My new little baby

Meet my new little baby, her name is Serena. I've always wanted a little venus flytrap to call my own and thanks to my AWESOME boyfriend I now have one :)
Ever since watching "The little shop of horrors" I've always thought it would be fun to have my own little carnivorous plant; though I didn't want mine to start talking and wanting my blood...though thinking about it now the talking part may be cool. With my new little one safe and sound @ home I eagerly attacked Google to find out more on how to care for my little beast. Found out some interesting little facts:

• Normal tap water is actually slow poison to a venus flytrap. To water the plant properly you need to water it by "tray" using distilled water of about 1-2 cms.
• The ideal environment for optimum growth is somewhere in very bright light, but not in direct, hot sun. A warm, humid environment, with a constant supply of moisture (hence the watering method).
• Venus flytraps do not need fertilizer, the insects which they consume provide them with all the nutrients they need.
•  Always keep dead leaves and heads cut off to prevent fungal infections.
• Artificially springing the trap, i.e. poking it with your finger, drains the FlyTrap's energy. If this is done too often, the fly-trap-trap head will become less sensitive and possibly die. 
• Dead leaves and heads are a part of a Fly Trap's life cycle, and do not necessarily mean that the plant is unhealthy.
•  Venus Fly Traps can go without eating for 1-2 months!  So never feed it more than once a week.  In fact, the optimal period for feeding is every ten days.
• After each capture, the trap remains closed for a period of 1-2 weeks.  In addition, each trap has a limit of 3-4 closures.  At this point in the plant's life, they can no longer utilize the trapping feature.
• Prey has to either come in contact with two trigger hairs of the plant’s trap or touch one of the hairs twice, in order for the lobes to close and catch it.
• If one of the plant’s traps catches a very small prey and it manages to escape, the trap will reopen within 12 hours.

So with all my new found knowledge fresh in my head I set about creating my little darlings environment. I used a CD spindle lid as my water tray and added the distilled away as instructed. I then set about hunting for bugs :) Found a dead fly and gave my baby it's 1st meal from my hands, very cool to watch. (check out the below video). All my little heads have been feed now and no bug is safe anymore *evil laugh*. Guess I'll just have to wait now and watch my baby grow :)

                                                                                 

1st feeding from "mummy" :)