New to Hermit Crabs, any help is appericated!

[emmac350]

It's good to see a pet store that actually tries to take care of their hermit crabs, even if they aren't as cuddly as puppies or kittens. Let's see what answers I can give you.

As for shells (at least for your personal use), look on ebay. A lot of crabbers will get lots of 75+ shells of varying sizes from ebay. Just search for hermit crab shells. I am very happy with the shells I got from there - I've had shell switches into six various shells (which, with 6 crabs and 4 of them being Es, which are notorious for not switching shells often, is fairly good luck so far). I've got shells that will most likely last me a few years just by buying one lot.

If the playsand you have is from an actual beach, it should be a much better choice than, say, Quikrete playsand for the crabs. What brand is it, out of curiosity? CaribSea is a good brand for crabs - I have a few who dig and dig to no end, but never stay in their holes. They just love how it moves around and feels. It's a very soft-feeling sand even to your touch.

Pellets aren't usually the best things to feed your crabs. For one thing, if they contain ethoxyquin or copper sulfate, they can and most likely will kill your crabs. Both of those substances are insecticides, which our crabs are susceptible to. Additionally, crabs need to be offered a variety of food. They will not eat something that they've eaten within the last 6 days (roughly) and generally won't eat anything that they've even just smelled within the last 9-14 hours. So variety with crabs every day is a good thing. I recommend getting some shrimp for the crabs (even just the freeze dried ones in the fish food section), and replacing the pellets with bits of meat you prepare for yourself, prior to seasoning. So if you're eating pork chops, cut of a corner of a raw pork chop and microwave it to cook, maybe even seasoning it with foods from the safe foods list on the Epicurean Hermit site (search for Epicurean Hermit on this site and the link will come up from several places). A few nights ago, I had steak fajitas so I saved a piece of steak, a piece of pepper, and a piece of onion prior to cooking, then microwaved them and put them in the food bowl, topping with a little extra virgin olive oil and a drop of lime juice. I found the pepper dragged halfway across the tank and the steak covered in sand from someone eating it.

If you don't eat meat much (or if you don't want to remember to save bits for crabs, you could make up a few small batches of "recipes" (I use that term VERY loosely) and freeze ready-to-serve crab-sized portions in ziploc bags. Right now, I have about 3/4 pound shrimp with olive oil and lime juice individually in ziploc bags, bags of spinach, carrot, and tomato for a salad (add lemon/lime juice and olive oil for "dressing"), chicken with honey and orange, cut up bits of vegetables I use in casserole, etc. all saved for when I don't cook something completely from scratch that's safe for them. You can scramble an egg with the shell in it and save that for later, etc. It's just about being creative. Also, they love nuts, so if you have any unsalted nuts (walnuts especially for mine) they will most likely go crazy for them. Mealworms are safe for crabs, but should be dead before serving - if the crabs don't kill them immediately, the mealworms could hide somewhere in the crabitat and you'd never find them. So either freeze or bake them, then serve - my crabs like mealworms, actually.

What brand of salt mix is it? And technically crabs can manage without saltwater (although not very well; they tend to soak in it before molting and it helps them restore electrolyte balance and maintain the salinity of their shell water) but this requires them to recycle their urine to maintain the salinity balance in their shell water. I'm sorry, but that sounds just gross. Ten years is a decent amount of time with the same crabs, especially considering how clueless many pet stores are, but so far the record (unofficial) for land hermit crabs is 32 years. Her crabs have been offered salt water and enjoy it. My salt water bowl is often the most popular one, judging by the amount of sand that's in it daily. How much salt mix does it say to use for the 10 gallons? You could mix up a gallon at a time (add 10% of what it says to add).