Make Up Your Mind, Silly Crab!

Last night when I got home, I saw Rigby back in his original shell. I am just happy he was in a shell. Anyhow, it seems he is just not sure which one he should go with. Whatever, he is going to stay in isolation for a couple weeks, just so that I can have peace of mind that he had time to destress from whatever was bothering him.

On another note, I went Xmas shopping for my Hermit Crabs last night...and at Pet Co, they had either a dead hermit crab in the tank or a molting hermit crab in the the tank, I couldn't tell. It looked dead to me, but I was hoping that it was just molting.

Anyhow, I bought my Hermit Crabs some treats, Freeze dried Brine Shrimp and this Fruit Treat stuff from T-Rex. I haven't had much luck with my Hermit Crabs liking any T-Rex stuff, but I am hoping that the fruity smell gets them to eat something different. It seems that the only thing they will eat is the Jurassi Diet pellets (crushed up of course), peanut butter and apples. Which is good, but they should have some more variety. So, I am trying out the brine shrimp and fruity stuff. I figure I can give the brine shrimp to molters if it is a success. Molters that I have had aren't too fond of eating crushed cuttlebone, so I am hoping that the brine shrimp will help with that.

I also went to Pet's Mart to check out the Zoo Med Thermostat R500, because it is $40 online and the picture of it is not good enough to tell anything. I really don't feel like blowing $40 on a thermostat to find that it is not up to my standards. However, this is something I am just going to have to do, because it was not on the shelf! UGH! I guess while I am at it, I'll order some of the FMR food, cause the hermit crab group on yahoo swears by it. Unfortunately, you cannot buy that stuff at Pet Co or Pet's Mart, or any other pet store I have set foot in around this area, so online purchase it is!

The frustrating part, is that I go to Pet Co and Pets Mart and I see the stuff that they sell for Hermit Crabs and either the stuff is unnecessary, bad quality (meaning the Hermit Crabs won't like the stuff), or they are lacking key things that they should be selling for them. The Care sheets that they hand out are truly laughable. After spending almost over a year taking care of these little guys, I feel like I know what works and what doesn't, but I am still trying new things for them. However, I know enough to actually walk into Pet Co or Pet's Mart and tell them what they should and should not be selling, and what advice they should and should not be telling their customers.

I like how they say that when you feed the Hermit Crabs you are supposed to put the crab on top of the food dish and see if it eats. How many times is that going to happen? If the crab isn't hungry, it will not eat and you could stare for hours. Then it says if the crab doesn't eat, mist the crab and the food and then put the crab back on the food. Why? I don't know. Sounds like bogus and pointless directions to me. Not to mention, if you mist their food, you are going to create mold issues, especially if you are a kid who forgets to change their food everyday and forgets to spot clean the tank daily. Hermit Crabs have a keen sense of smell, they know where the food is and they will eat it if they are hungry.

OK, enough ranting about mediocre pet stores. Really, only specialty pet stores should be selling them. Oh yeah, it also seems Pet Co has caught on that Strawberry Hermit Crabs are exotic, so now they are charging $10.99 for the jumbo ones, which are the only Strawberries that they are selling. The really disturbing thing is, that they cram about 15 of these jumbo Strawberries into an exhibit tank that they would put one Tarantula in. They don't have enough room to move around! The Strawberries should be in a bigger tank like the rest of the Hermit Crabs. I also saw other non-Strawberry ones in a similar small exhibit tank under similar conditions. Makes me want to write a letter. Strawberries are harder to take care of as well, so you would think that they would take better precautions as to their environment.

My first two crabs were a Strawberry and a Rugosus Crab (I thought he was an Ecuadorian one, but I was wrong...that was Crabby). I had no idea that they were different species much less how to take care of them. Even though I did the best I could from looking online and learning about how to take care of them, the Strawberry Crab had a couple of lost legs when I (unknowingly) bought it and it was stressed, so in about a month it had died. So sad! Anyhow, I know how hard they are to take care of and seeing them like that at Pet Co seemed cruel.

OK really, enough of my ranting, I am off.