irritate your skin. otherwise, unless your snake is a vegetarian you will be fine. to avoid any mistakes I also feed in a separate tank.

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Originally Posted by Spechal

What do you do when you need to sanitize? Are these rooted into substrate or potted? Just curious because I would like my nicer snakes not in tubs and nice 40G breeders or larger with real plants sounds nice. Also wondering about spider mites or anything else ... I would assume some predatory bugs would need to live in there. More research needed, but off the cuff questions.


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mine are not potted. if he gets messy on his water dish or rocks or wood I clean it with a mild soap/water mix. same if there is a messy leaf or two.
also when most people start bioactive they get a rush of fungal gnats and or spider mites in the beginning. two ways to deal with the spider mites. one is just to keep the tank humid, the sider mites won't be able to survive high humidity environments. the second way Is to use predatory bugs. now your isopods will already be predatory and do eat mites and other problem insects, but they do not have very voracious appetites for that food source. to speed things up I have used the ol Home Depot lady bug cup. the lady bugs take care of the mites and you get to watch them too. win/win.

the way to deal with the fungal gnats that I've found works best is to just ignore them. they go away in a month or so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jmarshall

Just a heads up. I googled Pathos ivy plant to get a visual (it is beautiful by the way) and read that it is toxic. I don't know if it would be harmful for BPs but maybe better safe than sorry.

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Pothos is probably The most used vivarium plant, as it is very hardy and will bounce back when crushed by large snakes. And like the poster above mentioned, it's only toxic when ingested. I highly doubt your BP is going to get a mouthful of pothos for no reason lol.

I don't move to feed, and have zero problems with it. My girl tends to strike from branches anyways.

In the beginning I thought our bp might have had some sort of eye problems. he would always go right up to the mouse and flick his tongue right up on it or boop it with his nose a couple times before striking. he tried from a bit further and would miss from time to time. super head shy too. it was weird. he was also already about 3.25 feet long. so to be safe I moved him for feeding. but he doesn't seem to be having this issue after his winter fasting. the other reason is I'm afraid the rodent will start picking up the clean up crew for snacks if he is not paying attention.
do you have any issues with that?

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Originally Posted by Apiratenamedjohn

In the beginning I thought our bp might have had some sort of eye problems. he would always go right up to the mouse and flick his tongue right up on it or boop it with his nose a couple times before striking. he tried from a bit further and would miss from time to time. super head shy too. it was weird. he was also already about 3.25 feet long. so to be safe I moved him for feeding. but he doesn't seem to be having this issue after his winter fasting. the other reason is I'm afraid the rodent will start picking up the clean up crew for snacks if he is not paying attention.
do you have any issues with that?

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Maze also likes to stick her nose right up to the prey item before striking. Sometimes they just miss, especially if your prey item has cooled some between when you heated and when you offered. Doesn't take long at all for that to happen.

Honestly, my CUC isn't large enough yet for that to be an issue. I also don't drop feed, so I don't face the risk of the bugs finding the rat before she does. She eats right off the tongs. I want to experiment with how I offer food, though -- CUC bugs don't ~usually~ climb (unless you have aboreal bugs), so maybe placing it up higher on a branch would work for drop feeding.

And if they do swallow a few bugs -- it's not like they wouldn't in the wild. They break down organic material pretty dang efficiently, and I've never heard of someone having problems because their BP swallowed a tiny springtail.

My bad, i feed live, not f/t. I should have made that more clear. Im afraid the mouse or rat will eat the cuc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jmarshall

Just a heads up. I googled Pathos ivy plant to get a visual (it is beautiful by the way) and read that it is toxic. I don't know if it would be harmful for BPs but maybe better safe than sorry.

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Ball pythons don't eat plants, so you don't have to worry!

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Originally Posted by Apiratenamedjohn

My bad, i feed live, not f/t. I should have made that more clear. Im afraid the mouse or rat will eat the cuc.

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Honestly, I would worry more about them eating the pothos or ivy, and then your snake eating them. I'm not sure what that would do it either animal. Even if they snatched up some of your CUC, I doubt it'd be enough to put a dent in the bugs.

The list of reasons I feed f/t keeps getting longer. Not saying live is bad, just I find more advantages to f/t as time goes on lol.

I completely forgot I made this thread oh my gosh! D:

Thank you all SO MUCH for the recommendations and info! I'm gonna continue to do a bit more research on all the plants you've all suggested.

Thank you guys! :)