Awesome! Not really a story of abuse -more a story of hope:

I finally got around to checking out the orange rics at a sponsor store here in town. He had sold over 180 of them over the summer and only had a handful left.
They were at that point almost completely white and tiny. Since they really were sort of bottom of the barrel ricordea at that point I got them for $4 a piece.

Even at that price I felt pretty silly for buying them. For a long time they just stayed that way: tiny and almost completely white.
Then they finally turned the corner: colored up and expanded to be as big as my other rics. Took about 2 months though!

I am glad I don't have to live with roommates (other than the family ;) ) - I'd have a fit if somebody hurt my critters!