{"id":8800,"date":"2021-09-02T01:05:53","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T05:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=8800"},"modified":"2021-09-02T19:59:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T23:59:14","slug":"thirteen-things-captive-hermit-crabs-need-to-thrive-thursday-thirteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=8800","title":{"rendered":"Thirteen Things Captive Hermit Crabs Need to Thrive – Thursday Thirteen"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. Sand at least 6 inches deep for molting.<\/li>\n
  2. Humidity (suggest using a gauge to regulate it.)<\/li>\n
  3. Fresh water pool with dechlorinated water<\/li>\n
  4. Salt water pool deep enough for the crabs to fully submerge. Use ocean salt mix (like that used for salt water fish).<\/li>\n
  5. Rocks or something else in the pool to ensure the smaller crabs can climb out.<\/li>\n
  6. Hiding places like cork bark rounds or coconut houses.<\/li>\n
  7. Wood or other things to climb on.<\/li>\n
  8. At least 5 gallons of space per crab. For example at least a 20 gallon tank for 4 crabs. I currently have a 40 gallon tank for my 3 crabs, but I’m planning to upgrade to a 75 gallon in the future.<\/li>\n
  9. Fresh food, such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts.<\/li>\n
  10. Warmth. Their crabitat should be 75-80\u00b0F<\/li>\n
  11. Unpainted\/natural shells of progressing sizes<\/li>\n
  12. A lid for the tank to keep the crabs in and the humidity up. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n
  13. Friends. Crabs are social.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In case you’re wondering why I chose this list, here’s why I’m interested in hermit crab care. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    My first experience with hermit crabs was through pet sitting.\u00a0 I was shocked to learn that when people buy hermit crabs, they’re often not given complete information about the basic care of these pets. My pet sitting turned into an adoption because the owners legitimately had no idea about the conditions crabs need to survive or even that they could live longer than a few months to a year. (Crabs can actually live for decades.) Like many people, when they purchased the crabs they were sold a tiny container with minimal sand, shallow water dishes, and some dry hermit crab food. They were told that these items were pretty much all that was required for the new addition to their critter family. Because I knew nothing at all about crabs and didn’t want to accidentally do harm while pet sitting, I did some research online and found several sites that offered a lot of great information about them. Needless to say, when I talked to the crab owners, they were appalled that they hadn’t been give accurate information from the store where they bought the crabs. While sitting, I had bought some things recommended on the crab sites and we mutually decided that I could keep them. I’ve had them for four years, and while I’ve learned a lot about hermit crabs, I feel like I’m always learning more. As much as I love my hermit crabs, I wouldn’t recommend having them as pets unless you do a lot of research and are willing to make a commitment to them. I do my best, but let’s face it, a crabitat will never be the same as having miles of beach to live on. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    If you’re interested in hermit crabs, I’ve found these sites to be helpful:<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/www.hermitcrabassociation.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.hermit-crabs.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/crabstreetjournal.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/www.hermitcrabpatch.com\/category-s\/174.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you know of any other hermit crab sites, please let me know.<\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t forget to stop by\u00a0http:\/\/newthursday13.blogspot.com\/<\/a>\u00a0for more Thursday 13 posts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sand at least 6 inches deep for molting. Humidity (suggest using a gauge to regulate it.) Fresh water pool with dechlorinated water Salt water pool deep enough for the crabs to fully submerge. Use ocean salt mix (like that used for salt water fish). Rocks or something else in the pool to ensure the smaller…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183],"tags":[1048,1049,1043,1050],"class_list":["post-8800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-thursday-thirteen","tag-hermit-crab-care","tag-hermit-crabs","tag-pets","tag-thursday-thirteen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8800"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8848,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8800\/revisions\/8848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}