I visited the little girl, born Adelaide whom I renamed Lavender, a few times before she came home, and Glissette got to talk to her from behind bars while she stayed at Erika's place while I was traveling.
It was a little bit rough the first couple of weeks that Lavender was home. I thought it would be more of a walk-in-the-park compared to Glissette since Lavender was hand-raised as opposed to Glissette's upbringing without human contact, but no... While Glissette never bit me so hard that I bled, Lavender loved biting hard. And she also seemed to hate the sound of my voice. I would be talking on the phone, and she would just start crabbing up a storm. To conquer this, I decided to record myself reading a chapter of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies aloud, and every time I went by her cage I would start the recording so that she would get used to my voice.
By the time Thanksgiving came around, she was a bit better with me, and I decided to 'introduce' the two girls. Everything went well, and my gloves were not needed. I put them both in my bathtub in the middle of the day when they are normally fast asleep, and they sniffed at each other a bit. However, Lavender does not wake up easily, and she just stayed still the entire time. Glissette, on the other hand, woke right up and began jumping off the walls, quite literally. She has become a good jumper (I've seen her jump a good 8 or more feet) and she kept jumping out of the tub onto me. Eventually I took them both to their cage and they snuggled up together and fell asleep.
Now, 3 weeks later, they are still getting along well. Even though Lavender is a good 3 months younger than Glissette, she is at least 20 grams larger. I think that Lavender will be the one that stays larger, and Glissette will be tiny, but only time will tell for sure. Now, during out of cage time, Glissette runs around and enjoys her freedom, and Lavender is still a bit more conservative. Glissette will jump on Lavender and run around and it seems like she is always playing a one-sided tag with her. Since Glissette is now 'bonded' with me, she easily jumps on me and has given me quite a few face hugs. All I have to do is stick out my hand and the majority of the time she'll jump right to me, it's kinda cute. Lavender is still getting used to me, but she has started to groom me, which is a good sign towards her making me one of her family. When I pet them while they're sleeping, Glissette just snuggles right up into my hand, but Lavender hates being woken up and she is vocal about it. I doubt that will ever change!
And one last thing - people are always asking me what they eat. I have Glissette and Lavender on what is called the HPW Complete diet. It involves a staple food, which is the HPW Complete (it's a bit like a honey/egg/other-nutrients soup), and then I give them a variety of fruits and veggies. Because I'm a dork, the HPW Complete isn't just frozen into ice cubes when I serve it, it's frozen into a butterfly ice cube tray.
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