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Step 11Assemble the whole thing and plant some plants!
Alrighty gang! Are you still with me? This is the fun part- assembling the whole thing. Unfortunately, I don't have any photography of this stage, so I'll make do with what I have.
The ceiling of the free range is made from 2 pieces of close-meshed 12" wire shelf laying on the 24" brackets. Put the light fixtures up there and plug them in. We put fluorescents up front and spotlights more toward the back. Test the lighting system and close off the doors.
The floor of the free range is made from 2 pieces of regular meshed 16" wire shelf, arranged long edge to long edge. It's best if the "lip" of the shelves faces upwards. Cover the entire free range floor with window screen. You really don't want curious chameleons getting through the floor and into the drainage system.
At this point you've got the skeleton of your free range finished.
It's time to go plant shopping! Our free range is a little over 5' tall, so that's the max height of the plants we can buy. As you plan out the actual jungle, you'll want to mix large trees with shorter shrubs as well as nice vine-y hanging baskets. Big meaty-trunked trees placed every two feet or so will provide the "framework" of your rainforest, and mid-sized shrubs fill in the holes. Up in the "canopy" of your rainforest you can drape vines- some real, some artificial, that will serve as the pathways around the habitat.
The big plants:
Ficus alli. This is the narrow-leafed ficus tree, and unlike the problematic benjamina, loves to be rained on. We've killed 5 large and expensive benjaminas with our free range. We switched to alli and never looked back.
Canella (cinnamon tree) This plant is large, robust and has a great jungle look. It's large branches provide great pathways for travelling chameleons.
Ming Aurelia. This is an investment level plant- but it's well worth it. Small Mings (12" tall or so) can be had for $20-30 at the big box nurseries, but they absolutely flourish in our chameleon cages and the free range. A 5' tall ming aurelia will easily set you back over 200 bucks; if you can afford that, go for it. Mings are really cool looking plants and the chameleons love their branchy builds. Alternatively, buy small ones for "ground cover" and they will grow. We've got one over 5' tall now and we potted it as a 12" sprout about three years ago.
Coverage plants:
Schefflera. Also called "umbrella plants" these guys are hit or miss in a free range. We've got a couple that are going well, but for each successful growth, we've killed one. Pot them in extremely well drained pots or their roots will rot out from under them. Some are bushy, some are treelike. Get a variety and build out your free range as you see fit.
Pothos. Let pothos grow across the floor of your jungle and it'll take over as much of your domestic rainforest as you allow it.
Use your imagination. Wifey and I are cephalopod (and chameleon) biologists, not botanists. If you've had success with other plants in your free range, tell us about it!
Canopy:
Pothos again- the runners pothos sends out will not adequately support your melleri, but if you drape the runners over the more robust chameleon highways I'm about to describe to you, it adds realistic cover for your arboreal dragons.
Nepenthes: Nepenthes are tropical pitcher plants- carnivorous vegetables! It's challenging to get specific identifications of nepenthes, but both lowland and highland pitchers seem to do well in the free range, but I can't get them to keep their pitchers. They grow and thrive, just pitcherless.
Highways, and other commuting options:
It’s a really good idea to create ‘chameleon highways’ throughout all levels of the free range; high and low, exposed and hidden. When housing more than one chameleon it’s important to provide them with multiple ways to get from A to B. Building highways will also save your plants from a lot of wear-and-tear!
Branches from your local forest- Select robust dried branches that haven't rotted. sterilize them as best you can- spraying them with rubbing alcohol and blasting them with steam cleaning tools has worked well for us.
Dowels covered with horse bandages. Dowels are rods made of hardwood and widely available at many hardware stores and craft stores. Horse bandages are elastic wrappings that stick to themselves, and are generally available wherever horse supplies are sold. Horse nuts wrap horse legs with them, presumably for support. All I know is that horse bandages rock for wrapping dowels so they're more applicable for chameleons. Dowels are hard and smooth, and chammys have trouble gripping them. Wrapping the dowels with brown or green colored horse bandages makes the dowels slightly more natural looking and far more useful for the chameleons.
Commercially available artificial vines. These plast-O-rubber vines with metal insides have become much more convincing in the last few years. They blend in nicely with the jungle motif, and you can bend them to your liking. Once zip-tied into place, the large ones can support adult melleri with no problem.
Commercially available real vines. Real vines, whether dried grape vines or harvested responsibly from the tropics, are fantastic additions to your free range. They are strong, rot resistant, and look great in the free range. Too bad they're so expensive. Some tropical rainforest vines are available, but please purchase responsibly. Destroying a real rainforest to build your own is not an irony to be proud of.
Don't use rope. We used 1" thick ropes a few times, and although they look great and function even better, they rot like crazy. Fungus Farms!
Barriers.
A group of melleri in a free range can thrive, but we've found they will require a reliable means to hide from one another. We accomplish this with towels visual barriers in the free range. At the time of writing, we're developing a better solution than towels.
One option is to plant the hell out of your free range. Make it a REAL jungle!
Ok, that could probably work, but if you plan your jungle too thick, I guarantee you'll spend many hours looking for your chameleons. Good GRIEF they're good at that camouflage trick.
Just hang towels or sheets for now. Whatever, just give them somewhere to hide from one another.
Speaking of which....if you're now happy with everything, it's time to move your tenants in...
The ceiling of the free range is made from 2 pieces of close-meshed 12" wire shelf laying on the 24" brackets. Put the light fixtures up there and plug them in. We put fluorescents up front and spotlights more toward the back. Test the lighting system and close off the doors.
The floor of the free range is made from 2 pieces of regular meshed 16" wire shelf, arranged long edge to long edge. It's best if the "lip" of the shelves faces upwards. Cover the entire free range floor with window screen. You really don't want curious chameleons getting through the floor and into the drainage system.
At this point you've got the skeleton of your free range finished.
It's time to go plant shopping! Our free range is a little over 5' tall, so that's the max height of the plants we can buy. As you plan out the actual jungle, you'll want to mix large trees with shorter shrubs as well as nice vine-y hanging baskets. Big meaty-trunked trees placed every two feet or so will provide the "framework" of your rainforest, and mid-sized shrubs fill in the holes. Up in the "canopy" of your rainforest you can drape vines- some real, some artificial, that will serve as the pathways around the habitat.
The big plants:
Ficus alli. This is the narrow-leafed ficus tree, and unlike the problematic benjamina, loves to be rained on. We've killed 5 large and expensive benjaminas with our free range. We switched to alli and never looked back.
Canella (cinnamon tree) This plant is large, robust and has a great jungle look. It's large branches provide great pathways for travelling chameleons.
Ming Aurelia. This is an investment level plant- but it's well worth it. Small Mings (12" tall or so) can be had for $20-30 at the big box nurseries, but they absolutely flourish in our chameleon cages and the free range. A 5' tall ming aurelia will easily set you back over 200 bucks; if you can afford that, go for it. Mings are really cool looking plants and the chameleons love their branchy builds. Alternatively, buy small ones for "ground cover" and they will grow. We've got one over 5' tall now and we potted it as a 12" sprout about three years ago.
Coverage plants:
Schefflera. Also called "umbrella plants" these guys are hit or miss in a free range. We've got a couple that are going well, but for each successful growth, we've killed one. Pot them in extremely well drained pots or their roots will rot out from under them. Some are bushy, some are treelike. Get a variety and build out your free range as you see fit.
Pothos. Let pothos grow across the floor of your jungle and it'll take over as much of your domestic rainforest as you allow it.
Use your imagination. Wifey and I are cephalopod (and chameleon) biologists, not botanists. If you've had success with other plants in your free range, tell us about it!
Canopy:
Pothos again- the runners pothos sends out will not adequately support your melleri, but if you drape the runners over the more robust chameleon highways I'm about to describe to you, it adds realistic cover for your arboreal dragons.
Nepenthes: Nepenthes are tropical pitcher plants- carnivorous vegetables! It's challenging to get specific identifications of nepenthes, but both lowland and highland pitchers seem to do well in the free range, but I can't get them to keep their pitchers. They grow and thrive, just pitcherless.
Highways, and other commuting options:
It’s a really good idea to create ‘chameleon highways’ throughout all levels of the free range; high and low, exposed and hidden. When housing more than one chameleon it’s important to provide them with multiple ways to get from A to B. Building highways will also save your plants from a lot of wear-and-tear!
Branches from your local forest- Select robust dried branches that haven't rotted. sterilize them as best you can- spraying them with rubbing alcohol and blasting them with steam cleaning tools has worked well for us.
Dowels covered with horse bandages. Dowels are rods made of hardwood and widely available at many hardware stores and craft stores. Horse bandages are elastic wrappings that stick to themselves, and are generally available wherever horse supplies are sold. Horse nuts wrap horse legs with them, presumably for support. All I know is that horse bandages rock for wrapping dowels so they're more applicable for chameleons. Dowels are hard and smooth, and chammys have trouble gripping them. Wrapping the dowels with brown or green colored horse bandages makes the dowels slightly more natural looking and far more useful for the chameleons.
Commercially available artificial vines. These plast-O-rubber vines with metal insides have become much more convincing in the last few years. They blend in nicely with the jungle motif, and you can bend them to your liking. Once zip-tied into place, the large ones can support adult melleri with no problem.
Commercially available real vines. Real vines, whether dried grape vines or harvested responsibly from the tropics, are fantastic additions to your free range. They are strong, rot resistant, and look great in the free range. Too bad they're so expensive. Some tropical rainforest vines are available, but please purchase responsibly. Destroying a real rainforest to build your own is not an irony to be proud of.
Don't use rope. We used 1" thick ropes a few times, and although they look great and function even better, they rot like crazy. Fungus Farms!
Barriers.
A group of melleri in a free range can thrive, but we've found they will require a reliable means to hide from one another. We accomplish this with towels visual barriers in the free range. At the time of writing, we're developing a better solution than towels.
One option is to plant the hell out of your free range. Make it a REAL jungle!
Ok, that could probably work, but if you plan your jungle too thick, I guarantee you'll spend many hours looking for your chameleons. Good GRIEF they're good at that camouflage trick.
Just hang towels or sheets for now. Whatever, just give them somewhere to hide from one another.
Speaking of which....if you're now happy with everything, it's time to move your tenants in...
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Secondly, you mentioned that your Nepenthes aren't pitchering? ( I don't know how much research you've done on Nepenthes, but since google tends to not yield very informative results in regards to Neps, I'll just give the maximum information.)
It looks like from the picture on the next page that the plant there is N. alata or an N. alata hybrid- most likely N. xVentrata (N. alata x N. ventricosa) simply as it's by far the most commonly sold. Nepenthes Ventrata is an incredibly adaptable and a robust grower, which is likely why it continues to grow well, albeit a lack of pitchers. It's a technically a highland cross, I believe, although I've seen many pictures of thriving specimens growing in lowland climates such as Florida. I'm assuming your temperature and watering conditions are more than stable enough for the plant with your current setup, which leaves nutrients and/or lighting as the probable cause of the lack of pitchers.
Nepenthes generally need much higher amounts of light than most houseplants, with strong lighting being especially important for good pitchering. (I grow mine right next to my Aloes in a south-facing window)
You might want to move your Neps closer to your lighting fixtures if possible, and this should help with the pitchering.
From your description, it sounds like soil quality might be the main factor preventing your Nepenthes from pitchering. Nepenthes, like most carnivorous plants, grow in low-nutrient conditions, which means that they are not very tolerant of nutrients in their soil. Most common household soil mixtures are loaded with fertilizers for good growth for normal houseplants. If you've repotted your Nepenthes without specifically using nutrient-free ingredients, this is likely what has caused the lack of pitchers. (The same goes for if you've fertilized the plant) If this is the case, you'll want to look into getting some nutrient-free mixes, and repotting. You might be able to find sphagnum moss or perlite without added fertilizer at your local store, although you'll want to avoid anything with miracle grow in it's name. (Personally, I just order the small amount of soil I need online) Also, If you're not doing so already, watering with distilled or reverse osmosis water should help too. (It also won't clog misting nozzles, as there's almost no dissolved solids in it whatsoever)
Here are some good resources in case you need them:
International Carnivorous Plant Society
http://carnivorousplants.org/
(The how to pages and the web ring have been especially useful for me)
Sarracenia Northwest
http://cobraplant.com/
(Nursery which has good plant guides and advice)
The Savage Garden
Peter D'amato
ISBN-10: 0898159156
ISBN-13: 978-0898159158
Growing Carnivorous Plants
Barry Rice
ISBN-10: 0881928070
ISBN-13: 978-0881928075
"Nepenthes University"
http://www.cpjungle.com/nepenthesuniversity.htm
(a website with a good range of information on Nepenthes)
I hope this helps and I wish you luck with your Nepenthes.