HCA: Hermit Crab Association

so what does it mean when my (large) strawberry just came up from her first molt with a twisted front limb?

the limb that's twisted is the first leg back from the big pincer. strumberry looks great, is eating and appears to be moving alright. she was down for about 2 months in a sand/exoearth mixture kept at sand-castle dampness and had 7" of substrate to bury in. she was also almost directly on top of my uth, but i didn't want to take the risk of moving her and figured she picked the spot so i didn't want to turn it off either.

i've had a bunch of successful molts with my pps, e and other straw, so this was unexpected. her shell does seem small to me but she's being stubborn about switching -- i've given 8 really snazzy alternates, but she's insisting on sticking to that ugly old shell from petco. sigh. at least it's not painted!

so, anyway, input would be great!

thanks!
bonnie

I've heard of a fer hermies coming up from molt with twisted limbs it could possibly be from leaning against the glass before they were hard or something could've shifted him to quickly, another hermie perhaps.. If it doesn't seem to be bothering him I wouldnt worry about it. Goddluck tho...

It sounds as if something just oushed against her leg while she was hardening. She may shoose to drop her leg if it starts to bother her, but it is just great that she is active and healthy acting!

jenniferc21solidgold wrote:I've heard of a fer hermies coming up from molt with twisted limbs it could possibly be from leaning against the glass before they were hard or something could've shifted him to quickly, another hermie perhaps.. If it doesn't seem to be bothering him I wouldnt worry about it. Goddluck tho...

I agree! I had a straw who had a corkscrew leg because another straw had tugged on her exo as she was shedding it. For some reason, the corkscrew leg never seemed to bother her, and she corrected it with her next molt.

whew! i was worried that i'd done something to hurt her. glad it (should) be alright and/or be corrected in the next molt.

bonnie