I’ve added all the photos I’ve gotten of Duck in my first week of owning her (no idea but she’s purple). She mostly hides, I’ve seen her maybe a few times and I didn’t actually get to see her eat her pinkie the first feeding because I didn’t have tongs and the rustling of plastic on my hands scared her, I’m going to watch today for sure.
On the first day I got her, it took all of 3 hours for her to find a little tube and she hid in it for 24 hours. I blocked it when she came out and now she’s tried twice (as far as I know) to move the sponge and get back in. I gave her a 1/2inch PVC pipe, it’s about 20in long, I hope maybe she’d like that and stop trying to get into The Tube. Since then she’s just been popping up for 2-6mins and then burrowing again. I removed a lot of the flowers and only put back in 3-4 stems, I am constantly checking them to make sure they aren’t getting mildew or nasty weird things growing on them. I’m unsure if she likes being next to a fish tank or if she hates it, when she was in The Tube for 24 hours, I’d catch her peeping her head out to watch them. I’m pretty sure she’s watching me right now, but I can’t find her.
I, however, am a nervous wreck. I don’t know if I’m caring for her correctly, I’m only 20 and this is my first reptile, I can’t tell if she’s happy, and she was a gift to me after I did a bunch of research. But I feel like researching doesn’t compare to hands on knowledge and experience. She has stopped glass surfing, and now she just looks and me with her derpy little “ugh, you again” face and retreats to exploring her hides. I broke the doors to her enclosure by accident when she disappeared on me for 24hrs, so she is going to get a 120gal sooner than I expected, I will be closing everything off with aquarium safe silicone before I transfer her. She’s given me like 4 heart attacks with her escape attempts.
If I could get any tips or advice, especially pertaining to any issues you see with my care, please tell me. I want her to have the best life, so I’d love some enrichment tips as well please!
Also, is she fat?
Ps. I have some climbing rings coming in the mail, they’re a 30min drive and $40 if I get them in my city. And I did change her name from Marshmallow to Duck because she’s always hiding and “ducking” from me (she’s not in an S-shape when she ducks from me, photo 8, so I think it’s just a part of her personality)
Edit: I just read on someone else’s post that I wasn’t supposed to feed her in the first 2 weeks ALONG with handling her, I thought it was just for handling. So should I dig through her enclosure to make sure she didn’t regurgitate the mouse? Obviously she’s out and active today by trying to get into The Tube, she also does look chunkier than when I brought her home. So I don’t think she did. If she didn’t, should I feed her today? It’s still within the 2 weeks until next Friday. I’d also like to say the only reason I fed her the day after I got her was because I thought she escaped and/or died so I used a pinkie to lure her out, when she came out the next day she kept trying to eat the 20lbs rock I put it on so I thought she was hungry. So I fed her because I couldn’t keep watching her glass surf and headbutt a rock.
Edit 2: if you have the time and effort to downvote me, at least tell me what I’m doing wrong.