New to Leos - a few questions

[Allie]

Hi all,

We just got two leo babies two weeks ago and I have a couple of questions for you experienced folk. The babies are both female and about 8 weeks old. One may be a giant but I can't tell yet. Our basic setup is two identical hides and lots of other hiding spots plus a humid hide, warm side 88, cool side 79-80, humidity 20 to 25%. I use an overhead light for heat and basking during the day and a UTH at night.

Do I need to give them a bath regularly?
Is it ok to just keep a constant supply of mealworms in the tank?
Is oatmeal sufficent to gut load my mealworms or should I add other things?
Our 10 gal tank is quite crowded (I'll post a pic here). Do you they need more room to run around than we have?
Would it be ok to just use the UTH for heat and let the sun set the day and night cycle for them?

I *think* that's it for now. No....wait...one more....can anyone tell me if they are a specific morph from their coloring? Do leos even have morphs? Or just different markings?

Ok...that's it. Here are the pics.

Tank

[mlededee]

Do I need to give them a bath regularly?

No, they don't need baths.

Is it ok to just keep a constant supply of mealworms in the tank?

Yes. You should also supplement with other insects from time to time for variety--crickets, feeder roaches, phoenix worms and silkworms are good choices.

Is oatmeal sufficent to gut load my mealworms or should I add other things?

Mix some cornmeal in with the oatmeal and add a slice of apple or carrot for vitamins and moisture every so often (add fresh once the old spoils or is consumed). You should also gut load in a container separate from the leo's food dish (it looks like you have the oatmeal in their dish right now) and switch out any uneaten mealworms from their food dish for fresh gut loaded ones once per week or so.

Our 10 gal tank is quite crowded (I'll post a pic here). Do you they need more room to run around than we have?

Right now they are ok but you will need to upgrade to something like a 20 gallon long tank once they get bigger.

Would it be ok to just use the UTH for heat and let the sun set the day and night cycle for them?

Yes. UTHs are better for leos as they need belly heat and lamps dry out the air considerably so if you don't need the lamp to keep the temps up I recommend not using it.

I *think* that's it for now. No....wait...one more....can anyone tell me if they are a specific morph from their coloring? Do leos even have morphs? Or just different markings?

There are tons of different leo morphs. Your first one pictured looks like a super hypo tangerine carrot tail. The second maybe a hypo tangerine but I'm not sure since it still has its hatchling color--the black areas will fade and change as the leo grows and sheds.

[Allie]

Thanks so much for the help! I got some cornmeal last night and I picked out all the oatmeal out of the tank dish.

Our bp is going to need a new tank at some point so I'm going to transfer these little guys to that one (a 30gal tall) when Mugsy outgrows his tank in the next year.