ferret_corner
New member
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
- Messages
- 526
- Reaction score
- 29
- Points
- 0
- Location
- AZ
- Country
- Japan
- Display Name
- Sharon
... I recently added a LOT of plants to his enclosure and dumped two nearly full tubs of earth worms into the freshly turned soil.
That seems to have energized him a bit. He decided he needed a new burrow and scared the hell out of me.I reached in to feed him and he wasn't in his usual burrow. I dug a little deeper - no sal. I dug to the side (can only go one other way) no sal. I excavated all the way to the other side of the tank - no sal.
OH ****.
Did he crawl back between the new plants and die of dehydration? He's blind remember. If he got to the back of the tank where I haven't seen him venture in years... would he remember or be able to find his way back to his pond?
I ripped up all the new plants (not to hard as they are still in pots), dug several pounds of soil out, dumping it into my kitchen sink - on top of my dishes (yeah yeah I haven't done dishes in two days) and just kept shoveling it all out.
No sal.
Oh ****. WTH?
So I go back to his burrow. His favorite place - and probably the best place for him is under the beach to his pond. The water keeps his burrow cool, no matter how warm AZ is. It gets really narrow at the bottom, I can't hardly reach down, in and back underneath the ledge. My busted arm is just trembling with the effort of holding me up while I lean with most of my weight on edge of the tank. The top if the tank is over my head its sits on a breakfast bar. The only way to reach it is standing on a chair and leaning over my kitchen sink.
The tank and pond sort of resemble this...
[__/_____]
The back slash would be the beach, of course much lower and at less of an angle.
I'm still pulling up nothing but dirt.
Now I'm looking at my LAST actually planted plant. Its been the ONLY plant to survive for years in the tank and now I may have to pull it out.
I start lifting all the small river rocks up around the plant, poking carefully with my fingers into the soil to see if maybe he is just underneath. Then I decided to abandon that effort and go back to the beach and feel around one more time.
I LEAN all the way across and towards the back and something squishy squirms under my finger. YAY!!!! I carefully dig him out, rinse him off, give him a good scolding and start stuffing him with crickets. As I'm feeding him, I see a couple of earthworms digging their way frantically back into the upturned earth.
I shove another cricket into his face and look at the pile of mud in my sink. I use my foot to pull the dishwasher open, yep its full. ****.
In the end I settled for taking most of the soil on top of the mound in my sink and putting it back into the tank and getting another bucket of organic soil from outside. I really packed the earth under the beach at the far side of the tank and plopped him back into the pond to digest his meal. rotten bugger, seems completely unappreciative of my panic & efforts! LOL.
he's fine, I'm fine, hubby is spazzing nuts over the salmonella I put on our dishes. Yeah yeah my dishwasher has a sanitizing steam cycle - still I'll eat off the ones in the cupboard and I'll test the "clean" ones out on him.
Sharon
That seems to have energized him a bit. He decided he needed a new burrow and scared the hell out of me.I reached in to feed him and he wasn't in his usual burrow. I dug a little deeper - no sal. I dug to the side (can only go one other way) no sal. I excavated all the way to the other side of the tank - no sal.
OH ****.
Did he crawl back between the new plants and die of dehydration? He's blind remember. If he got to the back of the tank where I haven't seen him venture in years... would he remember or be able to find his way back to his pond?
I ripped up all the new plants (not to hard as they are still in pots), dug several pounds of soil out, dumping it into my kitchen sink - on top of my dishes (yeah yeah I haven't done dishes in two days) and just kept shoveling it all out.
No sal.
Oh ****. WTH?
So I go back to his burrow. His favorite place - and probably the best place for him is under the beach to his pond. The water keeps his burrow cool, no matter how warm AZ is. It gets really narrow at the bottom, I can't hardly reach down, in and back underneath the ledge. My busted arm is just trembling with the effort of holding me up while I lean with most of my weight on edge of the tank. The top if the tank is over my head its sits on a breakfast bar. The only way to reach it is standing on a chair and leaning over my kitchen sink.
The tank and pond sort of resemble this...
[__/_____]
The back slash would be the beach, of course much lower and at less of an angle.
I'm still pulling up nothing but dirt.
Now I'm looking at my LAST actually planted plant. Its been the ONLY plant to survive for years in the tank and now I may have to pull it out.
I start lifting all the small river rocks up around the plant, poking carefully with my fingers into the soil to see if maybe he is just underneath. Then I decided to abandon that effort and go back to the beach and feel around one more time.
I LEAN all the way across and towards the back and something squishy squirms under my finger. YAY!!!! I carefully dig him out, rinse him off, give him a good scolding and start stuffing him with crickets. As I'm feeding him, I see a couple of earthworms digging their way frantically back into the upturned earth.
I shove another cricket into his face and look at the pile of mud in my sink. I use my foot to pull the dishwasher open, yep its full. ****.
In the end I settled for taking most of the soil on top of the mound in my sink and putting it back into the tank and getting another bucket of organic soil from outside. I really packed the earth under the beach at the far side of the tank and plopped him back into the pond to digest his meal. rotten bugger, seems completely unappreciative of my panic & efforts! LOL.
he's fine, I'm fine, hubby is spazzing nuts over the salmonella I put on our dishes. Yeah yeah my dishwasher has a sanitizing steam cycle - still I'll eat off the ones in the cupboard and I'll test the "clean" ones out on him.
Sharon