Getting my Leo today! (?'s)

[BurmGuy87]

Hey guys! I have my 10 gallon setup at the moment! Just wanted to run the setup by you guys to make sure its good!

Ok to start I have many layers of paper towels down(so I can just take the top one off:)), I have 2 water bowls, a calcium dish, a food dish for the mealies, 2 hides, and a little homemade log like thing (toilet paper roll cut in half haha). How does that sound? I'm not positive of the temps but they are around 80-90. Oh and I am going to make one of the hides a humid hide for him/her:)

Anything else?

[Drew S]

How do you plan on heating it? :D

[BurmGuy87]

Oops haha. I have an incadescent heat lamp...I think the wattage is about 100? If thats too high I can stick in the 80 watts.

I also have an undertank heater that I can use if neccesary

[Gregg M]

Hey Don,
Use the UTH....... They need the belly heat....... Plus at night you will be shutting the light off and that is when your leo will be most active........ You may want to use a 60 watt bulb and keep it on the oposite side of the UTH....... Everything else sounds great....... A humid hide is a must and are very easy to make........ I am sure you know enough so I dont have to get into it....... If not, just ask...... Later bud.....
Gregg

[BurmGuy87]

Ok cool. When I get home I'll stick it under and go steal a 60 watt from my sisters lamp LOL.

I'm at my friends....he is takin me to get it before I go home! I'm gonna take some pics of all the leos I have to choose from:)

[SnowSnake]

Remember to take the one that looks the most 'alive' and energetic.

[Drew S]

Yeah, since they are nocturnal, the only one that really benefits from the light is the owner. I'd go with the UTH, and if you still want a light, put something low wattage on one corner. And since it's just a 10 gallon, if you do go with just a bulb, a 100 watt will be too much. I'd stick closer to a 50 watt basking lamp on a 12/12 timer.

[latazyo]

burm...why are you putting two water dishes in? and a calcium dish...you're gonna run out of room in that 10g! here's a pic of my setups
this is for the baby I jsut got last week (it's a 20g)
http://bitz.net/~latazyo/Pics/Herps/kubzhome.JPG
and this is for my yearling (20g)
http://bitz.net/~latazyo/Pics/Herps/chezhome2172004.JPG

they've both got water dish, humid hide, hot hide, cool hide, and the baby has a food dish until he deevelops his eating "skills"...the yearling can hunt the crickets down

for calcium I'd just dust your crickets occasionally, you don't need to have a seperate dish for it...I usually just put some of the reptical on the bottom of the food dish and put the food in there and they dust themselves, plus when they eat they get the calcium poweder on their noses and just lick it off and get more anyways...hope that helps

PS: about the light, I'd strongy recommend putting the light on a dimmer or goiung fluorescent, when I was using a basic 75w soft white bulb, it raised my temps 20 degrees! my temp probe was reading 107 degrees, which is way too hot...please be extremely careful with an incandescent bulb

[BurmGuy87]

Thanks for the further tips guys....ILl just use the UTH and the surrounding cages will provide enough light for him. I guess I'll ake one of the water dishes out as well

What should I use in the humid hide?

[Drew S]

I use a mixture of stuff, usually just whatever I have around. Usually I mix vermiculite with peat moss, and that way it doubles as an egg box and holds humidity well. Other people use moss, paper towels, sphagnum moss, etc. Just make sure whatever you use doesn't have any type of fertilizer in it, and mist it every couple of days.

[latazyo]

schultz green moss from home depot in a tupperware, spray when it gets dry

[BurmGuy87]

Sounds good! I'll get some vermiculite or peat moss!

Thanks....and be on the look out for pics later on tonigh!!!!!!1

[crazyboy]

u could just use shreaded paper towells

[bidden]

I use a folded papertowel and a margerine container. It usually holds water for 3-4 days. It's kinda a pain to keep re-watering it but whenever it gets dirty just pitch it and grab another from the kitchen.

[WingedWolf]

Hmm...where did this "they need belly heat" thing come from? I can see using an infrared or blue heat lamp at night, if temps are too cool, but why tell people that an overhead lamp won't work? It will work perfectly fine, and leos DO bask when a lamp is available--yes, even during the day, sometimes, if they're comfortable out of their hide.

[BurmGuy87]

Thank you alot WingedWolf!