Aussies - anyone catch dr harry's hermit crab housecall?

[appps]

We missed it but apparently the kids had crabs kept dying and dr h told them it was cause their tank was so dirty

Mum tells me they kept the tank outside and they never mentioned humidity or temp


Edited to add link to his advice on how to keep crabs
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-ho ... solutions/
Scroll down towards the bottom

Maybe he needs an info sheet sent, if he knew more he could educate a lot of crab owners

[Wai]

Oh dear, no mentioning of a heat source... that alone spells 'doom'.

You'd think after so many years of having hermit crabs in the market that people (even 'professionals') weren't so ignorant of them or at least some sort of progress would be made. The Americans seem to have made some progress with their pet stores, but the large majority of stores in Australia still suck.

Having a dirty tank won't necessarily be deadly, but lacking a heat source and high humidity certainly will.

[ladybug15057]

We would like to think we have made progress anyway?
We contact cooperate offices which seems to help some when a pet store is off on their care for hermies. I am not sure if there are any 'chain' pet stores in Aus? If so could possibly somebody begin to write/talk to somebody from their cooperate office to try to make changes?
Here in U.S. for the private owned/mom pop stores we also have a place that at times will help called "Planet feedback". They overlook the proper care/needs of all creatures. Anything like that in Aus.?

[Wai]

The big chain here is Pets Paradise. When I complained to the pet stores, they told me to contact their head office. When I contacted their head office, they told me to contact my local store. The head office then ignored my e-mails thereafter.

[appps]

Was talking with my dad who also saw the show.

Sounds like they kept them in a kritter keeper outdoors from dads description of the tank

He told them to stop them dropping dead you have to wash the keeper out with water and bleach on a regular basis. Rinse well after.

Makes you wonder what the show researchers do with their time and how accurate his other advice is.

[Wai]

It sounds like a response you give to someone just to pretend that you actually know what you're talking about. I wonder why he's so crazy about hygiene - hermit crabs are amongst the dirtiest of animals. They are scavengers in the wild, so I guess they would have a decent immune system (better than ours at least). Perhaps that comment of his was made out of sarcasm, because a member of this forum had all her hermit crabs drop dead after putting them in a tank that her roommate had bleached and rinsed.

[CrabbyJo]

I wouldn't expect that a "pet doctor" would make a sarcastic comment about pets on television. An ignorant comment, yes, to save face. But yes, what an idiot. I wonder how many crabbers wrote the show to blast that doctor on how bleach would kill the hermit crabs. Ridiculous.

[Wai]

Not many complaints, I'm afraid... and yes, of course his comment was made out of ignorance lmao.

[appps]

Well caught the tail end of another segment of his on better homes and gardens. He had the crabs in a tank with round balls of some sort for a substrate (sort of like round kitty litter looking things.) It was a whole two balls deep, not enough for a crab to bury a claw in let along moult.