First moulter and have a few questions...

[dolphinslady]

I've read alot of the posts on here about moulting but now I almost feel more confused, lol

In a nutshell: I have 2 small hermies (I guess they are small?). One (Red) just buried himself on 1/1. Is it true he could be under there for a month? Doesn't he have to come up to drink/eat? I know they apparently store a little food/water in their shells but c'mon. Should I put more sand on him or what?

My other question is: I have 5 new hermies coming this Friday. Should I put them in there while he is molting or should I iso him after he's buried? Or should I buy another tank for the new ones? And is 7 too many for a 10 gallon tank? I read that hermies like to be in groups...

THEN, I'm leaving in a week for vacation to Ohio and won't be here if Red comes out of his molt, so is that alright? I'm gonna have my mom stop over to give them their water and food daily.

Are ya all aloud to post other websites with information on here? If so, please let me know. I'm so new to this and honestly didn't realize what I was getting in to.

Thanks,
Cheryl

[Jaci]

small hermies can be under for as long as 3-4 weeks yes. they go under longer as they grow. jumbos can stay under as long as 5 months. most of my smalls have molted in about 4 weeks. do not dig him up. as long as he has enough sand to bury himself completely, don't add sand. when they go under they create a cave type hole where they have enough room to shed their skin. if you put a lot of weight on top of where you know he went under, their cave could collapse.
how big of a cage are yours in now? if you want to get a bigger cage, by all means, but if not, your new ones should be fine walking around on top in the same tank as your molter. how big are they? if they are small-medium they should be fine in the 10 gallon. i wouldn't suggest 7 large-jumbos in a 10 gallon tank.
sometimes they come up to eat and drink, then they'll go back under. i haven't experienced that, mine go under and stay under. you may think that they won't survive under the sand for long periods of time, however, they only go under if they have enough nutrients and vitamins to stay under for a while. they know what they're doing better than we do. lol.
as long as your mom comes in and makes sure they have food and water, they'll be ok, including your molter. when you come back and you see him walking around, pick him up to see if he has black tips on his feet, if so, you had your first successful molter! good luck and let us know how things go!