i fear my hermit crab is sick!

Question
hey,
I got my hermit crab about a week ago and hasn't been very active and it doesn't seem like he can go to the bathroom.im worried he might be dying and i cant tell.please help me to figure out if my hermit crab is okay!thanks

Answer
Dear Chelsea,
thank you for your question.
When the crabs arrive at our homes, they are very stressed by being harvested, shipped, stored at the wholesaler's and being usually kept in bad conditions at the pet shop. So they need some quiet time to destress, which can take a very long time, up to a few months. Most crabs will dig down at one point or another, to rest or even to molt. Apart from offering food and water and good conditions to live in, you cannot do much for him except leaving him alone as much as possible.
You may not find any poop, it's small and hard to see, especially when you use coconut fibre bedding like Eco Earth or Forest Bedding.

Here are some more crab care websites that I can recommend, they have a lot of very good information and the people at the message boards are very friendly and helpful:
www.thecrabbagepatch.com
www.landhermitcrabs.com
www.hermitcrabassociation.com
www.crabstreetjournal.com

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer