Do Hermit Crab Pets Need Heat in their Crabitat?
Hermit crab pets need heat in their crabitat along with some humidity. But how much heat and humidity? First, you MUST know which type(s) of hermit crabs you have!
Different types of hermit crabs have different types of habitat requirements and parameters.
For healthy, happy hermit crab pets, it’s important to provide a crabitat with similar and consistent temperature and humidity parameters to where they originally came from.
Land hermit crabs are found all over the world, and those climates are different.
Does Your Crabitat Need Extra Heat?
Not all hermit crab enclosures need heat or humidity added. In addition to understanding the requirements of the particular TYPE of hermit crab(s) you have, there’s also big differences depending on where you live.
Living in Montana and Florida, and those differences will affect the parameters of a hermit crab habitat. Some factors that directly affect the parameters of a crabitat enclosure:
- Location of crabitat: inside, on a covered patio, in front of a sunny window?
- Where is home: Alaska and Florida are very, very different!
- AC settings: you may love running your AC at 69 degrees at night, but your hermies won’t like it
If you live in South Florida and all of your hermit crab pets are Purple Pinchers (most likely), you probably don’t need to add extra heat and humidity to your hermit crab habitat (unless the enclosure is indoors and you run your AC at 65 degrees, brrrrr!).
If you live in a northern state, keeping a crabitat indoors won’t be enough, you’ll need to add a heat and humidity.
Every hermit crab habitat enclosure has different needs depending on type of hermit crabs, if the enclosure is kept indoors or on a patio, temperature you run your AC at, etc.
Thermometer --> Temperature
Hygrometer --> Humidity
Get a Thermometer with Hygrometer Gauge
For $7 – 25, you can buy a thermometer with hygrometer gauge. Zoo Med and Fluker’s make these gauges specifically for hermit crab habitats, and both work fine. These gauges will never give perfect readings, but they are great tools to monitor for keeping temperature and humidity levels within a good, healthy range.
To determine IF you need to add heat to the enclosure, monitor the temperature and humidity levels over a few days or a week. These numbers will fluctuate between day and night, what temperature your home is inside, if you add moss or mist, and can also change when outdoor temperatures shift or if it’s near a sunny window.
We use the Fluker’s Hermit Headquarters gauge, and used double-sided removeable tape to adhere to the glass. In our experience, the adhesive that comes with most all of these gauges doesn’t hold up and the gauge will fall off the glass. We haven’t had a fallen gauge since using this double-sided removable tape, has worked perfectly so far.
Best Temperature and Humidity levels for a Healthy Crabitat?
To maintain the health of hermit crab pets in an indoor habitat, the temperature inside the enclosure should remain fairly consistent and within a “warm tropical” range. Hermit crabs are cold-blooded creatures, which means they can’t regulate their body temperature and must rely on their environment.
Gauges made for hermit crab habitats have graphics which easily show the ideal parameter ranges. Zoo Med’s gauge shows the optimal range in yellow (see photo), Fluker’s gauge uses green. Both are inexpensive and easy to use.
Healthy Crabitat Parameters:
Temperature Range:
70-85 degrees
Humidity Range:
65-84%*
*depends on type of hermit crabs
If temperatures drop below 70, or above 85 for very long, hermit crabs will burrow. Burrowing is their natural defense against uncomfortable temperatures.
An occasional dip or rise in the temperature or humidity level outside these ranges won’t likely cause any harm (depending on the hermit crab species you have), as it is natural for this to happen in the wild. But prolonged cold or extreme heat will cause health issues.
It‘s important to monitor both of these parameters regularly, and work towards keeping these levels consistent. If your parameters are outside the healthy range, or if the parameters aren’t consistent, consider adding a heating element to ensure a more healthy, warm habitat.
Best Heating Options for a Hermit Crabitat?
- Heat lamps and bulbs
- Heat mats and pads
Every hermit crab habitat enclosure is unique, and it’s important to consider the different heating options. Best heating elements will depend on the size of the crabitat, and how much time you dedicate to your hermit crab pets each day.
There are very inexpensive heating solutions available. There are also options that will automatically monitor and adjust temperatures as needed.
Heat Lamps and Bulbs
Heating lamps are the preferred, safest, most effective sources of extra heat for most healthy hermit crab habitats. They are most often used as the main heat source for turtles, lizards, and amphibians and come in lots of shapes and sizes. They deliver the most evenly distributed heat, especially when located on top of the enclosure.
The safest location for a heat lamp is outside, on top of the crabitat enclosure. There are lots of different options available. Look in the reptile and small animal section of your local pet store for different types of light fixtures and bulb options.
Tip: no need to spend lots of money! It’s possible to find a very inexpensive light fixture, and add a bulb that emits heat!
Too much humidity can cause MOLD ISSUES!
IF you have Purple Pincher hermit crabs (most common kind in the U.S.), you do NOT need as high humidity as other types of hermit crabs. Easy way to figure out the best temperature and humidity range for your Purple Pinchers?
Check the Key Largo or Key West weather!
Many thousands of hermit crabs live in the Florida Keys and Caribbean Islands. Temperatures and humidity levels fluctuate throughout the day, and throughout the year.
Short dips in winter and at night are normal, and the hermit crabs are just fine! Also, humidity doesn’t go above 75%.
In our Ikea Detolf Crabitat Hack, we use a cheap clip-on reptile light fixture (with an E26 socket). We have two bulbs: “daylight LED” which is bright white and great for most of the year. We have a second “heat bulb” we use for the colder days in January and February. Pay attention to the socket size of the light fixture you buy/use, and make sure to buy the right size bulbs.
E26 socket size is a 120v. Look for bulbs that say they fit into E26/E27. (E27 is European, higher voltage so if you’re in the U.S don’t buy an E27 light fixture).
It’s best to put light fixtures on the outside of a hermit crab habitat. Why? They crawl and climb! You ALWAYS want to lessen any possibility of issues before anything bad happens. Limiting extreme heat, electrical stuff, places to get stuck etc. are all a part of planning a good, healthy (safe) crabitat.
In the case of our Ikea Detolf Crabitat Hack, we use a light fixture inside the enclosure. It’s located at the very top (enclosure is 64″ tall) and clipped to a thick piece of wood on the side. Although hermit crabs could potentially climb up to the light fixture, they can’t climb out onto where the bulb emits the greatest heat.
And in the four years with this set-up, we’ve never seen any of them interested in or curius about this light. They may have scouted it out at night, when it’s not on, but there’s no possible safety concerns at that point regardless.
Tip: whenever you add any new fixture or element into your crabitat, watch how your hermit crabs react to it. Try to think of any possible safety concerns and find ways to alleviate them to make everything as safe as possible (and so you never have to worry).
Heat Mats and Pads
Heating mats and pads are placed under or on the side of a glass enclosure. These are a good for temporary or emergency source of heat for a hermit crab habitat. But these options are not a good solution for a large (heavy) enclosure or odd-shaped enclosure.
The heat mat or pad sits underneath, plugs in and emits heat through the glass bottom. Most of these can also be placed on the side of a glass enclosure using adhesive. This will emit heat through that part of the glass, but may be too limited to sustain the right parameters.
Heat Rocks
Heat rocks are often used for reptile enclosures. Reptiles, turtles, amphibians like to bask on flat warm surfaces. These heat rocks are typically not good heat sources for hermit crab habitats, as they only deliver direct heat on the rock element and can become hotter than the hermies like or need.
Programmable Digital Thermostat
If you live in a cold climate and keeping a warm tropical climate for your hermit crabs is a challenge, automate it! Use a programmable digital thermostat to monitor the heat source, and program it to stay within the parameters you set.
While this options isn’t a perfect solution in every case, a programmable heat source will help keep a more constant temperature inside most habitats and enclosures.
Be Prepared!
Tip: if you live in a cold climate, it’s always a good idea to own BOTH a heat lamp and extra bulbs AND a heat mat or pad. On the coldest nights, if one of them fails or isn’t enough, it’s smart to have backups available so your hermit crabs don’t suffer.
Last update on 2024-04-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API