HCA: Hermit Crab Association

:D Hi all. I've had my crabs for about a week so far and I absolutely love them. All of my crabs are still afraid of me most of the time when I walk into my room (so, the tank isn't in a high-traffic area unfortunately). I know they need time to de-stress, but all of them have changed shells at least once and I'm pretty sure all of them are eating/drinking, so thats good. I didn't want to stress them out any more than they already are - but when is the best time to start holding them/having them crawl outside of the tank/hand-feed them? I've read about the rules on how to do all of that safely, but I'd just be interested in what the best time to introduce that was. They hide from me a lot, even at night, and I would like to start building relationships a little bit. :) Thanks!

I would say after they have a first molt with you. They should dig down within a couple weeks. It will be an anxious wait, but worth it.

i would personally be hesitant to let them crawl around on the floor too much...unless you're absolutely sure about the types of chemicals that have been used to treat your carpet or wood floors. but i would agree that waiting until after the first molt would be a good standard to when to start hand feeding. i take a few of mine out to "talk" each day, but i usually avoid the crabs who are the most anti-social, as well as the newbies who haven't molted .

annopia