scared crabs

[crabby1]

Is there some reason that my crabs at frightened of me and everyone else that comes near their crabitate. No one in my home has ever really had much physical contact with them,and it certainly have never hurt them in any way. I use to have there tat' located in the living room,but I have a just recently turned 7and3 year old and they were pretty active and loud sometimes. So I moved them into a back bedroom and now they have become even more scared of me it seems. I don't know if anyone has experienced this or if it is even really a problem after all. I have 3 that are very large and actually scare me, so maybe they as well sense my fear and tension? I'm probably not going to be messing with them anytime soon I am too scared it would scare me and i drop one by mistake. When my older son and I use to handle them in the summer we only handled them on a bed or the floor just in case one would fall and possibly get injured.What I really am asking is it really detrimental or beneficial for crabs to be use to and /or familiar with humans? If only they knew how much we loved them.

[CallaLily]

Keep in mind they are wild animals.

I personally don't handle my crabs often. To me they're more of a sit back and watch kind of pet.

[Crabinski]

As CallaLily said, our hermit crabs are wild animals, snatched from their natural environment and told to live out their lives in a confined space. No matter how much we love them (and we sure do!), we are frightening to them...large, noisy and intrusive. I have four PPs and only one of them isn't afraid of me; Felix has been with me for over 7 years, is the boss of the other crabs and thinks he's a jumbo in a medium-sized body. I can reach into the tank, move things around, remove/replace the food bowls and he'll just watch while the others run for their lives -- moving near the tank triggers the same reaction most of the time as shadows can indicate a predator and trigger their run-and-hide instinct. As far as handling them, I'll only pick up a crab to relocate him within the tank if he's in the way of task that needs doing (i.e., moss pit needs cleaning or pools need changing).

[crabby1]

Sometimes when I'm reading certain posts I forget that they are wild animals. I don't handle them @all anymore and I especially don't let the kids. I only check daily on where they are and who went down and so forth. I also agree they are a good seen and not touched kind of pet. I have mixed feelings about having them sometimes I feel bad about keeping them confined to a designated space. I'm just think that they are more timid now than they were when I first bought them. That's probably why because at any time someone is tapping on their glass or having a pet store employee pick them up any time of the day and have kids scream. I just forget sometimes they're wild animals,especially when I read about people( I'm sorry I don't remember her name) the author of the crab street journal who have had hers for decades.