Ranger Rents a New Home!

 Ranger found a new home too...he took over the shell that Mr. Crabs abandoned last night!


Mrs. D. and her crew were out running errands after church today (ahem ahem, yes, we MAY have been at Petsmart buying cool new artificial plants for the crabbies...they are SO spoiled!).


After checking the crabs, we found Ranger's painted shell laying off to the side of the crabitat with NO Ranger inside!


Again, the log ended up being the secret hiding space for the new homeowner! Mrs. D. started to wonder if she was going crazy..."Wait, is this just Mr. Crabs in his own shell? Did he really move? What's going on?"


But as soon as he was picked up, Ranger came climbing right out to say hello- yep, this is Ranger, all right! It's so interesting to watch how different each of the crabs is as far as how they react when handled: clearly, Mr. Crabs is not a fan of hanging out in people's hands. Home Run still pulls back into his shell and "closes his door" with his purple pincher. But Ranger is always hanging out all over the place when he is handled!

Here you can see the proof: Ranger's empty shell! Mrs. D. is having a bit of a conundrum: should we leave the painted shell in the crabitat or remove it? Some research sources indicate that painted shells are not the most healthy choice for hermit crabs. In fact, some sites claim that hermit crabs may be forcibly removed from their natural shells and forced into painted shells in order to make them more marketable. This is extremely disturbing, since we know from our nonfiction readers and from our read aloud book, Hermit Crabs as Pets by Charles Sure, hermit crabs' abdomens are extremely vulnerable, and they should never be forcibly removed from their shells- this can injure or kill them!

This is something that did not come up during our research during our writing project. Another negative aspect of painted shells is the fact that the paint may flake off and be harmful to the crabs. Yikes! We should research this more! In the meantime, perhaps the best idea will be to remove the painted shell and replace it with a natural shell of about the same size.