A Day in the Life of Lily and Colin

11pm. Finally some proper crab action - except the kids aren't awake to see it! Colin is sitting in the food bowl eating pellets, using his front claws to take tiny pinches of food and put them in his mouth.

Meanwhile, Lily is cribbling around the front of the tank, making a complete racket as her legs scrape against the glass. How my daughter sleeps through this noise every night is beyond me!

10 Reasons NOT to buy a crab for a kid

1. They smell
• (a bit)
2. They are nocturnal
• Kids generally aren't!
3. They're noisy at night
• A terrible bedroom pet
4. They mostly sleep
• Not very entertaining
5. They bite if you handle them roughly
6. They need constant care - morning and evening
• They need spraying and water checking twice per day
7. They hibernate if they get too cold
8. Cleaning the tank is too difficult for kids to do
9. They're hard to keep happy
• (and they die if they're not)
10. They don't change shells very often
• Even though it's the coolest thing they actually do!