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| Say NO to Crabinacup sold at Walmart! Such humiliation and animal cruelty against hermit crabs must not be tolerated. |
| Say NO to the painted shells sold in many pet stores! Hermit crabs are not toys, nor are their shells. |
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Identifying Post-moulters |
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| Being the owner of a successful moulter is no doubt a wonderful experience. However, avoid touching the hermit crab until a week has passed just to make sure that the post-moulter has fully recovered. Do not forget to provide plenty of foods rich in proteins and calcium. |
| If you are unsure whether a hermit crab moulted or not after being buried for a long period of time, consider the following: |
| 1. |
Does the hermit crab have black "nails" at the tips of its legs and claws? Freshly caught wild hermit crabs usually have their leg tips cruelly clipped away by poachers to prevent them from scratching the hands of little kids. Lazy poachers may even severe a whole section of the hermit crab's leg to save the poacher time from pulling them off whatever they were grabbing onto. If you recall your hermit crab missing some or all of its leg tips, but it now has all of its leg tips, then your hermit crab definitely moulted. |
| 2. |
Has the exoskeleton of the hermit crab changed in colour? If yes, then your hermit crab moulted. Some colour changes will be more obvious than others. For example, a brown C. compressus may gain a greyish-blue coat after its moult. As a general rule, if the colour of the hermit crab's exoskeleton has deepened in colour, then it suggests that the hermit crab was fed a nutritious diet. |
| 3. |
Does the hermit crab look larger than before? Most hermit crabs do not appear to have grown a lot after their moult, but you can compare their body size with the seashell that they are wearing. Does the hermit crab look as though it cannot withdraw as far into its seashell? If so, then it has moulted and grown bigger. |
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| Hermit crabs are able to regenerate any lost or damaged limbs through moulting, as long as they are fed a nutritious diet prior to their last moult. Complete regeneration of body parts usually takes multiple moults. The body part to be regenerated will gradually grow in size with each moult until it is fully regenerated. Some body parts will take more moults than others to regenerate. Missing legs and claws will usually be fully regenerated after about four moults, depending on the size of the hermit crab. Eyeballs, being much more complex components of the hermit crab's body, may take six or more moults to fully regenerated. |
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