So, as far as I can tell, it went better than expected. I guess it was better for me to expect the worst and end up having it be a little easier. Not counting my chickens before they hatch, but, yesterday I put Dracarys in a
bath and I saw a couple of black dots and nothing at all ON her. So, after the
bath, I decided to wait to spray her with the reptile spray I got. I bought a 10 gallon tank, lined it with paper towels and just let her chill in there while I tackled her enclosure. I took everything outside and sprayed it all. I then let it all sit for most of the day. Then I took all the small things... a couple plastic plants, a wooden rope bridge, her fake plastic rock, piece of wood, and food and water dishes and put them through the dishwasher on hot. Put her tank in my bathtub and sprayed it down with water as hot as it goes. To my surprise, the sticky vinyl tiles came flopping right out as soon as the water got underneath! I was so happy. I let the tank mostly air dry and then wiped it down till dry. I was going to reuse the tiles, but the water made the edges curl up a bit and they just didn’t lay flat enough. So, I went and bought more. 97 cents a piece, no biggie. I got rid of the fake rock foam background that comes with the exo terra tank. I ended up doing matte black poster paper, I stuck it on with modpodge, and then I also modpodged over the 2 side panels of glass. I figured any reduction in reflection is probably a good idea for her wellbeing I can still see through it, but it’s matte now. I decided to spray her today. After all the handling and moving and her having to stay in a new tank over night... I wanted to wait to put that stuff on her. (Side note, the stuff smells like church incense lol) I really REALLY examined her extremely well this morning while the spray was on her. She was SO GOOD! Poor thing. She let me move her arms and legs all over the place to look under them, I lifted the little neck folds and things (I’m sure you all know the proper terminology lol)
I put her back into her freshly revamped tank and she seemed happy. She is already crazy smart she has me in awe... I sit in front of her tank with a plastic baggie, pop the crickets in the baggie to shake them with the calcium powder, and then I dump them one at a time into the front of her tank. Now, if she sees me come over, I can see her little eyes watching my hands while I handle the baggie and she jumps down off her basking spot and sits and waits like a little puppy! She almost grabs the crickets off the edge of the baggie as they are being dumped out! I love it!
Anyhow, it 2 pm and she’s already eaten 12 crickets, so, she seems to have already calmed down from all the shennanigans. I am cautiously optimistic!
