u/pastamayyoonaiise

I noticed a couple days ago my plant was looking a lot less healthy i guess :( the leaves are kinda wrinkly, half the traps are shut..
Today is like 10x worse than a few days ago. all the traps are shut, the leaves are quite yellow, some are turning black, they’re all very droopy. The second picture is what he looked like about 2 weeks ago

Idk what i’ve done wrong! I’ve got it indoors yes but i have a grow light on it for minimum 12 hours, like 15cm above the plant. I give it distilled water, and have been pretty good keeping it hydrated, although i think i did go a week between filling the water tray last ugh, so maybe that’s why?
My rooms not cold either, idk if its dormant or something but i wanted to skip dormancy this year because i just bought it (some guy with some article said it was fine to skip) (but ill still probs do it next year).
Hes still in the original pot too, so i don’t think it could be the potting mix that’s bad?
I heard these like little flying insects can be bad for your plant too? There’s a few really tiny nearly microscopic flies that are attracted to my light that have kinda fallen onto my plant, so could that be why? I’m not sure what they are tho.

Any help on what’s gone wrong would be appreciateddd i was really hoping i could keep this guy healthy :(( or is this normal and a temporary thing? Like could the old leaves die and new ones grow if i keep going with what im doing? pls dont be mean i am very new to this lols…

So.. I bought a vft (audrey iii)… I knew nothing about venus fly traps :(
As you can probs tell im a pretty big fan of little shop of horrors hence why i made a spontaneous decision on buying this guy here hahah.
I was willing to learn ofc, I just didn’t think it’d be too hard (i know, im silly). Ive done a lot of research after buying it buuut im still quite confused about a few things, so just a couuuple questions just so I know for sure.. (sorry this is gonna be long im just really determined to keep this plant alive hahahah) pls be nice haha

Soo 1: I kept it in the pot I bought it in, and put it in a slightly taller tin can (with the lsoh sticker hehe) with a bit of distilled water inside. Should I have repotted it? Does it need a bigger pot? Do I ever need to repot it and if yes how often and is there a best time of year to do it? Or can I just keep it in this pot and need to change the soil like every so often? And what kind of is soil mix do i need to whip up?

2: Im in melbourne, approaching winter (probs the worst time to buy this apparently) and im confused about winter dormancy. No way my parents will let me keep it in the fridge haha. So I thought the next best option would be the garage by the window. It’s not gonna be that cold at all times in my garage though, and I heard it’s supposed to be pretty cold?
So would it be just fine if I leave it by the garage window during winter? Will my vft even be dormant (cuz i heard it’s important they go thru that dormant stuff)? My garage is always pretty dark, just 1 window, is it okay it only gets that bit of sun thru the window for a couple months? Do I fill the water tray at all during this time? If yes how much water and how often?

3. I wanna keep it on my windowsill, but my room is like the complete wrong side of the house like regarding the best position for best sun exposure apparently. Im willing to take it outside for a as many hours a day it needs and buy a grow light. So like.. how long should I keep it outside during the day? Can I use a mixture of keeping it outside for a couple hours then use a grow light for the rest? If yes how long for both? Could I use purely just a grow light? How long for? AND what kind of grow light is best?

4. Is it just impossible to keep a vft indoors and should I give up? 😭

sorry for the lengthy post aaahhhh I really really want this guy to thrive. do not worry i will feed him flies not blood hahahaahha