Wednesday, April 29 Nellie came in the mail! Given some time to think about her name, my boyfriend and I agreed "Nellie" was a more fitting name for my new dalmatian Hermann's hatchling. First thing when she got out of the box, she pooped, and scarfed down tons of dandelion greens. Since I've got her, aside from that first poop, I havent seen her poo even once. I am soaking her twice daily, and have noticed her pee often in the water or on her slate. I dont know if I'm simply not finding it, or if there is something wrong. Each day, however, she continues to consume incredible amounts of greens throughout the entire day. She doesn't shy away from hand feeding or the occasional handling! Everything else has been going very smoothly, thank god! One thing I noticed weeks in advance is that the hardest thing to get is her substrate. I've used Timberline top soil, but have found many little stones and pieces of clay or sand. I took a few hours to sift through the top soil. If it had already been sifted, I would've used more topsoil in my mix, but I was really tired of going through the substrate one fistful at a time, so my mix ended up being 25% top soil, 40% coco coir, 15% cypress mulch, and 20% orchid bark. I spray the soil probably 6 times a day and there hasn't been an issue with the coco sticking to Nellie's face. I packed down the substrate well to make sure she had no problem walking over chunks, so it's pretty level and I havent observed her stumbling too much. In the corner she burrows in, I make sure there are no clumps and that it's all very soft substrate. That's all I can think of, I hope I havent missed out on anything! Here's some photos of my silly baby
