Crabitat for Crabmanity

My kids have been begging us for a pet, for years.

I grew up in a home that did not allow pets in the house.

Well, most of the time.

There were those few stray cats that my dad had found on the railroad tracks that were starving.

He brought them home to me,

Breaking his rule of no pets.

And now I find myself breaking my own rule of no pets.

Before we left on vacation,

my daughter had mentioned,

"One thing I really want when we go to the beach is a hermit crab."

That stuck in my head the whole time leading up to the vacation,

And during it too.

On our last day there, I asked Matt if it was okay.

 

My reasoning?

1. They're cheap. (Ha! - But we'll get to that in a bit)

2. They don't make noises (ie barking, howling, meowing, etc)

3. They won't get hair all over the house (I do that enough as it is) ;)

4. We won't have vet bills.

5. It will teach the kids how to care for another living thing.

 

So we did it.

We went down to that purple souvenir shop in Gulf Shores and meticulously picked out our hermit crab.

The kids picked a very good sized one.

We bought a container.

They were extremely happy.

Oh wait,

He needs to eat, so we bought food too.

And he needed a sponge to drink from, so we bought one of those too.

And that was it!

(or so we thought)

 

{Inserting note here: Always research before you buy.}

 

Okay, so the kids name him Mr. Crabs.

I like it.  Matt likes it.

Mr. Crabs it is!

But one kid wanted to name him Crabby, so we decided that would be his nickname.

 

Mr. Crabs took the 5 hour drive home surprisingly well.

We set his home on the counter,

And wha-la!

A cheap easy pet.

Mr. Crabs and the kids after we got home from the beach

Mr. Crabs partly out of his shell

And with that statement we SCREECH to a halt.

 

Day 1

Mr. Crabs is ransacking his new home.

He didn't seem happy.

He seemed almost psychotic.

Did we buy the only delusional hermit crab they had in the display?

We began nicknaming him "Moyer the Destroyer".

 

Day 2

Same story.

 

Day 3

I did research online.

Oh boy.

 

1. Hermit crabs are social.  They need to have other hermit crabs to live with.

2. Hermit crabs need plenty of space.  The little container we bought was great for transporting, but not sufficient for everyday life for Mr. Crabs.  Hermit crabs need at least 5 gallons of space each.

3. Hermit crabs need to stay moist.  They are tropical pets.  They require purified water for drinking and bathing.  Tap water has chlorine and it will kill them.  Plus they need a saltwater/calcium spritz regularly.  Oh and the humidity level needs to be between 70-80%.

4. Hermit crabs love to exercise.  They need things to climb on, up, and under.  But you can't use metal.

5. Hermit crabs love to burrow and hide.  So the sand needed to be deep enough for that.  Plus having a few little homes wouldn't hurt either.

6.  Oh, and did I mention, Hermits love to change shells?  Yeah. They do.  So you need a variety of empty shell sizes.  We are struggling to find one for Mr. Crabs, because he is so big as it is.  We'll keep looking.

 

So pretty much everything he needed,

We were not providing.

 

Off to the pet store,

Praying that it wouldn't break the bank.

 

And I would love to report that it didn't.

But I'd be lying.

It actually probably wasn't a horrible price tag considering we were getting a pet and starting from scratch.

But still.  I spent way more money than I had intended.

Remember, my plan was for a cheap pet.

 

A much better home and play space for the hermit crabs

Mr. Crabs enjoying the view of the Crab Shack, but bummed he can't fit in there with his huge shell.

 

So, a few very distinguished presidents on greenish tinted paper later,

We had 

*A 20 gallon crabitat.

*One very large hermit crab - Mr. Crabs

*And two pretty small hermits - Climber and Crawler

(I'm still trying to get my kids to change those last two names, but I think they're not budging) Ha!

*Two hiding places for the smaller ones

Because as we found out, Mr. Crabs, AKA Moyer the Destroyer, AKA Crabby can be very...

well, crabby.

He was showing the littles who was boss.

They needed a retreat.

*Plenty of shells to change if desired.

(except for Mr. Crabs - we're still looking for one)

*A bathtub

*A lot more sand to burrow in

*And plenty of other things to play with, climb up, climb in, climb over,

you name it.

 

And when I woke up this morning and went down to check on everything,

Mr. Crabs had not destroyed the joint.

He was happily laying in a large seashell.

The crabitat was still intact.

The little ones were eating.

All was well in the hermit crab world.

 

And here is some surprising information (at least to me it was).  Hermit crabs are bigger and cheaper at the souvenir shops at the beach.  Mr. Crabs cost us $5.  He is considered a large crab with a fancy shell.  Climber and Crawler, we bought at the pet store in the B'ham area for $6 each and they are considered very small with a non-fancy shell.  Who knew?  A tourist trap had lower prices and bigger product.

 

So now we are the proud owners of 3 family pets.

Welcome Mr. Crabs, Climber, and Crawler to our home.