HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I got 3 hermit crabs last Saturday! I've had hermit crabs before but it was a long while ago and we had some difficult speices so they sadly died anyway back to the more happy stuff... we just got 3 Hermit crabs 2 jumbo and 1 medium. Their names are mr crabs ergo and Jurassic. They are purple pinchers. They are not shy at all come right out! They are currently living in a 20 gal. Their substate is sand and Eco earth plus some frog moss in the corner. It's about 6in deep (but it does slope down to create a hill type thIng) They have a salt water dish and a fresh water dish. I'm feeding fresh foods once a day at night and commercial foods every other day. They have i cork round to climb on. They also have a aquarium rock. They have some fake reptile vines too. It's very hard to find extra shells in our area. We found only three so far and that was after fiecly hunting through 3 pet stores we have a low watt CHE to keep the temp up. We have plastic wrap over half of their cage to keep the humidity in. We also mist them three times a day with dechorinated water (just like in their water dishes). We also have a sponge in the water dish (doesn't take up too much room they can still bath) and we sanatize it often. Feel free to nicly critique my care.

Welcome!! It sounds like you're on the right track for having a nice setup. My recommendations:

Ditch the commercial food completely. They're often full of nasty preservatives and unsafe ingredients. You can feed fresh exclusively, and they can eat pretty much anything we eat, minus seasonings/spices. Under our food/water section (http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... m.php?f=25) there are sticky posts on safe and unsafe foods, as well as a general guide to nutrition. You can also feed dried food for convenience, and there are several stores that exclusively cater to hermit crabs. Check out the shopping resources at http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pa ... pping.html

As far as shells, they're often times difficult to find in stores if you don't live near the shore. A lot of us buy them online. About how big are your crabs? Since they're purple pinchers, they'll probably prefer shells with round openings; specifically turbos. Again, on the shopping resources page, there are several sites that sell shells. The Hermit Crab Patch has a good selection of shells and food.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have

Yes, ive been debating on getting rid of the packaged diet all together... because it puts alot of pressure on me to make a complete diet for them, hmmm. and about the shells, i've been thinking about just ordering some, the crabs are slightly bigger than a golfball all curled up, except the medium sized one which is smaller then a golfball... more like the size of a... hmm i dont know like a large marble...? thanks for the tips

Welcome to you and your PPs ! Definitely ditch the commercial mix as @megmaholm advised and make your own dry base mix. At the pet store, you'll be able to find Fluker's Aquatic Turtle Blend (freeze-dried mealworms, crickets and shrimp). Grind that up with some plain uncooked (and unflavored) oats to a coarse powder and flake some cuttlebone or eggshells in and, voila!, you've got a nice base dry mix for the crabs. Just supplement the dry mix with bits of fresh veggies, fruits, nuts, cooked/uncooked seafood/meat and the occasional half eggshell with "goopy" albumin and they'll be fine. For some more exotic items, check out Alaska HermitCrab on the Shopping page -- it's run by an HCA member, the prices are great and the shipping rate is very good.

Thanks! I'll try that!

I picked up a mixed bag of shells at Micheals (the craft store if you are in Canada or the U.S. ). It had a bunch of Babalonia shells that supposedly PPs don't like but 2 of my crabs are strutting around like they are on the Catwalk in them. There were all different sizes of bags. A lot of them won't work for the crabs but if you get 8 good shells out of a $5bag it might do you until you can order some.

Great idea! I'll try to pick some up