Hi there, i have a nine banded armadillo which i've had as a pet for several years called ralph so am pretty much clued up armadillowise.
I was out earlier and had notice3d that ralph was excessively scratch himself aginst the garden post which is not unusual but was noted i then went out for a couple of hours and when i came back found ralph had completly moulted his armoured case, ive never heard of this happening and am a little shocked.
He looks extremely pink and the poor mite is shivering in the corner looking at me with as i type this.
FCUK, I'd panic, an call in ......................well ghost busters, coz my amadillos are just fine and sleeping peacfully, next to my saber toothed tigers, and my minature mamooths, ..................I realy need to do somthing about this insomnia!!!!!!!
tjeez Armos, don't you know anything? The what appears to be an empty casing is poor Ralph sleeping it off and the pink thing in the corner is his baby.
What is strange is that there is only one, they usually have up to four identical young. Wait until the baby's skin has hardened up (about 98 years) and then teach it to jump over the house in one gigantic leap. This won't happen overnight of course as it takes some time for an armadillo to jump that high, you need to start with something small like the garden shed or the garage.
When it gets to middle age (about 160 Years) you can start to teach it to sing, but that takes many years of dedicated tutoring! Look what I achieved after only 6 years.
From a website that tells you more about armadillos (aka Hillbilly Speed Bumps) than you're ever likely to want to know...''Since the shell cannot be shed and replaced with a larger one, it must increase in size as the young armadillo grows...''. Well, I guess that's that then.