The days when people stuck to just having dogs and cats as pets are long behind us, and we’ve seen many TikTok and Instagram users go viral thanks to their unusual pet choices. Janie Groeling is one of them, and she’s living her best life with her hermit crabs.
Groeling is a Virginia Tech alum based in New Jersey, who describes herself as a hermit crab mom and bug lover. She attracted thousands of followers to her TikTok and Instagram after she started sharing snippets from her life with her crab pets, including Norton and Tito.
Groeling is using her platform to educate, inspire, and foster a community of hermit crab lovers. You’ll find many hermit crab resources on her Instagram page, providing essential information about basic necessities and care guidelines for new crab owners.
Groeling often holds her hermies in her hands and she makes it look easy, but she’s only able to do this because they built trust over a multitude of years.
“They don’t feel threatened, they know they are safe, they know who I am. I would never hold a hermit crab that is scared/unfamiliar with me. Only when one that trusts me is out and about, I will gently pick up, or they will crawl right onto my hand!” she explains on Instagram.