I have an ookuwagata. It was given to my by a teacher who likes to breed them and has given them as presents to teachers before. I was so very honored. I was excited to have him… but… I basically have been a very bad caretaker. I am embarrassed to go into details but I’ll say that I didn’t feed him enough, didn’t clean his cage properly, and most days I never even thought about him, because I kept him under my sink. You have to keep them in a cool, dark place, you see. But not only was he left beneath the sink in kitchen – he was left beneath the sink in my heart. I felt ashamed of my bad caretaking so I finally did something about it.
I found out where to buy supplies for him. I got him a new and bigger cage, newer and better food, a nice food tray, a branch to play on, and when I got home I moved him into the eye-level shelf in my closet, so I can always open the door and say hello to him easily.
I did this today. Ookuwagata are supposed to be resilient, so if he lived through my bad care then (this was basically two months I think?) and can survive the transition into a new place, and if I remain a good pet owner, we should live happily ever after.
