HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Well a lot has changed in the las couple of weeks. My poor hamster died just after xmas, my daughters died/or is running free earlier this year (she had it out and forgot to put it up). Earlier this year I purchased about 160 bobwhite quail chicks and managed to raise about 96 to adult stage. Then put all but 30 (15 pairs) in the freezer for dinner. I kept waiting for eggs but finally decided they weren't going to lay until spring. No sooner than I did that I start out with 2 eggs gradually increasing to now 10-15 eggs. Right before xmas I decided to go ahead and hatch a few just because, so I put 15 eggs in an incubator. They are do to hatch this sunday and Monday 12th & 13th. I am so excited because this is the first time I have done this ever. Because its so cold I will have to keep them in the house though which is why I only did 15 I plan on about 1/2 of them hatching since I've never done this and the incubator that I have is just a cheap one not very good quality. I did do what they call candling the egg and tried this on 5 or 6 eggs and though it was hard to see there were live chicks moving in all of them so I may get more than I thought I would. Oh I also got 2 parakeets just after xmas which we are trying to work with and tame down a little better. These I lucked into on craigslist the lady was giving them away cuz she was pregnant and had too many other animals. I was so glad since I had been wanting to get a small bird for my daughter and I to have and play with so now we each have one and I didn't even have to buy the cage. Which was the main reason I hadn't gotten some to begin with, cages are a little too expensive for me. The one they came with is about a $50 cage and it's not that big or fancy. I will update again and let you all know how many quail I got to hatch.PS All my crabs are still doing good I have 1 for sure buried probably molting again (2-3 weeks down) and another that's been down for about 1 week.

When I was a paraprofessional in Jr high the teacher had some hamsters. One kept escaping from his cage and the kids would find it in various places through out the Jr. High school. Sometimes he would be gone a few days , sometimes a week..a named him Houdini. I also had to change his cage, well he ran out of litter and the teacher used news paper and the hamsters shredded it nd then they were dead. The ink poisoned them. I was so mad at Jason cause he just laughed it off..I would of brought him home if I would of known he didn't give crap about him..but then gain this is the husband of the person I got my frog off of that was going to plop him in the out side pond or leave him freezing school building with no food for 2 weeks.

How sad. Most of my life I have had at least 1 hamster and I love the little critters (so does she) but this makes the second or third time she has gotten the hamster out playing with it then left it alone. I know she doesn't mean to and usually its cuz she gets distracted by someone asking her to do something but I am trying to see if I can get her to realize that she needs to pay more attention and put it up before doing something else so she don't forget about it. However i'll probably get another later this year.

Well I get up early this morning. The kids are starting back to school after the holidays today. I get them to the bus and come back in, decide I look at the eggs just to see. Nothing, ok I really didn't plan on any hatching til tomorrow at the earliest anyway. Go back to bed for awhile longer since I don't work til noon. Then I start getting ready for work and before I leave I here my hubby saying oh how cute. Turns out he happened to look at the eggs and there was 2 little quail chicks still wet from hatching and a couple more eggs with cracks fixing to hatch. Soooooo exciting!!! And they're so tiny and cute!

You could sell adult quails, quailets?!, and quail eggs to some exotic pet keepers who have snakes. My red-tailed racer loves adult quails, my boigas love baby quails (puglets as they are called here) and my kukri snakes love quail eggs haha

I might start selling but would have to increase my population and thus pen size and more equipment. So it will depend on if I can get enough extra money to do so. I have had several run ins with snakes last year eating my birds (no eggs at the time). Both times being Black Rat Snakes about 5ft long 2-3 inches wide (except the part the birds were in the belly at) I didn't think racers were big enough to eat them but on second thought your racer may be bigger than the racers we have here ours are very slender. My birds stand about 8-10 inches tall and about 4-5 inches wide. Sorry don't remember what the breakdown into centimeters is.

Thank goodness they didn't have eggs then or else they're also brunch haha. Yeah they call red-tailed racers as racers here when in fact the snake has a long actual name red-tailed green ratsnake just to make it short haha. Ours do tend to reach 8-10 feet tops but most in captivity stay below 6 feet. They just specialize in eating birds and bats.I believe you're not allowed to keep that black ratsnake even if you wanted to right?

I think i could if i wanted to, but would have to make sure on that may need a permit or something. I know for birds and mammals you have to have a special permit.Well Friday when I got home 2 more had hatched make the total 4. Early Sat morning I get up about 5:40 and there sits 4 more chicks. I go to work, come home, and 1 more had hatched so now there is a total of 9 out of 15. So far they are all doing good. I am still waiting to see if the other 6 eggs will hatch, but I'm starting to think probably not. I'm happy with what I've got though I didn't expect all to hatch anyway.On a side note I didn't know that chicks could peep while they were still in the shell. I happened to pick the eggs up Friday night to see if any were cracked and I guess I made it mad cuz all the sudden this egg starts peeping at me (there wasn't a crack in it). It was one of the ones I found Sat morning though. I know it was the egg cuz I moved all the others (chicks) to a different room in a homemade brooder.

I have come to the conclusion today that they aren't going to hatch. Still I have 9 happy healthy chicks which is fine with me. They're so cute everyone wants to hold and play with them. I have to make sure they wash their hands and can pick them up for a minute or to but then put them right back so they stay warm and clean. Also I don't let them be picked up very often just once or twice a day.

You wouldn't believe how fast these things grow. Its only been 1 week and they're already starting to grow little wing feathers. They have almost but not quite doubled in size.I'm pretty sure that I will start trying to sell some eggs, since I'm getting a pile up of them. I'm just afraid I will have more demand than supply.Oh the last 6 eggs didn't hatch , but there's always next time.