We got two new crabs about 10 days ago (I've discussed one's serious penchant for tunneling in another thread) and they're very shy. The larger of the two crabs spent the first two days out and perched on top of things and the smaller spent her first few days hunkered down in a cave. Now the smaller one is usually found during the daytime under the bush, not far from the food, and the bigger one in large tunnels he digs. My 6yo, who was a driving force in getting them, has made it very clear to me that they're nocturnal and does not seem remotely bothered by their lack of activity and is pleased that there are lots of signs of activity at night. I've checked on them several times at night, and have seen them out and about, but otherwise, most mornings we observe:
- sand pushed into the water bowls (not excessive, but what you'd expect from a crab crawling in and out)
- food taken out and scattered around and/or eaten (a piece of corn on the cob was picked clean, egg shells were dragged under a bush and crushed into oblivion or consumed, various pieces of fruit sliced up)
- shells scattered - we've left quite a few spare shells, and they get moved around, flipped over, pushed around... the night they were most active with the shells we also found one of their crab huts (a smaller one, since we have a smaller crab and a large crab) flipped on its side and moved around, which i suspect was an investigation of its usability as a shell
We did buy them from a big box pet store, which I'm not proud of, and the 6yo and I have discussed that they were probably quite traumatized at the shop and quite sick of bright lights, loud noises and big things moving around. It feels like, based on their nocturnal activities that they're settling in and when there are no humans around and it's dark, they've been coming out and eating, drinking and amusing themselves, but I'm curious as to whether we will eventually see them out and about more during daylight hours?
