Hermit Crab Care Lesson 6 - Why is Substrate so Vital?
Author: John Brody
What is a Substrate and Why is it so Vital? We will now discuss why a substrate is essential to the health of your crab. If you've never been a parent to a hermit crab before you may not even realize what a substrate is. It's the sand you place at the bottom of your crab's cage. And it's important to him because your pet is an instinctual digger.
That's right! He loves to dig and often spends many of his waking hours digging around the cage - at least those hours he isn't climbing around his cage. But you need to provide your crab with a deep
substrate because he uses this for more than just "recreational digging." He'll probably need it to molt. If you recall from the last lesson, one of the pre-molting signs is constant, incessant digging. That's because as he realizes he's going to shed his exoskeleton, he burrows down deeply into the substrate (if he were in the "wild" this would be the equivalent of the ocean shore). When he feels safe enough the old exoskeleton will drop off and a new exoskeleton grows in its place. But that's not all. If your hermit crab has lost a limb through a climbing accident or a fight with another crab, he'll regenerate it at this time.
Without a doubt, your little friend's body is going through many changes at this time. And some of these changes leave him extremely vulnerable to attacks from other crabs.
In our next lesson you will learn what to feed your hermit crab.
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