Hermit Crabs

Hermit crabs eat... Fresh foods and treats you can try include mango papaya coconut (fresh or dried) apples applesauce bananas grapes pineapple strawberries melons carrots spinach watercress leafy green lettuces (not iceberg/head lettuce) broccoli Grass leaves and strips of bark from deciduous trees (no conifers) nuts (unsalted nuts) peanut butter (occasionally) raisins seaweed (found in some health food and grocery stores for wrapping sushi) crackers (no or low salt) unsweetened cereals plain rice cakes popcorn (plain, air popped, can be given occasionally) cooked eggs, meats and seafood (in moderation) freeze dried shrimp and plankton (found in the fish food section at the pet store) brine shrimp fish food flakes Not sure about crabs though sorry! Hoped it helped.

You can, but it has NO nutritional value. Best to feed them something else like apples, carrots, oranges, even dandelion leaves and flowers as well as tons of other stuff. Raspberry leaves are particularly nutritious.

depending what kind of hermet crab you like to buy and where you live id say petland

1 month

Another view: I honestly don't know how long they can live, but they can easily return to a tank that is not kept clean. Try to figure out what attracted the mites to your tank in the first place, and correct that so it won't happen again. Mites can be extremely painful and dangerous for your crabs. A good ocean-salt bath will kill the mites on your crabs (make sure it is an approved ocean salt, not table salt or sea-salt meant for humans, which is deadly to hermit crabs because of additives). Follow this link to get excellent information on getting rid of mites and keeping them out of your crabitat:

Because it outgrows the shell it is currently in and much ditch it and move on to another shell which it will eventually outgrow again. Much like how you do not wear what you wore when you were a child!

No you do not. You should put warm water on your hand, and hermit crab. Most of the time it will let go.

Don't kill it!!! I have two hermit crabs, and my friend picked one up, not knowing that it could pinch so hard. So it pinched her, and my Junior in HS friend screamed and cried for a good half hour before we could get it off. I googled how to get it off, and any solutions we tried DID NOT WORK!! (including the above one) so we hit it, someone offered to smash it, and we were about to cut into her skin to get it off, until I thought of the obvious solution. WARNING: It may seem inhumane, but the hermit crab was fine, and desperate situations call for desparate measures.

We filled up the sink and held her hand (with the hermit crab on it) under water until the hermit crab had no choice but to let go so it could breath. It's not necessarily the fastest (or nicest) solution, but it worked and we got the hermit crab out as soon as she pulled her hand out so it could catch it's breath. Most of the skin on her palm scabbed over after it died, and she still has a scar, so hermit crab pinches are not something to laugh about (at the moment :) ). They are super painful, so if all else fails, just dunk im.

Your hermit crab is probably slowing down it's activity due to poor humidity/temperature ratios. Try bringing the temperature of your tank up to 75 degrees and the humidity as well. Offer him some peanut butter and some popcorn as well as ocean style salt water to see if that doesn't get him to be more active.

Caribbean hermit crabs are scavengers in the wild they climb trees to eat bugs, eat dead organisms, and eat fruit such as mangoes that have fallen off of trees.

In captivity they should have human fruits, veggies, and even NONseasoned meat slightly cooked.

lots of things. especially cold and lack of suitable water. they can easily freeze to death and water that hasn't been declorinated will kill them as well. if your hermit crab buries itself or you don't see it for a while don't dig it up. this will kill it. and if you see limbs in the cage don't worry or remove them. your crab is probably just molting

Crabs have an exoskeleton which means their skeletons are on the outside of their bodies.

In order to grow larger, a crab must "molt" or shed its shell when the shell becomes too small to contain its body. The new crab shell is already surrounding the crab's body, but it is soft and needs time to harden into the protective covering we all recognize.

Well it all depends on if you have a male hermit crab. And a female hermit crab. They will have the eggs in water. If you live by a ocean u need salt water. If you don't live by a ocean you need fresh water. Its not that easy because you will need to have a Little bit bigger water bowl so they can have the eggs in there. Well if you see your eggs... They Carrie them under there legs. Kinda like a kangaroo ...Well good luck If you have eggs

If you are asking if they defecate (poop) then yes, they do. The orifice where the waste comes out is on the abdomen, which stays within the hermit crab's shell. The crab will defecate in it's shell, and it's feces look like little brown turds. If you have ever seen a gold fish go to the bathroom, it looks a bit like that, except brown and dry and in short little bits.

The crab will occasionally clean the feces out of his shell using his small back legs which are the same ones that hold him in his shell. They are attached to the abdomen (the white part) and are very short.

There are several reasons a hermit crab might lose its claw.

Keep in mind, only a stressed hermit crab will drop a limb.

If your hermit crab has dropped a claw or another limb, you need to look at what may have stressed him enough to lose a leg or claw.

Was he recently purchased and is new to your home? If a hermit crab is not given time to de-stress after you bring him home, he may start dropping limbs. Once you have him in his crabitat he should be left alone and not handled for at least two weeks so he can get used to the vibrations in your home and his new surroundings.

Is the temperature in the crabitat in normal ranges for hermit crabs, ideally a range at one end near 73*F and the other end near 80*F? They need different temperature ranges so they can moderate their body temperature, being cold blooded animals.

Is the humidity at an acceptable level in the tank? Ideally it should be between 70 and 80% relative humidity.

Has the crab undergone a lot of handling or harrassment lately?

Had the crab been involved in a "shell fight" with another crab? Often a crab would rather die than give up his shell, and might lose a limb in a fight to keep his shell. In this case, always make sure there are at minimum three shells per crab near their size and with the shape hole they prefer depending on their species. But even in this case, there still might be a shell fight. If one crab continues to harass another for whatever reason, he should be moved to an isolation tank to "chill out" for a few days. Sometimes a crab in pre-molt will exhibit more aggression than normal.

If you can determine why your crab dropped a limb and can correct the situation, he will regrow the limb again in a molt or two.

For more information, read the care sheets at http://www.hermitcrabparadise.com, or join the forum and use the search feature. The forum has very experienced crabbers who can give you very solid advice, with updated information. Please, never depend on the information pet stores give you. They only expect hermit crabs to live a year or less, but when cared for properly, they can live for decades in captivity.

yes hermit crabs can eat turkey but it has to be fully cooked and not very hot.

It depends, if it's spring or summer and it's between 70-90 then yes, but only for a little while because they need humidity of 70-80 to breathe because they have modified gills (but they can still drown).

Also make sure there are no fertilizers where the hermie is crawling about.

because they dont look like any ordinary crab and they carry their house. crabs cant hide in their shells.crabs dont switch shells and hermit crabs are most often pets not food no offense crabs!

There are not many hermit crab predators. Their shells protect them. Man is the greatest threat to hermit crabs.

Rolling pins are easy to care for. Simply wash in warm soapy water, dry, and store them.

yes they do. is you frighten or scar a hermit crab then they will hide in their shell until they sense its safe to come out again. you can get your hermit crab to come out if you blow on it. they like warm air so that makes them usually come out. then you can let it crawl on your hand. if you have pet hermit crabs then you can spray them with special hermit crab spray on their claws. you can get some from a pet store that sells hermit crab stuff. its like a conditioner for them and they love to be sprayed with it. it helps their claws feel better. and also, the need salt water in a little bowl that is easy to climb up. and tap water too. one salt water and one tap water. (cold) you can get the salt from pet stores as well. change the waters every few days. they like to swim in it and drink it. im not exactly sure what food they need. they also need spare shells in the tank or wherever you keep them so they can move home when the get to big for their current shell. (make sure its a slightly bigger one!) they also like a thick layer of sand on the bottom so they can bury themselves in the sand if they like. handle your little hermies often so they get used to you. they also definantly need a heat pad stuck under the bottom of the tank for warmth. they need warmth. good luck1!!

Hermit crabs are one of the smallest pets available for consumers to bring home. They are often found as prizes at fairs or on the boardwalk. The crabs do not reduce the amount of nitrates in the water.

Yes, they are located under their carapace (shell) and known as deadmans fingers

no because male hermit crabs and femail hermit crabs will fight with each other or other male or femail's over space,if they have a little space and arround 50 hermit crabs there will be fights.i don't want to give you the wrong image but if they have little space and 2-15 there will proubably be no fights.

There are different rumours about this, however, crabs are said to be omeosmotic euryhaline (can tolerate wide ranges of salinity by maintaining constant the body fluids concentration), but quite different waters will surely shock and kill them. This really depends on the crab species in question, and also what you mean by ocean water. First, if you mean full strength sea water, most crabs can tolerate less saline water, and even adjust to changes in salinity. But as a rule of thumb, you need to consider the natural habitat from which the crab originated. If it came out of the ocean, it should stay in full strength sea water. If it came out of an estuary, it can tolerate less salt, and probably changes in salinity also, particularly if the estuary experiences periodic changes in tidal height. But extreme changes in salinity, especially if they are sudden, are likely to shock and kill a crab, as the previous commenter noted.

Hermit crabs dig holes for several reasons. They will dig down under the substrate to help regulate their body temperature as they are cold blooded animals and depend on their environment to help them regulate. Without a temperature variance so that they can cool down or warm up when they need to, eventually the hermit crabs will sicken and die.

In captivity, they will often dig holes and stay under the surface for upwards of two weeks as they need to de-stress from the awful experience they have just had of being harvested, thrown into a bag with hundreds of other crabs, thrown into a container and shipped to a pet store where conditions most likely were not ideal or healthy for hermit crabs (lacking humidity or warm temperatures and even water).

They are extremely stressed after this and can easily die as a result, and should therefore not be handled or disturbed, other than changing food and waters (ocean salt water and dechlorinated fresh), for the first two weeks after they come to your home.

When it is close to time for the crab to molt, he may also begin exhibiting digging behavior. He may dig down and stay down for several days, but when it is time for him to molt he may stay under the substrate for several weeks to several months.

You should never, ever dig up a buried crab. As they could very well be molting, digging up your crab during this delicate time can kill him.

Some crabs will just dig because they appear to be bored. Equadorian hermit crabs are quite active, and will dig for what seems to be "just for fun".

Purple Pincer hermit crabs are more sedate, and usually when they dig it is to destress or to molt.