This week, we welcomed four new hermit crabs into their new crabitat: Racecar 7, Soccer, Spotty, and Krabs. We picked them up this weekend, and three of them moved around a lot before settling in, the fourth (Racecar 7) hasn’t done much and lost a claw this morning. We’ve been reading up like crazy on what to do, and like everything, there’s plenty of conflicting advice to sort through.
It reminds me of when we brought Declan home from the hospital, and the next day he got hiccups. I went out of my mind trying to figure out how to help this infant whose hiccups sounded bigger than he was, while Mike looked on and said, aw, he looks fine. It’s like that with the crabs. I sat in front of the tank for a long time this morning waiting for Mike to come back home and offer ideas as to how to best help Racecar 7. Mike dipped him in some freshwater and saltwater, and the crab moved around, but now he’s staying put again.
The others are all either partially or entirely buried in the sand, apparently “destressing” after the move from the pet store and wherever they came from before that. Anyway, it’s kind of a low-key adjustment period as we learn more about crabs (like the fact that hermits are nocturnal) and they get used to their new home. Two of them have painted shells (Racecar 7 has a black and white checkered flag and a number 7 on him; Soccer is painted like a soccer ball) and two have natural shells. Declan’s pretty frustrated that they could change shells on him, but maybe they’ll hold onto them for a while.
Maintaining the proper temperature and humidity levels is a little challenging. Hermit crabs breathe with gills, so they are land creatures but need a warm, moist environment to breathe properly. We’ve been feeding them hermit crab food, but I don’t know if they’ve eaten any yet. I’m looking forward to feeding them other stuff and adding cool elements to their crabitat over time. But for now, we’re just hoping they get used to things and start moving around again soon!
Here’s a shot of D helping Mike to prepare the crabitat for our new crabby friends. I’d show you a shot of the actual crabs, but they’re all hidden either inside the log or under the sand. : )
We were so happy to meet up with Olin for a short playdate this week. He’s been sick for weeks and is finally feeling better!
Here’s a shot of D at Lego class. It was a five-week series which ended on Thursday.
Quinny didn’t nap during Lego class like she normally does, and she had fun doing Legos, too!
Here she is in the playroom while Declan finished class.
We went out for a short geocache jaunt on Sunday afternoon at at nearby park. Here’s D leading the way with the GPS.
Bingo! We found the treasure!
