Facts You May Not Have Known About Hermit Crabs

Hermit crabs are found both on land and in water. Whether they are land or sea crabs, they are crustaceans that live in a shell discarded by another animal. This article is talking about the peculiarities of "land" or "tree" hermit crabs, not the ocean varieties.

They truly start life like fish and grow into land life. These little crabs start out in the ocean, much like sea hermit crabs. While they're in the water as babies, hermit crabs start out as larvae called zoeae and grow into aquatic crabs, they swim and breathe underwater through gills. As adults, they can no longer breathe underwater, but they still breathe through gills that must be kept moist to prevent suffocation. Grown up hermit crabs have lost their ability to swim.

Their tail shape is set by their first shell. A hermit crab's rear end curves to fit into and hold onto the shell they live in. The shape of their first shell is very important, and will influence shell selection for the rest of their lives.

They "go number one" below their eyes. Hermit crabs excrete urine through glands at the base of their antennae. Which means that they "pee" through their faces.

Their name is a misnomer. Although these animals are commonly called "hermit crabs" they are actually not true crabs because they lack a hard abdomen armor, and they are not hermits, because they live in large groups of about a hundred crabs in the wild.

Hermit crabs have been bred in captivity, but this is not where pet store stock comes from. All pet stock available has been harvested off beaches throughout the world where these animals are native. Most pet hermit crabs in the US come from the West Atlantic coasts.

They have no vocal cords, but they still "talk". These cute little crustaceans make sounds sort of like chirps by rubbing legs together. This is called "stridulating" and works similar to the noise you get when you rub your two hands together. They can be very expressive.

They molt. To grow, this crustacean has to go through process of burying themselves, shedding their old exoskeleton, eating it, and re-emerging. This is called molting, and the whole thing can take weeks. Without somewhere safe to bury themselves for weeks approximately once or twice a year, a hermit crab will die.

Only six of their ten legs are generally visible. Although hermit crabs have ten legs like a spider, they keep the back four inside their shells to anchor them in and keep the inside of the shell clean.

Legs can be "thrown off" without killing the crab. If a crab is stressed or scared, they can "drop" a leg to distract a threat so that they can hopefully get away. They sometimes do this when they are sickly, too. They will grow a new leg back oven the next few molts.

Hermits do poop. Their owners sometimes wonder if they do, because crab poop is small and blends in with bedding materials. These guys either defecate inside their shell and then scoop it out or out the side of their shell.

"Hermies" have long been adored as short-term pets that are easy to care for. Actually, they can live up to 30 years or so in captivity when cared for correctly. Pet stores routinely give poor pet care to hermit crabs, and pass poor pet care information to owners, resulting in short lifespans. As a very misunderstood pet, they have a strong grass-roots following of devotees on-line distributing good care information.

Exotic Rodents: Why Should I Care?

Keeping rodents as pets means you encounter a lot of misconceptions. Rodents are after all a "pest" and "unclean" and they have a short lifespan, no personality and low intelligence. People assign cruel, arbitrary values to their life and make jokes they would never dream of making about a dog or cat.

One of the above is true; the majority of rodents are short-lived, something often made even shorter if your animal originates from a rodent farm, or unethical breeder or pet shop. Incorrect husbandry, such as keeping a social gerbil alone will also drastically shorten lifespan; a lonely gerbil may live up to 18 months, but if kept with company will likely reach between 3-5 years.

Within this relatively short lifespan rodents pack so much activity, life and personality that it almost makes up for the short length of time they are in your life.

It is true that some rodents smell, it is after all one of their strongest senses and a major form of communication for them. Rodent keepers learn to become accustomed to a certain level of musk and scent-marking, since this means their rodent is happier and more secure. Overzealous cleaning of cages can conversely make the problem much worse, as the rodents will scent mark obsessively to reclaim their territory. Like any animal, this varies greatly - male mice can be quite strong in scent, whereas rodents such as harvest mice and steppe lemmings have almost no odour at all.

To say they are unclean however is false, rodents groom themselves and each other frequently, it is both a form of bonding and social communication. They should never need human intervention for to wash them, although species such as Mongolian gerbils and chinchillas should have a dust bath supplied to allow them to clean their fur. Rodents are only unclean if ill, or kept in poor conditions.

Rodents exhibit a full range of behaviours, their reactions and preferences to things can differ greatly. I don't see how anyone can interact with their pet, given the correct husbandry and believe they have no personality! You should always try a full range of nests, foods, and accessories such as wheels, or climbing material for each individual since there is no telling what a particular animal will love or hate. Some rodents will adore your handling, pet mice may brux when happy, and mice pups and guinea-pigs jump vertically in excitement known as "popcorning". Some rodents can be trained to follow simple commands, take obstacles courses, and gerbils are not alone in very swiftly learning the sound of their own names.

More exotic rodents will be less interested in human interaction, and some such as the African pygmy mice are too small to handle safely. The fact that some exotics are more pets to observe than interact with is hardly a failing on their part, or indicative of a lack of intelligence. Given a natural habitat, and space and items to exhibit as full a range of behaviour as possible and it is easy to see how individual each rodent can be.

More established rodent pets can bond with an owner every bit as much as a dog or cat, and in some cases more so. Male mice and rats can be happy riding on an owners shoulders, and pet flying squirrels can bond very closely with an owner providing they have good breeding and are acquired at a young age. The important aspect is to consider what you want from a pet, for a rodent can be every bit as rewarding as a larger animal - it just may need a keener eye to see it.

Coping With The Loss of A Pet Rat

For many rat owners, losing one of their best furry friends is a very emotional and painful experience. Often, friends and family might not understand the extent of your grief over the loss of a 'rat'.

What they fail to understand is that you had a deep connection with your friend on a soul level and that they were a close friend, just like a human friend. 

Please take heart and know that many pet carers share this same deep grieving when they lose a beloved animal friend.

Many people have different ways of coping with grief, it is important to allow yourself time and space to grieve in the way that only you can. Sometimes, it is helpful to pay a tribute to your friend through creating a pictorial record of their life or by sharing an obituary on a rat forum.

Do whatever feels right for you to help you come to terms with your loss. Give yourself time before you feel yourself again. It can take me around 2-3 months before I feel mostly recovered from the loss of a ratty friend. Having other ratties to take care of also helps. They can also feel the loss of a close friend, so they need your comfort and presence to help them with their grief too.

What helps me is knowing that these little beings had a wonderful life with me they may never have otherwise had. And also, my own faith in a Conscious Loving Creator gives me a sense that there is no end to life, but only the physical relinquishing of a material form no longer able to sustain itself.

Also, the passing of your present rat(s) also makes room for even more rats to enter your life and enjoy the love and wonderful lifestyle you have to give them.

Many people hurt so badly that they say they don't want another rat(s). Hopefully, after a little time, once over their grief, they will realise that although it was painful to lose their friend, they also had many many hours of joy and fun with them. And so did the rats with them!

In the film 'Ghost' Swayze's character said at the end ' You take the love with you'. And I think that's true. Love is invisible and yet it is without doubt that it exists. Just remember that each one of your rats takes the love back to the Creator and feeds that back into the Universe. It's a wonderful thought isn't it?

You are blessed to have known each one of your wonderful furry friends and they were blessed to have known and shared their lives with you.

Or contact an online pet bereavement counseller.

A book I recommend for the open minded is 'Animals And The Afterlife' by Kim Sheridan. It's a wonderful book with many true accounts from pet owners who have experienced messages or contact with the pets they have lost. This book helped me a lot in coping with loss and the author has been caring for rats for many years that made it particularly meaningful for me.

I have also experienced 'contact' with my rats on the other side of life, and that has made me realise without a doubt, that life continues.

"There is no death, only the relinquishing of a form that temporarily embodied the spirit as part of the play of creation. Essence/Spirit cannot die, it is all around us within everything that comes into being or form. It's the energy that animates our bodies and is the Source of creation. It is that which gives life to the form or being and simply lets go of form when the matter cannot sustain itself any longer due to illness or ageing. For all matter is subject to decay in this third dimensional existence, but life or spirit always Is. Forms will always come and go but Spirit/Life Always Is, Here and Now, Forever and Ever." (Anabrese)

Healing Wishes and Love To You and Your Rats, Wherever They May Be!

Socializing Indonesian Blue Tongue Skinks

Let's face it, the majority of Blue Tongue Skinks in the pet trade currently are imported indonesian (or subspecies) Blue Tongue Skinks. This could mean that the unsuspecting buyer who is expecting the easily handled captive bred blue tongue skink, ends up with a hissy, reclusive, and defensive animal which they are not prepared for. Though the animal may never calm down to the point of a captive bred blue tongue skink, we can "socialize" this bluey to the point that handling doesn't put as much stress on the animal.

By socialize, I really mean get the skink used to human contact so that when handling is needed (or desired by the human keeper) it doesn't put stress on the skink. Stress causes a lot of issues in captive reptiles. Ranging from disease, to going off feed, to just putting them in a really bad mood. So really, when working with most Wild Caught reptiles, taking steps similar to this can help them adjust to life in captivity.

The first thing to always remember is always stay calm. It can be quite the task working with an animal who is deathly afraid of you and only wants to run away. It can also be intimidating to have a blue tongue skink gape it's mouth, threatening to bite you, and hiss. You might get bitten, and you have to accept that. Take it from me, when it comes to Blue Tongue Skinks the thought of being bitten is a lot more painful than the bite itself. Anyways, 99% of the time they are only bluffing, and as soon as you go near them they stop bluffing and attempt to run away.

Okay, so now you've overcome your fears of the not so terrible bluey bite... Well what's next? Patience. This isn't going to be an easy task. This bluey was trapped (or farmed), and shipped to a pet store. It probably doesn't trust humans. So its going to be a slow and steady process.

This is where I would start. Sleep in a tee-shirt for a few days (make sure you aren't wearing any perfume or deodorant before, have a shower if you had some on) and then knot up the openings so the skink can't get into it. Place this in his enclosure and leave it in there. He will hide under the shirt, and lay on top of it and start linking up your smell with security and safety.

I would then move onto hand feeding. The title of that is pretty self explanatory, off the skink small bits of food by hand. If the animal is too afraid to try, don't force it. Just allow him/her to eat by itself and try again next feeding time, they'll catch on eventually.

Once the Bluey will let you pick her/him up with only a little bit of hissing, and no gaping, begin handling sessions. Just let the skink walk on you and explore. Start for the first week at keeping these very short, around five minutes. Week two bump it up to ten minutes. Week three bump it up to fifteen. Once the skink is comfortable in the fifteen minute range of handling you should be good to go for longer. However, remember the skink still needs the heat and UVB lighting in it's enclosure so don't keep them out for too long.

Remember, you will have good days and bad days. One day you might think you've made real progress and then the next the bluey might be right back to square one. They will come around, you just need to take the time to do it!

Bearded Dragon Care - Cleaning Your Bearded Dragon Habitat

To ensure proper bearded dragon care, it's important to make sure you clean their habitats. It's vital that you clean the habitat everyday. Bearded dragons typically produce waste once a day and that includes urine. The urine instantly soaks down to the bottom of the cage into the substrate. 

One thing that does help with the smell of the fecal matter is choosing a good substrate, something like the ground up walnut shell substrate is great and fairly cheap. Whatever you are feeding your dragon,insect wise, especially the crickets, will carry the excrement around and eat it. It's just gross. The easiest way to clean the substrate daily is to get a wired scoop or aquarium fish net.

The dragons water should be changed everyday, you might have to change it a couple times a day. It's recommended getting a stone type of water dish for them. With this type of water dish, they won't be able to knock it over and cause a big spill in their cage. If they spill and the water collects under the water or food dish, it can mold because of the habitats warm temperatures. 

If the water sits for too long, it begins to create a nasty film on the sides and bottom of the dish that can begin to grow bacteria and make your dragon sick. Soak the water dish once a week in a water and very tiny amount of bleach type mixture. You want to let it soak for at least 30 minutes and rinse thoroughly. If you have other reptiles, do not let any of the dishes come in contact with each other. This is called cross contamination and it could compromise your dragons and other reptiles health.

Equally important is cleaning the food dish daily. If your dragon is eating greens, or bearded dragon diet, or you're putting worms in the dish, bacteria can grow just as easy as it can in the water. Another reason this is important is because the temperatures of the habitat stay warm during the day and it cause the lettuce to wilt and if left too long, will go bad and it could lead to mold. Like the water dish, you want to soak this in a water and bleach (very small amount) for at least 30 minutes and rinse thoroughly.

Once a month, you should clean the entire habitat, including furnishings. Cleaning the furnishings can be done by taking them out and soaking them in the water/bleach solution as mentioned above. Soak for at least 30 minutes and rinse thoroughly. Make sure it's completely dry before putting it back into the habitat. The substrate needs to be changed once a month, as long as you're spot cleaning it daily. The easiest way to remove the substrate is with a shop vac. You can also scoop it out, but it takes a while. 

After the substrate is removed, use a warm soapy (not too much or it's difficult to get all the soap) water mixture. With a clean cloth, sponge, etc, wipe down the bottom and all the sides of the habitat real good. You can use the same sponge or cloth to rinse. Make sure all of the soap is out of it and start wiping the soap out of the habitat. Use paper towel, a clean towel, etc to dry the habitat completely. Now you're ready to pour the new substrate in. Make sure to make a note on a calendar the date you cleaned the habitat.

Once you start doing the cleanings etc, it truly does become second nature to providing excellent bearded dragon care.

Bearded dragons make wonderful pets, they can also live a very long time if you take care of them the right way.

Pet Hedgehogs - Buying Guide

When buying pet hedgehogs, there are some important things to look for to make sure you have a healthy animal.

Things to check: 

• Its Nose - your hedgehog's nose should be black and wet, kind of like a dogs. It should not be running and it should not be making "rasping" noises as this may be a sign of a respiratory infection.
• Eyes - should be black and ball like, the eyes should be clear and black, patchy eyes and or cloudy eyes are signs of genetic defects and any hedgehog with these should not be bought. Other signs that the hedgehog is not healthy include, runny, closed, sunken or droopy eyes and any signs of conjunctivitis.
• Ears - Ears should be nice and clean. Your new pet may have little nibbles or chunks out of their ears but this is fine as long as they are healed (sometimes a hoglets they can get a little too close to their siblings and be bitten)
• Weight - They should be "plump" if you look at their belly there should be a little padding and no loose droopy skin, it should also have fine hair and you should see its little chubby pink belly. Which if it will let you touch it will feel soft and a fluffy.
• Legs - Watch your hog have a little walk around, this one is mostly common sense, make sure it is walking as it should, no wobbles or limps or anything like that.
• Responses - A healthy animal will be very inquisitive and interested in anything in its proximity, if you put your hand in front of it, that should be enough to get it around you sniffing and maybe having a little lick. It should also start to "huffle" if it gets stressed, so try picking it up and seeing if it balls up and huffles, this is completely normal for pet hedgehogs.
• Quills - You want to make sure that there are no missing quills or bald patches, often there are broken quills but this is normal as they can be quite rough and tumble, but they are very resilient animals and can handle a broken quill or two.
• Skin - some hedgehogs have little mites at the base of their quills, if they do they will have small scabs at the base, these are easy to see and identify. Never buy a hedgehog with mites.

Testing a pet hedgehogs temperament - there are a few simple things you can do to test that your pet hedgehogs temperament is good and that you get a sociable animal, because nobody wants a moody or shy pet. 

• Pick up your hog and it should curl into a ball and "huffle", turn it onto it's back and see how long it takes to uncurl, a social hog will do this in about 30 seconds, if it does not ball at all then you have an extremely sociable little pet.
• Stroke your hedgehog - Will it let you stroke its quills or its belly? What about its feet? Most hogs will not let you do this without curling up, however if it does then that's a fantastic sign.
• Put it on the floor- When you put it down, a sociable hog will uncurl and start sniffing things almost immediately. Some will curl up and huffle and for a bit but if they do this for around 2 minutes or more then that is a sign that your hog may not be the most sociable.

Hedgehogs As Pets - An Amazing Idea

Are you searching for the perfect pet? Look no further, I have the solution, it has the cute factor, is cheap to buy, is even cheaper to keep, provides lots of entertainment, doesn't take up too much space and did I mention that they are ridiculously cute?

I'm talking about an African pygmy hedgehog, they literally are the perfect pet (in my completely biased opinion). The entertainment provided by these little cuties can last for hours, they are so curious and intelligent that just watching them is entertaining. Whatever you put in their cage will be sniffed, pulled around, licked and combined with other items to create some form of havoc. Mine has realized that if he puts his wheel up against his food bowl he will never knock it over, yet he doesn't seem to care that it makes it ridiculously noisy.

Keeping hedgehogs as pets is an awesome idea, you can pick one up from a good breeder for around £100/ $150, and once you have that initial outlay they cost barely nothing, they eat dry cat food and sleep on wood shavings. Of course if you feel like treating your hedgehog you can buy meal worms or scramble some eggs for them, at a minuscule extra cost. The toys that they play with can be anything from toilet roll tubes to a bit of string tied to the roof of their cage.

The cuteness comes in whenever your hog is awake, they will literally sniff everything you put in front of them, and there is not a cuter site in the world than when they like the smell of something and start licking it. It's ridiculously cute.

There are other things to consider before getting hedgehogs as pets, such as health, quality of breeder, these are things that require an article in themselves but we will deal with that later.

For now though, more reasons why you want one, watching them play with their toys is a sheer joy, my little boy Anderson loves running on his wheel, it is almost as if he knows when you are watching because he will run around in circuits, on his wheel for a minute, around his house, into his tube, over for a drink of water, then around his food bowl and back onto the wheel to repeat the exact same circuit. However when I am not watching, he will run around on his wheel for hours on end.

I highly recommend hedgehogs as pets.