Seemingly healthy, active crab lost part of leg

[SpookySoulGeek]

Hey, I tried to find my answer befoe typing this but couldn't find what I was looking for. My crab is healthy, active ,loves to eat and poops alot.

Some info that might be helpful:

Substrate: Fluker's Hermit Crab Beach Sand
Has fresh water dishes, one freshwater (conditioned with reptissafe), and salt water (fresh water conditioned, with basic hermit crab salt conditioner)
Food: has "Wet" and "dry" changed daily. Dry food is a mix of two store bought for hermit crabs, also dried mealworms and eggshells; wet varies, but is usually fresh apple, carrot, cucumber, spinach, lettuce, and gave him some deli turkey meat

So, I was just cleaning his poop and saw that two parts of the tip of one leg that he seemed to bury in the sand. No idea what happened. I checked his legs and there don't seem to be any tips missing, but i did notice on part of one leg where some lighter coloured exoskelton seemed to be exposed, but more towards the upper leg.

Any feedback on what I can do to ensure he's okay?

[HermitGuy3]

He might have molted that part of his leg or something? I would not touch him. Your water conditioner seems to be good. Your salt does need to be marine salt to get the crabs the vital nutrients they need instead of conditioner. Many people like to use Instant Ocean. Unfortunately most food marketed to hermit crabs is toxic due to their being a few toxic preservatives in the food. You can look at the caresheet in the food section. What is your humidity and temperature? Do you have any other crabs? How deep is your substrate and how wet is it? Hope this helps!

[SpookySoulGeek]

thanks so much for the feedback. I've been meaning to get marine salt so good to know one you all reccomend. Also he does prefer the fresh food so i can just do that. Humidity anywhere from 70 to 80 and temp 75 to 80. I'm also getting a new temp and humidity gauge soon. So I actually took this little dude in by himself, my therapist's daughter moved and didn't take him with her so she asked me if I could adopt him.

Good news too! He finally moved into a new shell! He came with one of the painted oens and I had tried several natural shells and he finally found one he likes, lol.

He's very active, loves climbing and stuff, is drinking water. would you reccomend any additions in his diet that promotes good exoskeleton health? I gave him peanut butter on celery yesterday and he ate all the peanut butter out of it. he'll get more fruit and dried mealworms later too.

[HermitGuy3]

Just make sure he gets calcium and animal protein everyday. That will help his exoskeleton.

[SpookySoulGeek]

thank you

[curlysister]

Are the pieces of leg hollow? Or are they 'full' with tissue? That will tell you whether they are leftover from a molt, or if they have fallen off the crab.

Depending on your water supply, you may or may not need a dechlorinator that also removes heavy metals. The Reptisafe does not.
Here's our care sheet about water:

viewtopic.php?f=127&t=92553

There are commercial foods that don't contain harmful preservatives. And there are lots of things you can buy at a pet store that are good for crabs. Cuttle bone (often in the bird section), freeze dried treats that are meat only (cat and dog section), dried shrimp and bugs (turtle or reptile sections), meal worms, etc. Here is our care sheet about commercial food:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92555

And here is our general nutrition care sheet:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92554