5 Ways to Perk Up your Hermit Crabs Now

Hermit crabs get bored! They are naturally very curious and love climbing and exploring in the wild.

An enclosure that never changes can cause hermit crabs to act sad, listless and bored.

They may disappear more than normal, burrow when not molting, and you may never see them during the day.

Here are 5 ways to perk up your hermit crabs now, and they’ll thank you for it!

#1 MIST!

Mist the habitat with detoxified or distilled water. Spray onto wood branches, plants, sheet moss and rocks so water drops can pool and linger for a while. Hermit crabs love to drink from the drops. Mist most often inspires hermit crabs to perk up and start climbing around within a short time after misting occurs.

Note: remember in the wild, rain is very common, and often the main source of a hermit crab’s drinking water. They love rain!

#2 RE-ARRANGE!

In the wild, hermit crabs are most often climbing and exploring and foraging for food. If all elements of their habitat never change, hermit crabs WILL GET BORED!

Provide some stimulation and perk up your hermit crabs by rearranging the furniture! Move their food and water bowls to the other side of the enclosure. Move their extra shells to a different corner. Flip the driftwood or climbing branch and shift it to face a different direction. Your hermit crabs WILL get curious and check out all the changes you made!

#3 Add a LIVE PLANT!

Adding live plants in a hermit crab habitat makes sense. Most enclosures could easily become a successful terrarium, except for one problem: hermit crabs notoriously destroy all living plants, and quickly!

If you’re curious, add a small grouping of microgreens or small hermit-crab-safe live plant. They will climb on it, and dig up the roots to a point of no return. And while the poor plant will have no hope, you’ve provided your hermit crabs with a TON OF FUN!!!

In the wild, they will often hang out under leaves to protect them from sun, rain and cold snaps. When you put a small pile of leaves in the habitat, they’ll be stimulated into that same behavior. And they will enjoy snacking on many types of leaves as well. Use clean, pesticide-free leaves and/or flowers from your yard like hibiscus leaves and flowers, mango tree leaves, guava/jackfruit leaves. If you don’t have access to backyard tropical leaves, you can find “leaf litter” for sale in the hermit crab section of your local pet store or online.

#4 Exchange Extra Shells for NEW Extra Shells!

This one might sound weird, but it works! You probably have a pile of empty extra shells sitting in the corner of the enclosure. You may not pay particular attention to their size, shape, weight and color.

But your hermit crabs know each one of these shells intimately! While you weren’t looking, they were exploring every inch of each one of these extra shells!

And they’ve gotten bored with them all!

EXHANGE THE EXTRA SHELLS SITTING IN THE HABITAT with a NEW set of Extra Shells! Prediction: all of a sudden and within just a day or so, your hermit crabs will try on 1-2 new shells!

Want more info on hermit crab shells? What type of shell do hermit crabs love the most? How to measure for the correct shell size? Ideas on attractive ways to store shells when not in use by your hermies! More on hermit crab shells here!

#5 Provide something NEW to CLIMB on!

Your hermit crabs are bored with what’s currently in the habitat. Remove that piece of driftwood or branch, and put a new one in.

Exchange one thing they climb on, with another thing they can climb on. It can be the same size thing, it doesn’t matter!

Hermit crabs are very curious and LOVE to check out and explore new things, no matter what it is. If they can climb on it, it’s a big WIN! More ways to add fun and stimulation in your hermit crab habitat here.