Does the PPS Transitional Method actually help?

[myllkti]

Yeah, just that question Explanations of the PPS Method if needed: https://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2013 ... bs-method/ —> it’s written out and there’s also a video in it


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[curlysister]

Nope. Some of our admins have rescued literally hundreds of crabs. There has never been any benefit or better survival rates from that method. Some of the rationale is based on science that does not actually even apply to crabs.
It is better to get crabs into ideal conditions asap, rather than have them in poor conditions any longer than they need to be - they have already gone through so much prior to us getting them, no need to prolong the less than ideal environment.

[JoeHermits]

The PPDS method is based off of veterinary emaciation protocol used for a variety of animals, which would be fine except they changed everything so instead of a gradual change over several hours they extended the whole thing to days or weeks.

Hermit crabs are not emaciated when purchased so the PPDS method falls apart the more you pick at it.

http://www.anapsid.org/emaciation.html


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[myllkti]

Disappointing but good to know. Thank you both very much!


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[DragonsFly]

Dry sand not deep enough to burrow? No place to hide? Sounds like it is more likely to hurt a stressed and/or injured hermit crab than help.

[myllkti]

May I put forth why it seems to be a good idea to me? I do apologize if it comes off arrogant, I fully acknowledge I am wrong clearly as you are more experienced; I'd just like to get my misconceptions debunked so I'm not just constantly wondering forever.

It's just that the lack of ability to burrow seems to be encouraging it to eat? And the lack of places to hide (and i guess lack of burrow too) is for observation and also to encourage eating? The rest of it yeah even I can see the problems but yeah can you just go into how the cons outweigh the pros of this?

[DragonsFly]

The idea of encouraging an animal to eat rather than "hunker down" might be important if it were starved and eating was more important than de-stressing. But giving a hermit crab no way to dig under or hide is just piling stress on top of stress, and as JoeHermits said, they are not emaciated (starved) when you get them, so eating is probably not the highest priority.

The recommendation to have the substrate dry is going to mean it is more difficult to maintain proper humidity. Without good humidity levels, hermit crabs cannot breathe properly. Starving them for oxygen while "encouraging them to eat" doesn't seem like a very good protocol to me.

Generally speaking, the optimal thing to do is to have a good set-up already ready for the crabs, with proper substrate (properly deep and properly moist), good water sources, places to hide, balanced temperature and humidity, etc., etc., and then introduce them to the crabitat and leave them alone to "de-stress." If they are fairly healthy, they will usually be fairly active at first, exploring, then dig under or hide for awhile. If they are in bad shape from being abused into captivity, they may just hunker down right away. Either way, it seems safer to allow them to choose what they think they need to do, and to give them good conditions to do it in, rather than denying them things that we know they need to try to force them to eat more, when that may not be the top priority of what they most need to do right then.

As some of the long-term crabbers here say, "they know how to be crabs better than we do." It's probably best to give them the best conditions we know how to give them, and let them figure out whether eating, hiding, exploring, or burrowing under is their top priority at any given time.

[myllkti]

Thank you so much for taking the time to type all that out!! That definitely helps clear things up, thanks again!!


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[aussieJJDude]

Some people do swear by it, but I feel like (and I know someone somewhere has said this on the webs... just can't remember who) 'the PPSD method feels like you're doing something good because you're actively involved with the setup and maintenance rather just letting them be and allowing them to relax and destress'.

In the aquarium side of things, no one would actively encourage a method like the PPSD, as being in bad conditions warrant to get the fish/invert out ASAP. And this speaks from both the retail and the hobbyist 'side of things', so I feel like similar can be applied to the crabs. Prolonging suboptimal conditions is just decreasing chance of the crab doing well in my books.

But like I said, some do swear by it, but for me, and what I recommend, it's a waste of time/energy that's better spent getting them in a good home and allowing them to recover.

[DragonsFly]

Prolonging suboptimal conditions is just decreasing chance of the crab doing well in my books.

Exactly. Hear, hear.