HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So this happened about two weeks ago: I walked into my daughter's room because I always check on her crabs during the day. I saw pieces of shell everywhere and thought, oh no, who has been murdered? ( Our largest and "oldest" crab was occasionally aggressive when we would give him a single tank mate but has been fine since we gave him a small colony). I investigated and discovered a soft, pink, naked, freshly molted crab under the water bowl! Ouch! Then I discovered why! When Muscles (my daughter named her that because she is tough, and she sure lived up to her name!) molted, Small Frye (our smallest, a tiny) stole her shell!!! She was weak and unable to spend a lot of time looking for a new shell, so she crawled under the water bowl for safety. When I found her, she had lost her largest claw from her left side, and is now missing a total of 3 legs from her left side. Small Frye took his new shell and immediately went down for a molt (or else he is just avoiding retribution for stealing from a larger crab...LOL). I gave Muscles a quick dip in water and put her in a clean shell. I fed her some honey that night and put old pieces of her shell near her. I think she is too weak to crunch on it. She is doing quite well and can rise up out of her shell to say hello and eat and drink, but she does not seem strong enough to carry her shell anywhere. She is starting to harden but it is taking a long time. I am very proud of her but am wondering if there is anything more I should do for her. I am not sure how much she is eating because of her weakened state. No one has bothered her so I don't fear a fight. Small Frye has what he wanted; and truth be told, Muscles' shell was too small and she should have sought a new shell before molting. Most of our crabs take larger shells and then retreat into them to molt. Does anyone have any advice, or anything I might be missing? I am getting ready to cut up some mango for her, which she loves, and I will hand feed it to her.

Thanks for listening!

often crabs will take on a smaller shell before molting so that substrate doent get into the shell as they dig under. Have you had surface molters before? Im wondering whey he chose to molt on the surface. what type of substrate do you currently use?
as for feeding, id make sure he gets some minerals.. and baby food works really well when hand feeding a crab who has lost pincers. if he still has one pincer and can move around he will be able to feed himself..they can and will use all of the walking legs to feed. Id continue to offer soft foods, banana, baby food for protein would be great you can get chicken, even beef. one jar will last you a very long time you may want to put tablespoons full in a ice tray and make little frozen portions that you can thaw out to use. Id get a coconut and smash up some fresh coconut for him.. also offer the coconut water on the inside of the coconut. Its wonderful for ill crabs. you can mix in the minerals with any of the foods.. do you have any powdered foods? they can be made wet and offered. dehydrated foods are also easy to crush and feed. Sea lettuce is wonderful and a very easy sea weed for them to eat, its very thin sheets that crumble to a nice texture. make sure to offer both fresh and salt water. have you got the crab to stay in the new shell? its important so that the crab doesnt dry out. i would make sure inside the shell there is a bit of fresh water.. try to make sure any salt water that gets on the crab gets rinsed off so that you know it wont dehydrate the crab.

Suebee--
Thanks for the baby food idea. I will pick some up today. I don't know why she surface molted. She has stayed in her new shell and she is getting fresh water (just saw her spooning some into her shell this morning). Our food is powdered/flaked and sometimes we moisten it. she seems to be doing ok (eyes are bright and she is responsive), as long as we can get her stronger I think she will do well. It has been two weeks today so I think the worst is over, since she has not left her shell again...