Sorry again for not replying too quickly. I'm now working two jobs and going to college, so I've been very busy lately. Anyway, I'm not too sure where I left off, I think I might have posted a separate thread after I got the ackie. I'll just cover all the basics from before then give all the updates.
So everything went well for the first couple days. Then, it kept getting stuck between the base and where the doors meet of the enclosure. So I put some styrofoam between it and that solved that. Then, it figured out how to climb the walls where they met at the corners, it braced itself on each wall and shimmied up the corners haha as impressive as that was, it was a problem. It kept getting out this TINY opening at the top where the doors met. So I boarded that up and solved that. . . I thought. I hadn't seen it for 3 days, but I figured it was just burrowed. It burrowed under the stack that's bolted into the enclosure, so I couldn't move it to make sure, but after the 4th day of not seeing it at all, I decided to take the dirt out to make sure it was okay. I took all the dirt out and it wasn't in the enclosure. Found it under a shoe shortly after, so it had been escaped for anywhere from 1-4 days
After that I realized the large enclosure was not going to work out for a baby. I ran out to the petstore on a sunday, got there about 15 minutes before they were closing, and bought a 40 gallon long breeder tank and a bunch of new accessories etc.
Since it's been in the smaller tank it's been doing much better. It has a screen top, but I put duct tape all over it and just left openings for the light to get through. Still having some problems with humidity though, when I just mist it makes the humidty skyrocket for a few hours, but then burns up real quick and goes back to about 55% When I pour water in and mix up the dirt it usually makes mud for a few hours then levels off at about 75% humidity for the next few days, then back to 55%. So I don't know what to do. Maybe I used too much sand or something in the substrate mixture, or I should add some leaf litter or more peat moss.
It was burrowing for awhile, but hasn't for about a week. Sometimes it makes it's own, and other times I try to start one for it. I make about an inch deep hole with my fingers and it will finish it.
It's eating 5-10 large crickets a day. (usually about 6-8) dusted with calcium and vitamins each feeding, and 1 day a week or just whenever I need to go get more crickets I feed it chopped pinky/fuzzy mice. When it was still younger I cut the pinkys into 3rds, and the fuzzies accordingly. Now I cut the pinkies in half length-wise. It tends to sleep like crazy after mice, so I don't feed them very often, I skipped them this week. It also doesn't like mice that much now, maybe 1 or 2 little slices, then it loses interest.
It spends a lot of time playing with it's reflection / trying to find ways to escape. (i can't tell which it is haha)
After switching to the smaller tank I've been using light cycles, but while I had lights on 24/7 it kind of developed it's own sleep schedule. It acts nocturnal now. It sleeps all day and gets up around 8:00 pm every night, does it's thing, and is usually sleeping by 6:00-10:00 am. (I turn lights on at 8pm and off at 8am) I just want to know if this is okay to do. It's getting enough sleep and still has a 12/12 cycle, it just seems to prefer getting up at night. I have uvb on it at night also, so I personally don't see any harm, but I would like some others opinions. (at one point it burrowed for 3 days, so to test it, i left the lights on 24/7 again after the second day it was burrowed to see if it still wanted to be awake at night and asleep in the morning, and it came out of the burrow at 8:30 pm the 3rd day)
That's about it. Last thing, the only other concern I have other than trying to keep humidity up still is what I think to be sneezing. Every now and then, maybe once or twice every couple of days, it makes a sneeze type noise. I've looked it up and seems to be a warning sign of respiratory infection, but it shows absolutely no other signs of RI. It's very active, eating normally, not sluggish, no discharge, no mouth bubbling, no wheezing. . . could it just be a sneeze from dirt or something getting into the nose? Or maybe it's not even a sneeze and I just don't know what it is. Doesn't seem to be any certain time, just random times. Any thoughts?
And at this time I don't have any good pictures of the front feet to see the missing toe tips, but I'll try to get some in the next few days. It's still leery of my cell phone when I try to take pics or video. I'll post a link to photobucket with a bunch of pics and videos shortly.
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