Tiger - Day 1... Edlie - Day 1?!

Drat.  Just when I was beginning to enjoy all three of the hermies together again(scratch that, I've enjoyed it since the get go, so do we so often say that...?), Tiger has to bury herself.  At first, I thought it was just her extreme intolerance to the cold.  About a week ago, we got a nice cold front.  I love the cold, but it turns out Tiger absolutely hates it!  I haven't been able to go buy an Under tank heater yet, so I keep a blanket over the tank to keep it insulated.  When I finally did get the tank warm again, Tiger came out and enjoyed herself. 

However, two days ago, Tiger buried herself again.  I checked the temp and the humidity and everything was fine.  So, like I did with Maui, I left her there until this morning, where I moved her to the molting tank.  She immediately buried herself(within the hour no less) and I currently hear her digging at this very moment.  I'm not sure what she's doing... making her underground cave bigger? Who knows...

Anyway, after I moved Tiger over to the MT, I found Edlie totally buried! Not her too!  Again, like with the others, I'll leave her for two to three days before taking her out of the main tank.  However, Tiger's in the MT, so I might have to get a gallon-sized bucket and fill that with sand for Edlie.  Joy.

Poor Maui is going to be all alone.  Perhaps I might get new hermies sooner than I thought... but wait!  Hermit crabs will often molt after you've brought them home from the store because the conditions weren't ideal.  I refuse to have a bunch of buckets and pails lying around my room! GAH!

It's time to celebrate!

I am very happy to announce that just a few hours ago, my older sister went into my room and found Maui sitting atop the sand in the MT!  She called to the rest of my family, and all of us raced up the stairs and into my room.  True enough, there was Maui looking pleased with herself.

I must admit that I was beginning to get worried, and I wondered if she had died or something awful like that! Yesterday was Day 20, so we're all very please that Maui has decided to join the surface world again.  We looked to see if we could find any of her exoskeleton(we didn't) and we placed Maui back into the tank.  Currently, she's still sitting on top of the shelf.  I'm hoping that I'll catch when she moves down and rejoins Tiger and Edlie.

As a side note, I've been thinking that I should get a couple more crabs.  Edlie and Tiger were very lethargic and slept most of the time while Maui was gone, so I think another crab might stir things up a bit. In a good way, of course!  A larger family will keep things more active and alive, and since hermit crabs are very social, it would do them some good.  However, I don't think I'll get another crab until after or during Christmas.  Probably after, since the Christmas season is so hectic in my family!

Anyway, a great big "Welcome back!" goes to Maui for her return!

Playground Time - Day 10

The hermies have been a little anti-social lately.  Of course, I've been really busy the past week, so I haven't spent hardly any time with them, other than giving them food and changing their water.

So today, I took Edlie and Tiger out of their tank and placed them in their playground!  Tiger had a blast crawling on the pile of rocks and Edlie pretended to be a bulldozer.  She literally pushed all the toys to one side of the box!  While they had fun, I also did my school at the same time.  I'm going to try to do this everyday now.  Put them in their playground while I do my school in the morning.

Maui is still buried in the MT and today is Day 10.  Yesterday, when I was misting the MT, I noticed a little hole in the sand.  I figured that it must be where Maui was buried, so I didn't touch it.  Today when I misted the tank, I gently spritzed the little hole and part of it collapsed!! Oh no!!  Hermies like total darkness when molting, so I took an extra water-bowl shell and gently placed it over the hole to keep things dark.  I just hope that little Maui is doing a-okay under there.  Of course, she's done this before, so I'll just continue to let nature take it's course.

Happy Birthday!

One month ago, the hermies where brought home from the pet store!  Since this was such a grand occasion(actually, I just needed an excuse), my sister and I rearranged their tank.

Here is what it used to be:

 

 The piece of wood you see under the vines is now gone.  I had to throw it out because it was starting to mold.  I'm guessing because it sat in the moist sand all the time.

Here is what it is now:

 

 

Ta-da! Sorry about my reflection.  We added a second level so there would be more space to crawl on and a clean yogurt container for another hut!  I also switched the dishes.  The green bowl was the food and is now fresh water, and the white dish was the water and is now food! I wanted to give them more space when taking a bath and the green one was bigger.  My mom thinks the new arrangement is ugly, and maybe that's true, but I like it!

 

Another picture without my reflection and the tank light turned off:

We put the hermit crabs back into the tank (as I did so, Tiger pinched me! OUCH!) and Tiger was really excited about the new arrangement.  She was placed on the second level and ran to each rock at a time seeming to say, "Wow! A rock!" ... "Wow, another rock!" ... "Look! Another rock!"  It was very amusing.  I won't change the tank again until after Maui comes back, so hopefully she won't take to long.  Day 5!

Little Maui - Day 4

On Sept. 9th, Maui had buried herself completely.  This is quite unusual for any of the hermits crabs.  Generally, they will dig themselves "saucers" out of the sand and sleep in those or on top of their log.  So I pulled her out of the sand and put her into the Molting Tank.  I read that "a crab truly interested only in molting will immediately begin digging and have buried themselves within a half an hour."  Needless to say that I was quite frustrated when Maui spent 4 hours in the MT and didn't bury herself.  So I put her back into the main tank with Tiger and Edlie.  When I woke up on the 10th, Maui had buried herself again! Arg!

I smoothed out the sand that was over her and resolved that if she didn't come out within two days, I would move her into the MT and leave her there.  And that is exactly what happened.  On the 12th, I moved Maui over, feeling slightly bad for digging her up again.  Later that night while I was still awake, Maui buried herself one last time into the sand.  SCORE!  I was so happy!  It's now day 4 since she's been buried in the MT.  So far for my first molt, I'm feeling pretty good.  I don't bother the MT tank at all except once a day to mist it and to check the smoothed sand for signs that she's come out.  I hope Maui is appreciating the "alone time" she's getting!

While Maui's taking a break, I made the hermies a playground. Yay!  Just a Apple&Eve juice cardboard box that used to hold apple juice bottles.  Some toilet paper rolls, a small water bottle that's been cut in half, and some bottle caps sit in this for the hermies to play and climb on.  Yesterday, I took Tiger and Edlie outside and sat on my front porch while holding their playground in my lap.  Some of the neighborhood kids came by and inquired about my shelled friends.  After sitting there for an hour, I decided it was time to go back inside.  I sure tuckered out the hermies, they went straight to bed when I replaced them in their tank!

First post!

My first blog!  Never thought I'd get one of these.  I refuse to get a twitter account however.  Anyway, I'm going to devote this blog to my lovely hermies!  On August 17, 2010 I went to PetSmart and brought home three purple pinchers. I had spent several weeks beforehand, researching hermit crabs. 

Allow me to explain something: Other family's kids will see a pet in the store and want it.  The parents are foolish enough to give into the child's pleading and bring home this new creature without study or research.  Eventually, of course, the child loses interest and the parent will take over the care of said pet.
... Not in my family!  My sister's and I have learned that the easiest way to get a pet(and to properly enjoy the company of such amazing creatures) is to impress the parents with responsibility and knowledge.  Since this blog is for my hermit crabs, I will use them as an example.

First, which pet?  I don't remember when it was, but at some point in my older sister's brain, she got the grand idea to say, "Hey, hermit crabs are pretty cool. We should get one!"  It wasn't until 2-3 years later that we actually did, but after she said that, the idea was ingrained into our minds for a good length of time afterwords.  At the point when she said this, we had only one pet.  My dog name Moses, who is still living with us today!  For some reason, my family always has to have a few pets.  We can't have only one for over a year.

Anyway!  My family moved from one state to another (military) and after living here for about a year, we decided we should get some more pets.  My cousin's rabbit had baby bunnies... you fill in the blanks. ;) We've now had Sumi for a few months and she and Moses are bestest buds! Moses has part sheltie in him, so he's very protective and loving of his little bunny friend.

But that wasn't enough.  We dusted our brains and thought of another pet we could look into.  Hermit Crabs!  But if I wanted to get hermit crabs, I knew I would have to use the same procedure that I had done with every other pet we had owned.  This list included: Rabbits, Dog, Frogs, Chinchilla(foster owned), and Betas.  First things first.  Asking my mom would be a complete waste of time, so it's off to the library and the fact-filled web!  As I said above, I spent a good deal of time researching hermit crabs.  When I felt that I could only go so far with study, I then made a list of supplies needed.  When that was complete, I checked prices and searched to find good deals, however, I didn't buy anything. Lastly, I made positively sure that I had enough time to give them proper attention.  When these stages where complete, THEN I went to the parents.  If they were satisfied, it's off to the pet store!

Another note I should add, while some parents take over the care of pets, my parents ask, "Did you feed Moses today?"  If I lack in my chores to take care of my pets they threaten with the worse proposal ever!  Take care of the pet or we'll get rid of it.  You can imagine the horrified look we give our parents.  Enough of my rambling, allow me to introduce you to the crew:

The eldest of the three hermies and the largest is Edgar Alli, or as we call her "Edlie". My mother insisted on naming one of them after Edgar Allan Poe.

Next is Tiger, my most bold hermie and she's the middle sized one.

Last is the smallest, Maui.  She was named after the Hawaiian island.