Crabby

Meet Gary.

Meet Junior.

A few days ago, we welcomed two new family members, in the form of hermit crabs. The boys' cousin got some hermit crabs for his birthday recently, and they've been begging for their own ever since. I'll admit right up front that I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but I figured it was a better choice at this age than say a guinea pig or a hamster. So, off to the pet store I went. Hermit crabs themselves are very inexpensive, but all of their paraphernalia sure isn't. I sure was happy when I found the $30 aquarium that we'd seen at the fancy-pants pet store, for a mere $2.75 at our local thrift store. Score!

This picture cracks me up because the boys like to sit in front of the 'crabitat' (as we like to call it) and watch it like a television. I'll have you know that they also do this when they listen to the radio. Don't ask me why ~ I have absolutely no clue.

Now that Gary (Cam's crab) and Junior (Griff's crab) have been here for a few days, I have to say that I'm pretty fond of them. They are interesting little creatures, and they can live up to 10 years if cared for properly. Much to my delight, the boys are doing a great job taking care of them.

Here are a few things we've learned so far:

~ Crabs aren't too exciting when left to their own devices. They pretty much dig a hole in the sand and stay there all day long.

~ If removed from their little crabitat, however, they will crawl, crawl, crawl all over you.

~ If we set Gary down on the carpeting, he grabs on for dear life and won't let go of it.

~Hermit crabs eat just about anything.

~ They don't like to be alone and are happier when they have other little crab friends nearby.

~ They like their environment to be hot and humid. I find myself obsessing over the humidity level in their aquarium, and I think I check their little humidity gauge about a zillion times per day. Like I need something else to obsess about. Ha!