I am thinking about getting a couple of hermit crabs for my daughter. They seem to be pretty easy to take care of. Of course I will not be letting her have free reign over them, I will be around if she wants to hold them or feed them. I am wondering a couple things though
Am I supposed to get extra shells for these guys to hid out in?
Do they pinch? And if so will they draw blood?
How regimented is the care of these little guys?
What is a fair price for these thing? The pet store has them ranging in price from 8 bucks to 13 bucks for big ones.
Are big ones (about the size of a small muffin) any more dangerous than the little ones?
Over a one and a half year period, we went through eight hermit crabs.
Before we got them, I read everything I could about the care and feeding of the crabs. They did seem like good little pets, but it turned out to be a lot harder then I thought.
Hermit crabs do need extra shells, they like to change a lot and as they grow they will need bigger shells to move to. Sometimes at pet stores, they have to take whatever is available and that’s not always a good shell. We had one that changed the minute we got it home.
I’ve gotten pinched, but it wasn’t that bad. All of the crabs we had were on the small side so I don’t know if the size makes a difference, but it seems like it would. From what I’ve read they don’t pinch to hurt anyone, mostly they do it because they are afraid to fall.
We had to give our crabs a bath, had to clean out the little crabby poopies and change the food and water every week. Every few months we had to change their sand. We also had a small tank set up so that if a crab was sick or molting, he could stay there for a while. Hermit crabs will sense weakness and attack and eat others.
We paid about $5.00 per crab. The only benifit I see to a bigger one is that it’s easier to find if it wanders off.
I found hermit crabs to be a lot nastier then I thought, they are scavengers, they hide food, they fight and they will eat each other. When they molt, it’s just disgusting. I don’t really recommend them as pets.
Oh yeah, especially when you pick one up one day and it drops out of it’s shell dead, dried out, and looking like something out of Aliens. I know it scared the bejeesus out of me when I was six.
But seriously, not a great pet IMHO. I wanted a dog and hermit crabs were what my parents got me instead. I remember taping a string to the shell and trying to “walk” one around the neighborhood. No wonder I’m so warped.
They are easy to take care of but really boring. They are nocturnal so they sleep all day - same problem as hamsters. I always had small ones and they can’t really pinch you, although I never wanted them crawling on me anyway because let’s face it, it’s a crab. Sorry, I don’t know what they go for price wise anymore, but I paid something like a buck a piece for the tiny little ones for my saltwater fish tank - but I’m talking about 1/2" sized hermits. And you need to get extra shells - try to get a range of sizes that aren’t way too big for it. It will try them all on until it finds one it likes the best and move in.
But, you know…what all little girls REALLY want is a pony.
They were cool to have as a kid, but in retrospect they are pretty crappy pets. So, your daughter will probably like them but you may not.
I had a medium one and it pinched me and broke the skin but it wasn’t gushing blood. Clean out their cage once a month or so…make sure they have water and food available. And, echoing what Kiger said…the day you pick your up and he is dead is pretty creepy for a kid. Usually when you pick them up they hide and sty in their shell (at first) so when you pick up a dead one and a shriveled up little crab carcass falls out, it’s pretty disconcerting, especially so for a child.
We had some of these for a while… they tended to die off pretty fast. I wouldn’t say they’re good pets - they just didn’t do anything. Pets for a young kid should provide some fun or amusement, or companionship. Crabs that sit in a cage and rarely ever move don’t really do that in my opinion.
My daughters BF has one and it comes and visits sometimes. Sheldon is kinda cool and cruises around his little cage every day. Not as much fun as a puppy, but not a total waste.
I have some, and young children. I think your daughter will just be frustrated by them. You can’t really pet them or play with them. They will pinch if they feel like you’re going to drop them. They do tend to die off a lot. I went through 3 before they stopped dying.
I’d reccommend a hampster instead. They are cute and cuddly and you can get a cool little ball for them and let them run around the house.
I hate to be a downer, but I don’t think any animal is really a good pet for a 4-year-old. A child that young can very easily hurt a small animal without meaning to, or be hurt by one (scared hamsters have a pretty sharp bite).
If anything, I’d suggest getting a family pet instead. A medium to large sized dog can withstand the abuse a little kid dishes out, and a good-tempered dog will put up with some unintentional rough handling.
My friend just found one of these in the dumpster behind his work. Amazingly, it was still alive and he got it a little tank and everything…seems like a pretty boring pet though. Cats and dogs make better pets any day!
Make sure you buy the extra, larger, shells. My father was sure that by the time the smaller crab needed to change his shell, the bigger crab would have moved into the extra-large shell. This was of no comfort when I found the little crab all naked and curled up dead in the tank several months later.
I had some hermit crabs when I was around 10. I cleaned the cage once a week and they still reaked. I washed them and they still reaked. I cleaned the stones (didn’t use sand) and they still reaked. They were mean, nasty pets. Everything Dragongirl said applies. Though as a 10 year old boy, I liked it when they fought, at least then they weren’t just sitting there. However, I was just as disgusted when they ate eachother.
Never buy anything for a 4-year-old that will fit in the kid’s mouth.
'Cause that’s where it’s gonna eventually wind-up.
Now, if you think you can unhook a Hermit Crab’s claws from your daughter’s tongue–great!
Otherwise–no.
Consider a pet Chinchilla. Adorable, friendly, gentle. And, when your kid becomes a teenager, & asks you to buy her a fur to wear to the prom, you can say “What did you do with that Chinchilla I bought you?”
I know it’s already been mentioned, but I wanted to reiterate: these things stink. I crab-sat a friend’s hermit crab while they were on vacation, and would never recommend these things as pets. The crab would throw its feed around, thus mixing it with the water and excrement laying about the aquarium, and let the mess ferment. It seemed to enjoy it.
Also, if your crab has any sort of rocks or movable objects in its enclosure, you will get to enjoy a constant clack-clacking at night as it knocks over or otherwise perturbs anything in its acquarium.
I had 3 hermit crabs when I was about 7 or 8. They were pretty interesting, in retrospect. Mom was totally against a dog for me at that age, so hermit crabs it was. The big one bit the everlovin’ hell out of my thumb the very first day I had it so it was named Moody. The other two were Connie & Cocoa.
Every night we’d bring them out and let them crawl all over the living room. When they died I remember being completely and utterly devastated. A harsh lesson in death at a young age, but it was better to learn it from a hermit crab than a family dog.
I’ll concur with yBeayf that they clank around a lot at night and you’ll hear them scooting around in the gravel.
