Indoor enclosure plants

[Katie Giese]

Hello,

I am just doing my research before my little guy comes home with me. He is going to be in a 50 gallon terrarium. I am just looking for ideas for decor, plant-life, etc.

Are there any live plants I could include in here that they will not eat? or are absolutely not harmful if they do munch on? Are succulents safe? plastic plants? Ideas are welcome!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gillian M]

Hello,

I am just doing my research before my little guy comes home with me. He is going to be in a 50 gallon terrarium. I am just looking for ideas for decor, plant-life, etc.

Are there any live plants I could include in here that they will not eat? or are absolutely not harmful if they do munch on? Are succulents safe? plastic plants? Ideas are welcome!

Thanks in advance!

A very warm welcome to the forum!

Please read the "Beginners Mistakes" Thread and the different care sheets that are available. Ask any question when in doubt.

And please do not forget to post pics of your tort as well as his enclosure asap.

As far as plants are concerned; sorry cannot help you here. @Pearly will be able to. She is an extremely helpful member and knows a lot.

 

[JoesMum]

Wishful thinking I'm afraid.

You should only use safe to eat plants in the enclosure. Whether or not they get eaten (or trampled!) depends on your tort. Plants don't grow well in a tortoise enclosure anyway due to the lighting.

The things that are big enough to survive trampling or being nibbled are often too big to use indoors.

The trick is to grow plants in pots on your windowsill. Sink a plant in its pot into the substrate so the lip of the pot is above the substrate to reduce the trampling risk. When the plant is past its best swap it for another from your windowsill. The one you have removed may recover back in the window.

 

[ethan508]

My Russian tortoises really like to climb up and over rocks. Actually any climbing seems to entertain them. So if you can find ways to have scalable elevation changes (hard to do in a 50 gal) it really adds interest to what is often a 'flat' looking habitat. Plants are good and nice looking but do cut into the walking around space of an already smallish habitat.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

In the past, for indoor habitats, I've used spider plants, aloe Vera's, and jade succulents. These were grown by me for that very purpose. I didn't need to worry about pesticides/herbicides/or fertilizer.
Yes, they will be eaten and trampled on. What I did to attempt to protect the plants is, using a section of brown plastic, lawn edging material, is make a loop. Placing this in the enclosure, with the still posted plant in the middle of the ring helped prolong the life of the plant.
Keep in mind these were plants I grew just for this reason. I didn't trust garden centers even when they say they are organic. That said, I don't think you should trust them either. Sorry in regards to plastic plants. I've never used them.
As Gillian pointed out, we love photos of enclosures and tortoises.
Welcome to your one stop tortoise/turtle information highway!

 

[paulste]

I have a shallow tray with edible weeds in the enclosure (pick seeds up from amazon/pet shops) and grow a second tray on the window sill and rotate when required. I feed other weeds occasionally from the garden and pellets once a week.

I have a few plastic plants in there too for decoration. He has a sniff and may try to bite a fake leaf but he'll only try it once and not actually eat it. He likes to sleep near or under the plastic plants, they must make him feel safe.

 

[Pearly]

Hi and welcome from Texas. I second all of the above. Great advise, valid points so far. I personally love live plants for the looks of the terrarium. Mine is a 40 gal and for little less than a year I was able to keep a "pretty habitat" but now my babies are yearling, much bigger, stronger, bolder, more destructive which might as well be bcs I already have a nice outdoor tortoise garden for them where they are to start spending most of their daytime and only come to their tank to sleep in their warm anf very humid "bedroom chamber".

 

[KaitlinKeefe_]

I agree with everyone that grows their own plants, i am currently working on that myself. for the time being though i have fake plants in the enclosures to provide shade and they like to hide in them. i havent had any issues with them trying to eat them or anything.