Want to adopt instead of buy?

[Ellysara]

I have noticed a few people express guilt over buying hermit crabs from pet stores or kiosks, but since they never see crabs for adoption in their area, they go ahead and buy anyway. For these people, I think it is definitely worth it to make a want ad for crabs on Craigslist or your country's equivalent. I did so awhile back and within 48 hours had an e-mail from a lady wanting me to take her daughter's two crabs. In my post, I just put a short little blurb about how interesting and special I think crabs are and that I have a big tank to fill, then a sentence at the bottom saying, "If you would like to learn more about these creatures, please visit HCA.com" Who knows? Maybe I got one person to visit us and improve their crab care.

So many people browse the Pet page of Craigslist and although they probably aren't actively looking for someone to take their crabs, maybe they will notice the post and remember that crab they bought their kids a couple months ago and how the kids have lost interest.

Another tip for finding crabs on Craigslist is to search for only "hermit" in both the pet and for sale sections. I find that there are a pretty equal number of crabs on both categories. The reason I search for only "hermit" is because it eliminates the need to search for both "hermit crab" and "hermit crabS" in each part, since CL's search function is not so good. The people that put up their crabs for sale are usually asking more than many of us will want to pay for sub-par equipment, but they might give you a deal on just the crabs.

I think that it is important to adopt animals instead of buying them whenever possible, which is why I was willing to stock my tank slowly, as crabs needed homes, over the past three months. It has been so worth it and fulfilling to see these guys who came from environments that would have likely killed them, end up thriving. And only one crab I got through here, the rest were from Craigslist. Yes, I probably will never have exotics, which makes me a little sad, but I am confident that I prevented the premature deaths of most of these crabs, while not funding the corrupt pet industry.

I hope that these tips help some crabby get adopted somewhere!

[TheLilMommaB]

Thank you!!! I never thought to put an add on Craigslist like that...I am getting a 29 and a 65 gallon tank tomorrow even though I only have 3 crabbies right now. I was planning on putting my info on the adoption area here but now I have 2 places also I love the shout out to our awesome little group

[Hermycrabitat21]

this is a great discovery

[wodesorel]

Also -
LIST YOURSELF IN ADOPTIONS.
BE DESCRIPTIVE OF WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU CAN TRAVEL.
GIVE US A WAY TO CONTACT YOU IMMEDIATELY

We get requests in every day for crabs needing homes. My first stop is the state topics up in adoptions. If you leave the HCA for a while (it happens) and aren't checking PMs daily, then we have no way to reach you! Also, if we don't know what city you're in or how far you can travel, that doesn't help anyone as we have no idea if you can get the crab(s). Our goal is to place a crab in the first 24-48 hours for the benefit of the current owners, so you have to make it easy for us to be able to get ahold of you ASAP.

If you're active on Facebook, think about messaging the HCA page with your full location (ie, for me it would be "Leetonia, Ohio") and don't delete the message on your end since as a page we aren't able to start conversations. We have the option of searching old messages for keywords, and yes - I've messaged people who contacted us a year ago who were in out of the way places and got them crabs that way. FB works really nice since it's nearly instantaneous and we can usually arrange adoptions within a couple of hours.

[Ellysara]

Glad I could help, lilMommaB. Hope you can adopt lots of crabbies!

Wode, I will send a message to the FB page. Even though my tank is at capacity, maybe I can help out in emergency.

Also, I hope that this post did not seem at all negative toward the HCA adoption process. I just wanted to point out that it is not the only option for those wanting to adopt.

[wodesorel]

Not at all! I've just been seeing a lot of people talking about how they want to adopt or how they never see adoptions in their area, but they've never contacted us or told us where they were, where they can travel to, or how many they can take in. It's a little frustrating, since there are always open adoptions we can't find someone for, and we have known areas that are complete dead zones. We may not always be able to find you an adoption no matter how long you've been waiting, but on the other hand we may have a weird week where we can match you up with three separate adoptions in your home town and get you a free 75+ gallon enclosure and/or some Violas and Straws in the process. We have no control over when or what comes in, but when it does I do everything in my power to find them someone who understands that hermits are not a throw away pet.

[TheLilMommaB]

I will be sending you my info as soon as I have the tank all set up and ready

[KellyCrabbieLove]

I would love to adopt. I am in Indianapolis, In.

[Brittanybaby22]

I want to adopt I live in Dallas Texas

[wodesorel]

You need to find your state topic in the Adoptions section so they get recorded. Regular topics like this are cleared out after a few months.

[Skymall007]

Thank you!

[moonshermies]

I would love to do something like that, but because I dnt drive yet , getting to most of the places in need are hard & very frustrating..I wanted to do one just for my area, but dnt think its worth it..I did word of mouth to a few friends who kno the town & ppl all there lives..so im thinking thats a start for now..

Sent from HTC EVO, using Tapatalk 2

[gotta-crab-em-all]

Man, I wish I could sign up as an adopter here, or post a wanted ad on craigslist D: I've been wanting more crabs for awhile but my parents said they didn't want me doing either one because they aren't keen on me meeting up with people I'd only met online even if they go with me. The chances of somebody adopting out crabs close enough to where I live is slim too. I live wayyyy out in the sticks and my parents aren't willing to travel further than the local pet store for "just crabs". :c

[tykesanimalkingdom]

What a great idea! I've been searching craiglist for the last couple of days trying to find some crabs to adopt. But thankfully there was a post on the HCA about a lady who was re-homing her 2 crabs, and she doesn't live that far from me. I'm praying that everything goes well and that I get to adopt them

[Drakezilla]

I've listed myself on Craigslist to no avail. I don't have my 75 up yet, but i won't turn down an emergency rescue, you know? I have all the extras and I know enough to know what I'm doing. I just haven't seen more than one post in 3 months anywhere!