Play With Your Hermit Crab

Hermit crabs are very active and nice animals. Doing things with your hermit crab once in a while is a great way to gain trust from your crabby little friend. Generally, you should leave them alone since they are a hands-off pet and are terrified from being brought from their natural habitat to a tight little enclosure. But should you love to play with hermit crabs, this article will tell you what to do.

Steps

  1. Make a playground for your crabs so they can play. Be sure to watch your hermit crabs if you do this. They escape easily and you will most likely not be able to find them. Every time you take a small crab out and place it on the floor, it will disappear, as if by magic, the second you turn away.
  2. You can also make a "rock pile" for your hermit to explore, but don't use the rocks as the substrate because you can break their legs that way, instead use a bed of sand or cocoa fiber. You can add some other toys, such as small balls, building blocks, etc
  3. Take them out of their tank and set them down on a clean smooth surface so they can get used to their new playground, make sure you supervise them at first to make sure nothing is wrong and that all is well. If they happen to be sick or hurt, place them back into their habitat and keep the habitat crab friendly so he or she can recover.
  4. Think of games for your hermit, such as hiding its favorite food and encouraging them to find it; this will encourage your hermits to explore more as they are natural scavengers..
  5. Hermit crabs are active. Let them walk around. Don't use a hamster ball. This is because their legs can get stuck in the holes and break off.
  6. Try holding your hermit crab in the palm of your hand and keep it flat. Every time it almost goes over the edge of your hand, move your other hand to the side he/she is walking towards. It's a great way to exercise your hermit crab, and have fun too.
  7. Don't force them to do anything, just let them take it in their own stride. If you force them to do a lot, they will want to go back into their cage or worse, become stressed out.
  8. If your hermit crab does pinch you, do not run him/her under water, it really bothers him/her, because of the chlorine, chloramines and metals. Tap water can be fatal to your hermit crab, because of chlorine in the water. Just set him down on the floor or in his cage, and he will let go.
  9. Hermit crabs do best in pairs. If it's just them alone, they will get lonely.
  10. Some hermit crabs die because they get thrown around and played with too roughly or too much. Do not treat them this way. They will hate you and never want to be handled by you.
  11. Never try to force a hermit crab to come out of its shell. They would rather die than be forced out, and a lot of the time they do die when made to move.
  12. When a hermit crab is dead, it falls out of its shell and smells like fish. If a hermit crab falls out of its shell and doesn't smell, it is molting. The thing that fell out of the shell is just an exoskeleton. Some people suggest removing the non-molters and placing them somewhere special while the molter molts, but it is probably not necessary. Keep the tank extra humid, and leave the exoskeleton inside. The crab will eat the exoskeleton when it is done molting. For more information on molting, see Hermit Crabs for Dummies.
  13. When making a playground you can get two square pieces of cardboard and put rubber bands across them and then glue the two pieces together. This can be a climbing frame and a hut for your crab.



Tips

  • Your hermit may not be used to its new playground, but if you put him/her in it every day for about ten minutes, it will soon feel at home. Don't be too disappointed if your hermit doesn't want to play— different hermits have different personalities.
  • Hermit crabs like to play at night, so try to play with them at night versus the daytime, and if you have adjustable lighting in your house, set it on low.
  • Hermit crabs love to eat apples, strawberries, coconut, white bread, and popcorn with or with out sea salt.
  • Dig a hole in their home and place unsalted popcorn in it and cover it with a small light rock. They love to find it at night when they are active. Pop the corn fresh.
  • Change the sand every 2-3 months.
  • The best way to handle your hermit crab is to hand feed it. It seems impossible, but if you're patient, you can pull it off. This will help them trust you more and gradually reduce the stress of being handled.
  • Don't bother the crab while its eating.
  • Use only natural, unpainted shells to minimize exposure to toxic paints.
  • Put in a glow in the dark ball since hermit crabs are more active at night.
  • You can use things like driftwood for your hermits to explore. They love it.
  • If you're afraid of being pinched, don't buy a hermit crab. Find a different pet. You will not enjoy the hobby.
  • A very shallow dish of water can be placed in your hermit's playground for them to 'play' in.
  • Change the food every day even if it is not eaten.
  • Make sure you boil every new thing you put in your habitat. Things that cannot be boiled can be microwaved for one to two minutes for the same effect. Do not microwave wood for more than one minute.
  • Your Hermit crab sometimes likes to molt under the sand, so don't try to find them, because this might disturb them.
  • Make sure there are many places for your hermit crabs to hide!
  • Always supervise younger children when they handle your pet crabs.
  • Find medium sized tanks for your crabs if you have a lot.
  • If you live in a dry state, such as Arizona Nevada or Utah, then make sure the hermie isn't out of its tank longer than twenty minutes at a time so it won't get too dry. Or you can mist the air with treated hermit crab water if you want to play with him for long periods of time. Also hermies get stressed out if played with too much! So be careful how much you touch them!
  • Hermit crabs love climbing, you can get special climbing trees for them at your local pet barn store.
  • Put small gravel or sand in the playground. Don't use marbles or glass pebbles.
  • Give your hermit crab a variety of foods to eat.
  • Change the water every week. This is to insure that your hermit crab has a clean space to live and thrive in.
  • Don't let them tip over the food dish. If you want to avoid this happening, secure it with plastic straps.
  • Don't try to move a hermit crab when it's hanging or grasping something just let it go because eventually it will move.
  • You can use a half coconut shell to give them a hiding place.
  • Move slowly until your hermit crab gets used to you.
  • Try not to use any hermit crab pellets instead give them the foods that they'll like. Like pretzels, crackers, peanut butter and more. [citation needed]
  • Take your hermit crabs out of the tank for 10 minutes every day. You can just let them climb around on your bed or set up a playground! Just let them get some fresh air.
  • Don't add in another hermit crab a while after your first one moves in, because it could become aggressive and eat the new one.

Warnings

  • Never force a hermit crab out of its shell. The hermit will allow itself to be torn apart rather than give up its shell.
  • Hermit crabs have modified gills and need to keep them damp. Provide both fresh and salt water so that they can refill their cache of water inside their shells.
  • Give them bottled water not tap. If they consume it they can get sick or die. If you must use tap water, use a tap water conditioner such as Zoo Med Hermit Crab Drinking Water Conditioner Part 1.
  • Never take a hermit crab out while it's molting. They are very soft and susceptible to injury and disease.
  • Don't ever feed your hermit food which contains iodized table salt! For example, crackers and salted popcorn. Hermits also have a hard time digesting grains, so you may not want to feed them any (except rice).

Things You'll Need

  • Food and water dishes
  • Assorted toys
  • {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} tank (or more)
  • Water dechlorinator
  • Sand or cocoa fiber or both

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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