Stuck in shell?

[Princess R.]

I've had my hermit crab, Angelo, for a while now, and when I got him he was in a small painted shell, but he changed shells soon after. I was new to crab care then, and still am, so when I picked him up i was silly enough to drop him! Of course, when I held him I had no idea that he would pop in his shell and do a cannon ball roll right out of my palm, and compared to my most relaxed crab, Sandy, he was FAST. Luckily he seemed unhurt, so I gently put him in his crabitat. For weeks, he seemed unhurt, but recently I was watching him with the crabitat red night light on, and I saw him attempt to change shells again. He seemed to be trying really hard to get the shell off, but whatever he braced himself up against, the shell wouldn't come off! I'm afraid that catastrophe weeks ago had really injured my crab;now I feel really bad.

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[AwesomeHermit]

It could be, but it might not be as well. When I started crabbing my crab walked off of a 4 foot tall ledge, he takes a long time to get into a new shell after getting out of an old shell. He is able to change shells though.

[Princess R.]

thanks, AwsomeHermit. I hope I'll see him change shells soon.

[myllkti]

Is he in a painted shell? Sometimes, people force crabs into painted shells without even waiting for the paint to dry and then they get stuck as the paint slowly poisons them. They also start to have trouble molting properly as they can’t get into bigger shells as they grow. The only safe way (I’ve heard of) to get them out is a user on this forum (I think) clipping the shell piece by piece over a period of 3 (?) hours.
...Well, that got depressing. Sorry. Hope that’s not what’s happening, and best of luck to you and your little hermie