Hermit Crab Care - Crabby's tale

2007-08-28T12:20:00.000-05:00

In our family hermit crab care doesn't take a vacation because our crabs do. We love to travel, and because of business we have to do it a lot. We travel all over the U.S. for anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months. On this particular occasion we were headed to D.C. for a month. At 4:00 am we packed up the Suburban with the last stacks of luggage, mashed 8 people and several pets amongst them, and set off on a 4-day cross-country trip.

Now obviously, it's normal for complaints to arise when you are crammed into a restricted space with your sibling rival crammed into the cubby hole next to you. Especially when one or more of your appendages pokes awkwardly into the cramped cubby of said sibling & their extremities dangle above your head. The Conversations generally go like this:

Kid 1: "Mom, can we change seats?"

Mom: "No."

Kid 2: "I saw a deer!"'

Kid 3: "I missed it. Can we go back?"

Dad & Mom: "No."

Kid 4: "I'm hungry. Can we stop to eat?"

Mom: "No."

Kid 5: "I have to go to the bathroom. Can we stop?"

Dad: "No"

On this trip, it continued like this:

Kid 6: "What's that noise?"

Mom: "No"... "Sorry, force of habit."

Kid 1: "I don't hear anything."

Kid 3: "I do. It sounds like this: 'Phweeeeeeee.'"

Kid 4: "I hear it, but it sounds like this: 'Creeeaaakk.'"

Kid 2: "Is that the car?"

Dad: "I can't tell."

Kid 6: "It sounds like it's in here."

Kid 5: "It was outside. We passed it now."

Kid 3: "I still hear it...Phweeee!"

Mom: "No"..."Oh sorry."

Dad: "Shhh... Let me listen."

Mom: "It's coming from one of the crab cages. It's Crabby! He's singing!"

It was the first time we heard Crabby sing. We sat quietly & listened. It was really cool. I've heard of other crabs singing, but Crabby is the only singer we've ever had. He only sings while on trips and only in his travel cage. We camp alot & he joins right in with the crickets and kids all night long.

Kid 3: "PHWEEEE."

Kid 4: "CREEEAAAK."

Crabby: "PHWEEEE! CREEEAAAK!"

Mom: "No"..."Oh, sorry." "I'll work on that..."

By the way, if you want to learn about hermit crab care, check out this book called Hermit Crabs For Dummies and come back for more posts about caring for your crab.