# Guess who's getting some new (non-quilly) babies!



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Well, they aren't hedgehogs...But I'm going to be taking in a pair of little hermit crabs!  

A partner for a class project has two & doesn't really want them anymore. I've been kind of wanting to rescue/rehome some in the past few months, but was afraid to look on Craigslist for any (plus they don't seem like an animal that people frequently think to rehome). My partner means well, but she only has them in a 5 gallon tank and I'm not sure they have much in their enclosure.

So they're about to get spoiled rotten. :lol: I'm already planning to move them into my 10 gallon tank. I'll probably end up buying them a 20-30 gallon tank once a pet store near me has a $1/gallon sale, or maybe if I find one on Craigslist. I'm about to spend the rest of my evening doing as much research as I can, hehe.

Will post pictures once I have the little ones! I'm hoping to get them this weekend, but we'll see. I'm gonna have little babies to take care of again!!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

...Well, I guess I'm going to go from being the Hedgehog Lady to being the Hermit Crab Lady. My neighbor's daughter had two, but one died. The daughter doesn't want to get any more, so her mom is offering me the one they have left. Guess who's going to have three hermit crabs soon? :lol:


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

Lol, soon you will be the Queen of Hermit Crabs.


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

Oh my gosh! That's great ☺ You made me giggle/made my day! At least they won't be running in a wheel all night :lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I need to make myself a badge or a t-shirt or something. :lol: I'm already getting SO excited. The first two little ones will be coming home on Saturday. I'm going to wait until I have them settled in & until I have a bigger tank (at least 20 gallon, I'm currently waiting for a reply on a *50* gallon that was listed on CL...can we say hermit mansion?) before I take the third one from my neighbor. I want to have the third one under observation in my 10gal for a week or two before I try to introduce him to the other two, plus I want to make sure they have plenty of room so there's less chance of any spats!

Seriously, you should all see the shopping list I already have going. :lol:


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Ah hermit crabs. Wonderful little creatures that can live a long time but usually don't because people don't provide anywhere near the care that they should.

If you didn't run across it yet, the Hermit Crab Association's webpage has some nice care sheets on it. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pages/caresheets.html
and a forum: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/index.php

I used them as a reference a lot when I was looking to get hermit crabs a few years ago.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yes, thank you!  One of our old forum members recommended them as well and I spent about 5-6 hours reading through their FAQ pages last night and taking notes. So far I have a plan for the tank set up (10 gal, sand mixed with coconut fiber, going to use a 60-watt CHE for heat & see how that goes, etc.). I'm already planning on buying a 30-50 gal tank to move them into once I can get one from Craigslist, or if I find a good deal on one at a store. I won't be bringing the third hermit crab home until I have that bigger tank because I'm paranoid. :lol: I wanna make sure no one feels too crowded!

And of course, I went NUTS as soon as I saw their food information. I'm going to be planning out a tentative weekly menu today.  I'll probably have to kind of wait & see, since my classmate said her two are picky (but then, they're not in an appropriate enclosure, & I don't know what she's offering them), so I'm not sure what they'll try eating. 

I'm joining the forum today as well because I have a few questions that weren't answered by the FAQ sheets, so I'm hoping to get some help with those.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Their site is amazing. And the people seemed plenty friendly when I was researching.

I know you hate looking at CL pets so...

$50 - 55 gallon :
http://lansing.craigslist.org/pet/4989799395.html


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: I really do, but I steeled myself & checked yesterday for tanks. I found a 50gal one & emailed the person already. Somehow I missed that one! I'll contact them as well, I think, & see if they still have it. Thank you! I'm ridiculously excited about all of this. I only slept 5 hours last night because I stayed up so late and wanted to get back to researching when I woke up this morning. My friend and I are heading to the pet store tonight to do some shopping. 

Edit: I got a reply from someone with a 44gal breeder tank, so it looks like that may be my hermit crabs' new home! Guess I'll have to rearrange furniture in my room sooner than I thought.


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## Soyala_Amaya (Aug 1, 2011)

Sad face, this makes me think of my poor attempt at having hermits. I was a teenager and bought one from a little kiosk thing at the mall around Christmas. I'm sure it was sickly and malnourished when I got it, but it lived in a small plastc aquarium thing (probably less than 1 gal thinking of it) I just fed it "hermit crab food" from a bottle, didn't have a humidity setup...He was gone by March 
Looking back on it, it makes me wish there were more laws against that sort of thing. The kiosk owner didn't care about the crabs, I just went off of the pamphlet he gave me, and the crab (plus dozens of others) suffered.


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

I found this one. They also have a ''Crabby pants'' shirt too! But... I didn't want to go there


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Aww, I'm sorry Soyala.  I'm sure you're not the only one with a story almost exactly like that...and I know that feeling. My family had budgies & we didn't care for them well at all. They still lived at least 10+ years, but I cringe every time I think about how we housed them, fed them, etc. :?

I wish there were laws against it as well. I can't even begin to imagine how many hermit crabs die in the States every year...it's probably a ridiculous number.  On the plus side, you know better now, which is a good thing.  All we can do is learn from our mistakes & try to better educate ourselves and others. I'm doing my best to spread correct info about hermit crabs now that I'm learning...I talked my coworkers to death about hermit care today. :lol:

And Buttons, that shirt is awesome!! And pffffft at the pants. They'd probably suit me pretty well in the mornings! :lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Man, I forgot to update on the whole Preparing for Crabbies thing!

I'm SO pleased because I went to Petsmart and Michael's craft store yesterday and found exactly what I was looking for. New cage furniture from the pet store includes a driftwood log (with a little hollow in it for a hiding place), a hollow corkwood log to bury a little for a hide, a poseable branch/vine thing, and a coconut fiber mat to hang on one of the tank walls. I also got a 60-watt CHE bulb (I already have my thermostat & lamps from Lily & a 100-watt bulb), water dechlorinator, marine salt, and a bag of Eco Earth coconut fiber bedding which will get mixed with sand.

At Michael's I got a bag of shells which gave me 6 usable shells (or at least I think they are, we'll see what the crabs think! :lol, 5-6 clay plant pots for hides or for live plants, a clay dish that I can make into a moss bed, fishing net to cut up for "ladders" to get in & out of their pools & probably for other things, some rocks for the bottom of their pools, and a wicker basket that I can flip upside down & cut a hole into the side for a dual hide/second level. 

Today's adventures will include moving a couch section out of my room so I can put their tank in its place, and going to Meijer for play sand, a spray bottle for misting, and organic peanut butter that will be just for them. :lol: I have a feeling it'll take them abut 10 years to make it through the jar, so maybe they'll have to share with me.

Two days to crabbies!!


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## hedgie_lover_17 (Apr 22, 2015)

Good luck!! If you have cats be sure to keep them away from the crabs. One of my cats ate all of my sister's hermit crabs. Also sometimes they die in new enivorments for no known reason.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

No kitties in the house (right now), but I'll remember that for the future.  Once I move out, I'm hoping to bring a kitty home, but I think my friend & I already have a plan for that anyway. We'd also like rats & a hedgehog, so we're planning to have my room be the small prey animal room & off limits to kitty. Then my friend's room will be open to the kitty so she still has a couple of rooms to explore. 

And yeah, I've read that. :? Considering what the little guys often go through, I'm not surprised. Hopefully these three won't, they've all been living with their previous owners for months. But we'll see!

Yesterday's shopping was extremely productive too! I got frozen organic raspberries, blueberries, mango, and frozen peaches (no organic ones available). I also got organic peanut butter with nothing else in it but peanuts. And then a spray bottle, three bags of sand, and this awesome little shelf! I'm thrilled about the shelf, it's absolutely perfect. I'm going to cover the levels with coconut mats & wrap hemp rope around the supports.



And well...here's my progress shot so far from two days of shopping + what I already had on hand.  And I'm still not done yet! I need to get more food, some more fake plants, cuttlebone, moss, a coconut hide, and more coconut mats from another pet store tomorrow before I get the tank. :lol:


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

That's quite the stash you have there!! Just so you're aware some woods that are decorative can be bleached, just as a side note for you to check. I know I've found bleached driftwood and grapevine in stores.

I'm so excited for you!!!!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Good to know, thank you! I'll see if I can figure out if it has been...It doesn't look like it has, but I guess I'm not exactly sure how to tell.

I should be going to sleep right now, but instead I'm going to finish setting up my heat lamp cages, ziptieing coconut mat onto the shelf, and dipping everything I plan on putting in the tank tomorrow (or might put in) into dechlorinated water so it can dry overnight on paper towels. I think that's most of what I need to do tonight...I can't do a whole lot more until I have the tank!

My coworkers are going to hate me during work tomorrow. :lol: My next update will have pictures of the tank all set up & the new crabbies!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

The crabbies are here!! 

First, here are some pictures of the tank set up.





I thought I was having some trouble with heating at first, but I think it was just an incorrect thermometer. I started using my preferred thermometer (which I was trying to check humidity accuracy on) and now I'm pretty sure my problem is humidity rather than heat. I'm going to have to keep tinkering around with the set up & see what's going to work best. I might switch from CHE tanks to UTHs (under tank heaters) stuck to the side of the tank to help avoid drying the tank out so much. The humidity is half what it should be. :?

And of course, the crabbies! Here's the bigger guy first. He was name Sherman by his previous owners, but I'll probably change it once I can get a chance to check the sex of all three & decide on names. This guy doesn't think much of sitting still & has been on the go for most of the evening, exploring the new tank!





Then there are the two little guys from the other home. I was told this one in the painted shell was more social & he did come out for a close-up right away (sorry for the picture quality - awful cell phone):



Since I put him in, though, he's mostly stuck to hiding under a fake log or underneath the shelves, so I haven't seen much more of him.

I was told his friend was very shy & won't come out. He hid until I dipped him in the freshwater pool (for the introductions, to try & avoid aggression), and then he came out to say hi (and maybe protest the dunk, who knows. :lol -



He's such a little cutie!! I'm already in love.  He's been doing a fair amount of exploring as well -


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## MomLady (Aug 14, 2010)

Beautiful set up, I bet they love it. 

Enjoy getting to know your new crabby buddies. :grin:


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

That's amazing! Very lucky little crabs indeed! Now I get what you were building with your coconut mats. I love the shelf. Great idea with the netting leading up to the slippery drinking dish too. You'll wake up in the morning and they will have rearranged everything. There will be tracks all over in the sand. I called them crabby stories.

Have fun! I'm very happy for you Kelsey


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Thank you both! 

I'm still anxious about the humidity, which is half what it should. But I have a warm air humidifier & I picked up a couple things today to try & hook it up so the air will go right into the cage. Hopefully that will help get the humidity up...I'll have to figure out what else I can do if it doesn't work (or not well enough).

Will post more pictures once I can, I'm hoping to say hi to them all tonight, but I had trouble spotting the little ones this morning, so I'm not sure if they might have burrowed under the substrate.


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## HedgiesJuliet+Jasper (Jan 2, 2015)

I never knew you could have Hermit Crabs as pets, learnt something new today.


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

This is not necessarily usual just like a hedgehog, you'll notice they should eventually poke about more. They can taste with their feet. They're probably checking out their new home. You'll eventually get the humidity dead on! I'm sure they're just very curious right now.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

They really do seem to be enjoying checking things out! I haven't seen them go near the food or water yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't doing so at night. I'm fairly certain the little baby in the natural shell burrowed - I saw him digging last night & I can't find him anywhere tonight. The other two are both hanging out in hiding places, painted shell is under the fake log in the back & the big guy is under the shelf. So far that seems to be a favorite spot, I'm not sure if it's due to it being a tighter spot so it feels safer, or if the humidity is higher there.


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

Sometimes they just burrow to feel safe or ''escape'' they like dark places. I noticed in your pictures that trend might have been some borrowing going on. If you're worried about humidity you can also spritz the sand a bit.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I've been doing that, but it's not helping nearly enough. The highest the humidity has been last night or tonight is the current - 57%. Still almost 20% low... So I'm going to see how the humidifier does once I have it cleaned! Our house tends to be quite dry, especially in the winter with the heating on, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

Sorry about previous post. I ment to say that I noticed there might have been some burrowing going on. Darn auto correct. 

I wonder if you couldn't add some crab safe live plants to bring up the humidity. You could place them on top of something they can't climb and use the base as another hide.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I was thinking about wanting to have live plants in there, but I don't have the correct lighting to keep them alive, & I'm not sure I have room to set it up either. And apparently you have to get tough ones that crabs won't want to eat or the live plants won't be live for long. :lol: I'm not sure the height thing would work, as crabs like climbing things, so everything is set up to allow that. Granted, they're not attempting much climbing just yet, but I think there will be a learning curve (since no one had anything to climb in previous set ups). The big guy tried to climb their driftwood log & fell off after he got about an inch up. :lol: 

The first attempt at the humidifier set up didn't work very well. I think I'm going to try shortening the hose to see if that'll help before I consider buying something else to help with humidity (the problem with my humidifier is it's a warm air one, so the mist is condensing halfway through the hose & dripping back into the humidifier). I did move my moss pit from the lower shelf to the corner where I had the food dishes (under the heat). I think that might help a bit, and I can keep plenty of water in that dish. I'm also going to buy some foam board at the craft store today that I can tape over the open parts of the lid to help insulate & keep in heat & humidity. The plastic wrap I was trying to use is useless.

I'm starting to miss having hedgehogs again. It's so much easier to handle heating than humidity! :roll:


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## Authra (Apr 23, 2015)

I had hermit crabs for awhile it is harder to keep them and if u have more then one in the tank they might eat each other when they molt. I had that happen that's when I stopped with them and started researching hedgehogs


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## Buttons (Dec 21, 2014)

That's how you manage to keep the plants, is by putting on top of something with smooth sides. That waytthey can't climb up and munch all your plants. It's almost like you need one of the small plastic igloos and set a plant on top of that ☺


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## Soyala_Amaya (Aug 1, 2011)

http://www.petsmart.com/reptile/humidity-temperature-controls/zoo-med-trade-the-big-dripper-reptile-drip-system-zid36-5037160/cat-36-catid-500012?_t=pfm%3Dsearch
Only $10, works great for my friends tarantula


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yeah, I'm nervous about the molting thing, with everything that can go wrong. I'm pretty sure hedgehogs are easier than this! :lol: But I'm sure I'll get the hang of these guys soon. 

I think I'll wait on live plants until I have a bigger tank or something. I'm not sure where or how I'd fit anything like that into this one with how it's currently set up. I keep wanting to change things, but keep telling myself to just relax & leave them be. They're starting to settle in nicely (there's sand on the net & in the freshwater pool!), and I don't want to upset them again right now.

I thought about getting one of those, Soyala, I might give it a try! I'm still fighting with humidity tonight, but I like the new set up better. Craft foamboard taped over the back half of the lid & part of the front half, one heat lamp on the left section of the front lid half, and a large UTH on the back of the tank, towards the right. We'll see how it does, I guess.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

I have nothing to add, other than this thread has far too few images of crabbies in it.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: I'm sorry! I've been running around like nuts since Saturday, between work, trying to get their levels correct, and classes. I have a few more pictures on my dad's camera that I'll try to upload tomorrow!  I don't know when I'll be able to provide more though - two of the three have burrowed (possibly to molt) and the third little guy has a little bowl made for himself, so I'm trying not to bother him (though he's the one in the painted shell and darn it, I want him to switch!). My friend's planning to come over Thursday to meet them and I let her know I can't give any guarantees there will be anyone out to meet her. :lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Alright, as demanded...I have some new pictures! 



I bought this little plant bed for my previous betta fish & all three spent some time in it before burrowing. I'm glad they like it!



I finally got a good close up of the big guy!  And just in time, as he burrowed down that night (night before last), so I may not see him again for a few weeks if he's going to molt.



A picture of my current collection of "usable" shells. I think they're usable anyway. :lol: We'll see if the crabs agree with me! I don't have all of them in the tank, but probably around 3/4 of them, between the ones in the new pools & the ones on the substrate.



This little guy is the only one I've seen eating so far. He pulled this little crabby cake out of their food dish to work on it!



This is the little guy in the painted shell. This is a nice "before" picture, because last night I finally tried some tips from the forum in an effort to get him to switch shells. I checked all of the appropriately sized shells for any sand in them, put a little salt water in them & left them opening-up on the substrate. And sure enough, this morning...



Look, Ma, I found a new shell! 



He chose such a pretty one too, I'm so happy!


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Awesome. I seem to recall that sometimes they will burrow down for a while when they change to a new environment to deal with the stress right? I read so much and even started shopping at one point, then decided that I had 4 senior hedgehogs at the time and adding crabbies to worry over was too much. 

I love the new shell. I bet he was quite happy to find a new one that wasn't soiled with paint. It is a very pretty shell indeed.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I forgot about that, but just read one of the mods letting another newbie know about that on the forum! So yeah, they could just be destressing. Or they could be just enjoying the ability to dig too - both previous habitats only had an inch (at most) of substrate.  And the two little guys were in calci-sand, which was bone dry, so it was even worse. I think they're really enjoying their new place. 

The new shell also has an opening more like what Purple Pinchers (PPs) like - a nice round opening. His previous shell was a D-shaped opening. That doesn't necessarily mean they won't choose it (especially if they don't have enough options), so I had some others like that in there, just in case. But he went right for what is apparently a PP favorite.  I may have to do more shell shopping to get more round-opening shells, a lot of the ones I have are D-openings. PPs are apparently less picky than other crabs, but I still want them to have what they like.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

The little guy from the painted shell (man, I seriously need to sit down and figure out some names!) decided to change clothes again! :lol: This time he went for a Babylonia shell, which has a D-shaped opening, so he might be going more for size/space rather than opening shape (or just having fun checking out his choices). He switched night before last night & is still in this one today, so maybe he'll stick with it for a bit. I know I've read a couple people mentioning crabs that change shells once a week. Fashion divas. :lol: Here's a pic of the little guy that my friend took when she met him -



I also got their veggie mixes made, finally, and also got their canned insects & shrimp in the mail. I meant to make veggie cubes, but the greens never chop up well, so I made veggie "slabs" instead. I can just break a chunk off as needed. I have an "orange mix" and "green mix", which seemed to be the easiest way to name them. :lol: Orange mix has butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, red pepper, and parsley. The green mix has broccoli, peas, corn, dandelion, and cilantro. All of the veggies except for the butternut squash are organic, and so is most of their other food supplies (fruit, peanut butter, chia seeds, nut mix, and brown rice).



And here's a picture of the "animal food" freezer. It has the meat grinds for the dog's food as well as the crabby food. Their stuff is on the top right & on the bottom in front of the dog's food.



Here's the rest of their food supplies! Containers of powdered bonemeal, one of a nut mix (crushed almonds, walnuts, and cashews, along with flaxseed & dried coconut), and little baggies of earthworm castings, dried seaweed, oak leaves, and oak twigs. The nut mix container isn't labeled right - it was used for dog food previously. :lol: You can see the extra usable shells in the back too.



Here's a shot of the cleaning/water stuff and all of the extra supplies. :lol: I got carried away and anyone who knows me very well is not surprised at all!



And here's a picture of their new pools!



The front green container is the saltwater pool with a fake plant for climbing out (and a net next to it), and the back clear container is the freshwater pool. It has a piece of fake painted cholla wood in it for a ladder, along with a net, but I may change that to the natural cholla wood I just got yesterday. Both pools have airstones in them to make them bubbly. Crab jacuzzis! :lol:


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## Authra (Apr 23, 2015)

Looks really good


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## HedgiesJuliet+Jasper (Jan 2, 2015)

Very spoilt crabbies. I don't even have a jacuzzi :lol:


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

This is so cool!! I had hermit crabs for a summer, they were a class pet and she went on vacation so we watched them. It was really cool. I love your pictures and seeing you all excited. :lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Oh god, I'm way too excited. :lol: I'm already planning on a home upgrade for them after reading a thread about using plastic storage totes instead of glass tanks!

But we also have names now!  I'm a huge nerd, and they are Pippin, Merry, and Boromir. :lol: Pippin is the little guy who's still above ground, Merry is the little guy underground, & Boromir is the bigger guy underground. I'm also already making plans to make the new, larger home Lord of the Rings themed!


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## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

I am happy for you Kelsey! These will be the happiest hermits in the world!!!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I updated the tank! Pippin was pretty unhappy with me messing around in there so much yesterday & today, but I'm going to leave the set up as it is now for a while, at least. So he won't have to worry about me doing more than water changes & food changes.  I'm still amazed at how easily he's taking all of the changes of moving to my house, a new tank, new food, etc. Such a tough little guy!

Here's the top view -



On the left side, out of view, is a shower caddy with moss in it for a moss pit. The back has a shower caddy with shells - a shell shop. I have that over top the cork round that's the main hide. I'm paranoid about the shell shop falling & hurting someone, so the cork round holds it up a bit. I also added a little clay pot hide between the two pools. I wrapped hemp rope around the supports for the little shelf, which worked exactly as I was hoping! I also made a ramp up to the top level with a wooden dowel wrapped in hemp rope. In the right lower corner & the bottom side, I have suction cup soap holders to hold the leaf bowl & flower bowl. Underneath those is a large dish that will now hold all of the dry foods & supplements, to be changed once a week or more if needed. Still have a bowl (over towards the pools more) for the frozen/wet food too. And then I wrapped the jungle vine in hemp rope to make it easier for them to climb! I need to ziptie it in place a bit though, it doesn't want to stay put very well.

Side view -



And a closer picture of the finished shelf -



Here's hoping everyone enjoys checking out the new high places! So far I haven't seen Pippin do too much, he's relatively friendly, but still too shy to do much while I'm watching. The other two are still burrowed, as far as I know. I want to get a day/night security camera or something to set up so I can see what they're doing at night!


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## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

Wahaha congrats kelsey! Just don't get the really huge ones like i have or else you'll have escapee problems haha


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## MomLady (Aug 14, 2010)

Wow, they have a palace! That's a beautiful set up.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Heh, I'm hoping I can manage to keep these little babies alive long enough to get that big, Neil! I'm not counting on it by any means, with the difficulty of caring for these little ones, but if I can, I'll be ecstatic. But I'm also already planning on upgrading their tank, and as they grow, they'll definitely get home upgrades to give them plenty of space for their size, so hopefully I'll be able to keep them from getting out. :lol:

And thank you MomLady!  I'm really pleased to have it set up with more interesting things & more things for them to climb & check out. It was looking a little too boring & plain before, especially for such acrobatic little animals. I'm kind of tempted to get some cork flats to attach to the lid so they can climb upside down if they want. I've seen a few people discuss having something like that set up & having little spidercrabs hanging out on the ceiling! :lol: I think I'm also going to move the flower bowl over to the front wall so that I can do a corner hammock in the right front corner with some fishnet. Though I need to make sure I don't make it impossible for me to get the large dry food bowl out. I seriously already want to upgrade their tank & I've only had them for two weeks. :roll:


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

You can now be known as the crazy crabbie lady!! LOL They are very spoiled and very lucky.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: Yup, I'm completely in it now. So happy to be a crazy *SOMETHING* lady again!! I already love these little guys, even though I barely met two of them, and I can't wait until they become more comfortable & come back up to explore their new place. They deserve every bit of it.


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## Authra (Apr 23, 2015)

Lilysmommy said:


> :lol: Yup, I'm completely in it now. So happy to be a crazy *SOMETHING* lady again!! I already love these little guys, even though I barely met two of them, and I can't wait until they become more comfortable & come back up to explore their new place. They deserve every bit of it.


How's the hermit crab colony doing


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## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

Kelsey, I am so happy for you! Whatever your pet shall be.........you will always provide the best life with love, concern, and caring!!! I never actually saw a crab before, so this is also very educational for me.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Belated reply, but thank you, Shetland!  If an animal depends on a person, then that person is obligated to do the best they possibly can. Especially for animals like these little crabbies...I hate that they were yanked out of the wild due to the whims of humans. I can't return them or guarantee they could stay in the wild even if I did, but if I'm going to have them, I'm going to do the best I can for them. Here's hoping that will be enough!

And sorry I'd missed your reply too, Authra! I was just thinking tonight that I should post a little update. Boromir (the medium) and Merry (the other small) are both still MIA. They've been burrowed for just over 4 weeks now. I'm hoping they'll come up soon...this time span is normal for both destressing & molting, so it's hard to tell which is happening. I'll just have to keep trying to be patient & wait to see if they'll come up with shiny new exoskeleton or if they were just getting used to things.

In the meantime, Pippin is giving me plenty to be excited about!!  I'm thrilled to death tonight because he has TWO burrows in the sand (the first appeared a couple nights ago & I wasn't positive if that's what it is). He also raided the dry food bowl for the powdered egg & moved the dried mealworms, and it looks like he went for the bee pollen in the supplements bowl too. I put a couple shells down on the substrate for him & it looks like he tried one on, then changed his mind. :lol: I moved several more down in case he wants to try some more on. 

I'm so excited to see signs of activity! I hope that means he's settling in nicely & going to start making himself really at home. And while the mess is pretty small so far, I've read enough on the hermit crab forum to decide that crabby mess will be my new poop-covered hedgehog wheel - I'll complain about cleaning it up, but when there's no mess, I'll panic. And then be full of relief when there's a mess again. :lol: Apparently hermit crabs can throw house parties that rival that of hedgehogs! I hope the other two crabbies will come up soon to help Pippin trash my nice tank.


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## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

Wait til they start digging. They can plough your substrate like a child digs thru dirt lol


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