Dont Dig Hermit Crabs Up!
Did your hermit crab pet disappear? Don’t worry, that’s what they do! Hermit Crabs bury themselves for multiple reasons, and all of those reasons are important to their health!
When you’re worried about them, it’s very tempting to want to do a quick health check by digging to find them.
But DONT dig hermit crabs up! It will do more harm to them than any peace of mind you might get by finding them.
Hermit Crabs Bury Themselves, it's what they do!
Digging and burrowing and burying themselves is part of a hermit crab’s natural behavior. And those behaviors are all GOOD for their health! They will bury themselves to:
- de-stress and hide
- molt
- cool off (or shield from cold)
Let them de-stress and hide!
Hermit Crabs will feel stressed when you first bring them home. They could feel stressed when you introduce new crabs into the crabitat. They could feel stressed if they get injured or are having health issues.
When stressed, they will hide. And if you provide the right amount of sand/substrate, they will burrow. Burrowing is GOOD for their health.
Note: make sure to keep fresh food and water in the crabitat AT ALL TIMES of day and night. Even if they’ve disappeared for a while, they can and will come out at night and you probably won’t know it! They’ll come out when they need to eat, when they need water, or when they are feeling good and area ready.
Make sure the substrate at the bottom of your hermit crab habitat is as close to what they live in, in the wild, as possible. This depends on the type of hermit crabs you have. If you’re unsure, here’s my article on types of hermit crabs with photos.
In the U.S., the most common type of hermit crabs are Caribbean Purple Pincher hermit crabs. The best substrate for them is a mix of Florida/Caribbean finely crushed coral or other similar natural sand, plus some coconut fiber mixed in. Here’s my post on best hermit crab substrate here.
Let them molt!
Hermit crab pets bury themselves to molt. Molting is a crucial part of a hermit crab’s life cycle. From young to old, all hermit crabs molt. You’ll typically know when your hermit crab is molting because they’ll disappear, burying themselves in the sand or substrate and not coming out for weeks or months. This is part of how they grow and remain healthy.
DO NOT DIG FOR YOUR HERMIT CRABS, it can hurt them when molting!
Let them cool off or stay warm!
Burrowing into the sand or substrate helps hermit crabs to cool off and get out of the sun or too much heat. It also helps them with cold temperatures in winter. They can withstand short periods of cold weather (think “Florida” winter, NOT Minnesota winter!) but will probably choose to spend much of it buried. Dont dig hermit crabs up!
Confession: As a kid, I dug my hermit crabs up! They would disappear and I’d get worried they crawled out or were dead. Back then (late ’70s/early ’80s) there wasn’t nearly as much known about hermit crab behavior PLUS I was a kid and I worried about them! if you’re a parent with kids who have hermit crab pets, what a wonderful tool to teach about patience and care and animal behaviors! BUt now we know… DO NOT DIG HERMIT CRABS UP. TheY borrow for their health, whether molting or stressed or hot or cold… leave them. “What if they died”?
As long as your crabitat isn’t teeny tiny, the circle of life and biology will kick in and one day you’ll see another one of your hermit crabs wearing that shell. This is what happens in the wild, and there’s usually no reason to change nature for your hermit crab pets. The Risks in digging them up FAR OUTWEIGH anything else.
Last update on 2024-05-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API