2 Recipes for 2 Hermies.

[Dukkie]

I'm terrified I'm about to poison my daughter's hermit crabs, Baba and Oona.
Here's what I did:

Medley 1.________Medley 2.
Eggshell.________Cuttlebone
Oatmeal.________Rice
Carrot.__________Cornmeal
Sunflower seed.__Almonds
Peanut/cashew.__Pumpkin seed
Spirulina.________Broccoli

Dehydrated the carrots and broccoli.
I realize there isn't any meat in these. Next week I hope to get some freeze dried protein/meat.

Planning on 3 day rotation: M1 - M2 - fresh & frozen, repeat. Easier for daughter to handle.
Am I gonna kill them?

I'd like to make a third medley for the rotation. Any suggestions? (Sweet potato or beets for color?)
Should I add aquarium salt to one or both mixes?
I think the some of the nuts had table salt on them? Is it going to kill them? Nothing else had salt. I was so careful to read the labels.

I made a dried fruit salad: pineapple, mango, papaya with oatmeal dust so they don't stick together. The fruit is so sweet I'm wondering if it's been artificially sweetened like cranberries and bananas are when they are dried commercially. If it's natural sweetness then we'll add it like regular fruit. If it's candied, then it well use it once or tip ice a month for sweeties.

How do I add photos to this?

Lots of questions, and terribly worried.

-------------------
My 11yo daughter received a hermit crab for her birthday from a friend. Surprise!! We are doing the best we can. Please be nice. Limited budget. worst gift ever (although well meant from a little girl who is quite innocent to what she has done) never give a living gift unless you know...
So we've been using the crab food (yes we know it's bad stuff) that came with Baba and we've been adding a fruit, a veg, a nut, and cuttlebone to the dish. Different fruit, veg, nut each night (dump in the am). Changing fresh and sea water 2or3 times a week. 45gl fish tank, Temp 70-85 hmd: 70-90.

[DaJimmer]

Deep breath. Sounds like your doing good. Use organic produce to minimize pesticides that could harm the crab.
Humidity is first priority i believe. Be sure to read all this. It is a great read. viewforum.php?f=51
Thanks for caring for your pet!

[LadyJinglyJones]

Hiya!
Welcome!

Gah! Live animal present... oh dear.
Well you're certainly on the right track.

Here is a link to a page explaining uploading photos - it has to be done from a third party site, like Facebook or what-have-you. It's confusing at first but once you get it, it's a snap!

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=87783

Next up, I recommend that once you read the care sheet that DaJimmer recommend, you can cruise through the other care sheets, listed in the FAQ page.

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/pages/


And, to help you with meal preparation, here is a link to the crab food pyramid:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92554

Looking at the mixes you prepared - firstly, bravo for taking the time! As you mentioned, animal protein is needed. Beets & sweet potato are certainly options. I'd skip sea salt, they have salt I their salt pool.

What brand of dechlorinator & salt are you using?

If you wish I can point you towards a couple of threads full of animal protein suggestions. ... and you'll be impressed at how diverse your options can be.

Consider adding leaf litter - dried oak or maple leaves from trees that haven't been sprayed or fertilized. Major part of their diet in the wild.

As for table salt, we try to avoid it because it typically contains anti-caking additives that could be harmful to our crabs. With the nut thing, it's up to you... I don't know if it will harm them over time, but if the possibility concerns you then perhaps better safe than sorry?

If you aren't sure about the dried fruit, maybe save it for a once & a while thing.

Preservatives are another thing you want to avoid, so check labels for BHT, ethoxyquin, and copper sulfate. I personally try to avoid sulfites too, which show up in a lot of foods.

Finally, if you have any concerns about your crabitat or crabs, feel free to copy & paste the Emergency Template, in either the crabitat conditions, crab behaviour, moulting, or (hopefully not!) Emergency subforums, so that peeps on the forum can help you out.

[Dukkie]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I feel quite isolated here with no one to get advise from locally.

Humidity was my primary concern as well. Baba came in one of the little "habitats" with a palm tree and 1/8" neon pink sand. I got a hot damp wash cloth over the vents. Baba opened up and started moving after we did that. Poor little wee thing.

I have cruised through most of the care and faq sheets, and surfed several Hermies websites. But I just needed to be sure there wasn't a glaring error in the food. As for protein, still working on that but we did add some roly-pollies. (Happy hunting.) Skipping the sea salt in the food, ty.

Just added a friend for Baba this weekend so we have two now. However, Oona went a buried herself some where. Probably getting her lungs re-hydrated, maybe molting for all I know. The tank doesn't smell bad so she's not dead. I'll take it as a win.

Dear husband got the "hermit crab sea salt additive" (as suggested by the pet store, :roll: ) I tasted that "sea water" and even I knew (a land locked land lubber) that it wasn't right. So,
Instant ocean and seachem prime declorinator.

Wonderful to be able to use Facebook as a source to load pictures from. (Bad sentence)

Table salt on the nuts: I used the nuts/seeds that were the least salty. Sadly that was hours of sorting. I had mixed the nuts in the same bag at the organic store. Next time I'll bring a piece of paper to weigh the products, print the sticker and bring my own dozen baggies.

Leaf litter, yes we around 2 dozen oaks in our yard so that is a great idea. And acorns and dandelion greens too. I'm also thinking about growing little alfalfa patches in jar lids for Baba and Oona to graze on.

I going to try to attach some pics.

Thank you again for your help.

[LadyJinglyJones]

That sounds great...

Please continue to ask any questions & update us on little Baba & Oona! (Such cute names )

[GotButterflies]

Hello! Welcome to the HCA!

Just wanted to make sure that you were able to replace your substrate...as the pink sand was more than likely calcium sand. That can harden like cement when wet.

Cheap tanks can usually be found on OfferUp, LetGo, Craigslist, Bookoo, Varagesale, and other apps that I'm failing to mention Search: tank, reptile, aquarium, terrarium. Good luck! Please let us know if there are any other questions! We are happy to help!

[Dukkie]

Oh yes! Ran to the hardware store and pet store to pickup playsand and Eec fiber. Baba did not spend the night in neon sand after he started living with us.



Now I have question about substrate. The substrate is 1cu ft sand and 1 block fiber expanded with declorinated water. It is about 3" in front and 7" in back. Although the humidity guage stays between 85-95 (too high) the substrate is a always drying out. Bekka is spritzing 2or3 x/day. We just added water to the sub, now the humidity is 99. I'm thinking about adding a block of fiber and removing some sand for higher moisture absorption/retention. Don't really want to do that because of the expense. Am I doing something wrong? Is the electronic humidity guage off? Are the Hermies drowning because of the air or drying out because of the sub?



Last weekend we got Oona. She immediately buried herself and haven't seen her since. When we got her she was in a shell she could really hide deep inside and she didn't change to a smaller shell before she went down. I really want to find her but I don't want to disrupt/kill her if she molting. Is it a higher probability the she's got PPS or molting? No smell yet, but should I try to find her? Is it possible her tunnel caved in on her?

This weekend we got another hermit j.i.c. His name is Bearnie. (We watch "Puffin Rock") Because of Oona and I've just learned about PPS, I put him in the travel tank (Baba's hot pink tank) with 1" sub and put the t-tank in the tat. T-tank is too small for fresh and salt bathing sized bowls. Boiling the shells now for food, salt water and fresh water. How many days should he stay there?



I also picked up some f-d shrimp for medley-2.

Can't think of any other questions for now except why is my 11yo Bekka dragging herself the kitchen floor on her belly? She's a goof-ball.

Thank you all for your help.

[DaJimmer]

viewforum.php?f=51
Read read read search search search.
Sand needs to be damp enough to hold shape. Just enough to hold shape. Sand should not be wet or Gloppy.
It may be safer to err on the dryer side for the sand. If you develop a water pool in the bottom it would be more of a headache. Excessively high humidity isnt deadly or anything it just potentially grows mold easier and fogs the inside of the tank. Remember it's always a good practice to resist digging for crabs. It's also a good practice to give them all the time they need to destress in their new home so try not to handle them too much for a spell. I'm not sure what is more strange crabs or children.

[LadyJinglyJones]

Heya, sorry I'm just seeing this...

Don't dig. Deep breaths. No digging.

Only reasons to dig:
1. Ants
2. Certain flood/bacterial bloom/need to change sub suddenly
3. You have to move & are emptying the tank
4. You know that a crab has dug under but isn't wearing any shell
5. Tank breaks (very uncommon)

I'd add a little more sub, either playsand or cocofibre, just to get a uniform depth of about 6-7 inches.

It is a good idea to err on the side of slightly drier sub, and I suspect either media would help to mitigate any excessive moisture. When adding just do a quick check at the bottom to assure yourself it isn't wet-wet, just moldable-y moist.

You can do 'wet checks' by insering a chopstic/straw/pencil/long straight skinny thing down the sides of the tank, against the glass to the bottom, allowing you to see that the holes hold their shape all the way down, and water isn't pooling at the bottom.

With a crab under you can gently add a 1/2" to 1" of sub daily over areas that you want to raise. Just don't pat it down.

Your humidity is okay where it is. I'd stop or greatly reduce spraying. 2-3 times a day will likely lead to oversaturated sub after a while. Sometimes the very top will dry out a bit, but if you probe below that and it's the correct consistency, you're good. It can take a new tank - especially smaller tanks, I've found, a while to stabilize.
Just keep an eye on it to see what it does.

Other than that it sounds/looks okay!

Have you released Bernie crab yet?

[Dukkie]

Sadly, we haven't seen Oona since 10/7, but so far there's no smell so..... No digging.
Released Bearnie 10/19. So 2 nights and 3 days in the travel tank. He immediately buried himself.
Baba did some major excavating and completely emptied the fresh water tank last weekend. Then in a completely different part of the tank, dug a sleeping pit right next to the heating pad. Weirdo.

Baba is a big boy. And he moved into the shell he has now which is so small he can't even pull himself in enough to hide his eyes. This is what he moved out of: painful!!



I just boiled 2 tonna shells that might be the right size, but they are tonnas.
Searching frantically for turbos with an opening greater than 1 3/4" - 2 1/4". Checked the local Columbia Pet Center, Pet Smart, Petco, Micheals, Hobby Lobby and even went the the mall hermit crab torturer to see if they had any natural shells the right size. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

I've been using the Shopping Guide on this site and found some shell options but they are so expensive. MyGanna on etsy has the best deal that I can find so far.

We're saving up money to get day/night heat lamps for the tank. Right now we are using a heating pad (the type you use when you have an achy back) to heat the tank. It's been running for 4 wks straight. It's doing a perfect job, I just worried the house is going to burn down. Did I mention that our tank is acrylic, (yup, 45 gal. Acrylic tank) so we can't use the under tank reptile pad available in the pet stores.

[Dukkie]

How long should I want before I try to find Oona? Yes, I know 2 weeks isn't enough time, probably 3 weeks more or if there's an odd smell? She's not very big, maybe 1" or less. No digging for 3 weeks and I'll check with you all about her again. No digging.

Bearnie went down a week ago. I think he switched shell before hand. And now Baba has disappeared.

This is nerve racking. Like waiting for a baby to come but labor is much longer.

[Dukkie]

Well, Oona and Bearnie decided to come out and play last week. Oona pps-ed for around 9 wks and Bearnie pps-ed for about 7 wks. Both of the large pinchers are still dark so I guessing they didn't molt while they were down.

[piratetoothgir]

I must say, who named these crabs?

[Dukkie]

My dd did. Bekka named the first one Baba, because we watch Puffin Rock a lot which has a hermit crab in it. Then we found out Baba shouldn't be alone. On Puffin Rock, Oona is the older sister puffin and Baba is the baby brother puffin. The hermit crab is named Bernie, however with the Scottish accent it's pronounced bear-knee.

[curlysister]

Hahaha, I love the question about the kid on the floor. I have no children, but can verify from seeing other people's kids that they can be strange creatures! LOL!
Resist all temptation to dig, unless the specific concerns listed above. I have had Sonny and Cher for over 7 years, and the only time I have dug is when there was water pooling at the bottom when I did a check (Sonny had spilled water bowls). Cher was down for almost 4 months one time she molted! I use a ratio of 5:1 play sand : Eco Earth (that's after the EE has been soaked and fluffed).
They were small crabs when I got them, but Sonny is probably almost a jumbo now, and I concur that the shells are ridiculously expensive!