Turtwig and Raffy

So, hermit crabs!  The newest pet in the Nelson household.  Shayla is such an animal lover and asks for a new pet on every birthday, holiday, etc.  However our dog Tyson is enough pet for me at this time with two extra kids to love and care for!  Anyway, but I did cave and let her get hermit crabs this year for her birthday!  I thought, -- hey this is a crab in an aquarium -- how hard can it be to take care of!  Well, they are a bit more complicated as you have to have substrate bedding just right, temperature just right and humidity just right in their cage.  Not too hard, but not a pet that can live on its own so to speak (;  Anyway, we got one hermit crab on Shayla's birthday who she named Turtwig after a Pokemon character.  Then I did more research about them, (note to self do more research then just ask the pet store about the pets- they want to sell the pets so they really don't tell you all involved). So when I found out they were social creatures we had to get another one!  So we got our ninja turtle crab named Raffy (Mitchell's crab) after his namesake shell Rafael! Anyway they are really cool to learn about and to watch in their cage - I check on them a few times at night before I go to bed because I love to watch them in their cage and they come out at night most- they are nocturnal so come and play and mess up the cage every night.  They eat fresh fruits and veggies so that's easy to save leftovers from kids plates to feed them.  BUT the last few days Turtwig has buried himself underground completely and not come up so I think he is molting which is another weird thing they do and he could be under the sand for up to a month growing new limbs!  So, we will see what happen and I hope he is okay! Here are pictures of our newest pets. 

Shayla and Turtwig

Turtwig

Raffy

Raffy in the cool crabitat!