Had a minor Nina-related scare on Monday morning: I'd collected some crickets for Nina while outside with Sheba, because they're all just hanging around out there in the back yard and why not,1 but then when I went to dump them into her terrarium, Nina was nowhere to be found. Which is unusual, early in the day -- she's almost always out in the open, "sunning" herself.
So I rattled the plants around a bit, hoping to see or hear her, but I didn't, and that went on long enough that I had actually convinced myself that she was probably dead, so I started cutting back the Pellionia to find the body. (I was less sad about this than you might think: I figure she's almost certainly outlived her natural life expectancy, and has had a relatively cushy, if spatially constricted, life for the last two and a half years, so even if it hasn't been everything she might have dreamed, I think I've still done right by Nina. At bare minimum, it has to beat death by pesticide or death by freezing, which were her two options if I hadn't brought her home.)
That went on for a really long time, but eventually I pulled back a branch and she bolted for the opposite side of the tank. So she's still alive. And now I have a bunch of Pellionia cuttings and have no idea what to do with them.
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1 I acknowledge that there are some reasons why using free-range crickets might be a bad idea (parasites, e.g.), but have decided those are risks I'm willing to take.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture
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3 comments:
Glad to hear Nina's still with us. :)
Yeah, you've done right by her. She's had a better life than most of her species could reasonably hope for.
Haha, free range crickets! Tell Nina I said thanks!
Those free range crickets aren't as harmful as some would lead you to believe. At least so sayeth the herpetologist who raised me up in the field of medicine. Though grasshoppers have softer shells and are easier to digest than the "crunchier" crickets with more formed bodies. There's about nothing a good dose of Flagyl and Ivermectin can't fix anyway. ;-)
She looks healthy and, admittedly I'm new to your blog so I don't know much about her yet,but she looks to be in great health for an older chick.
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