I'm happy to report that my jumbo hermit crabs are continuing to do well! They currently live in a 20-gallon long tank that is filled with fun decor to climb on.
As you can see, both crabs changed out of their silly painted shells and into the new beautiful natural ones I gave them. Just what I was hoping for!
Wilbur, the biggest and more dominant of the two, chose a beautiful bluish-green shell. And he is such a hungry eater! He's always the first to the food dish. :)
Winfred, who's slightly smaller, chose a beautiful white shell for his new home. He is the fastest crab of the two, for when he gets to running, he's almost hard to catch! Here he is, motoring by my laptop!
Although Wilbur and Winfred always have a food dish full of pet store-bought powdered hermit crab food, I try to surprise them with a tasty treat every day.
Since hermit crabs are scavengers, I can give them the leftovers of almost anything that we eat. For lunch yesterday, the crabs enjoyed a meal of ham, avocado, honey dew, and raisins. For dinner last evening, they feasted on chicken legs (that had been cooked in apricot jam and whole grain mustard), cornbread stuffing, and more avocado (since it was such a hit with them previously). Yum!
To keep their tank cage clean, I will often put fresh foods into a large Rubbermaid container and then let them roam around that for a few hours, before giving them a bath and then transferring them back into their tank.
Here's a picture of them eating last night. It was only this morning that Winfred changed into his beautiful white shell, so you can see that in this photograph, he still looks like a football, sadly!
Macy, our golden retriever, can get very worked up by the crabs! She'll stare at their tank, fascinated by their movements. Then she'll run around the house wagging her tail, wishing there was something she could do with all her excitement! Last night she even picked up an empty shell that was sitting on the floor (which is the white one that Winfred is now wearing) and brought it to me. So funny!
Pray with me, dear reader, that these jumbo hermit crabs live many, many more years with us!
