Hermit Crab Habitat Fun and Stimulation
Hermit crab habitat fun and stimulation creates happiness and better health for your pets!
Hermit crabs are known to become bored and listless when there isn’t enough climbing and exploration opportunities with their habitat.
They can even seem depressed and unhealthy.
Fact: Hermit Crabs Can Get Bored and Listless!
When you understand hermit crab behaviors, you can tell if or when they become bored or unhappy. They may become very inactive, they may burrow a lot when they aren’t molting, they may even stop eating and wading in their water.
Hermit crabs are naturally curious creatures that explore, inspect, climb.
It’s very important in a hermit crab habitat environment, to provide elements that stimulate their natural curiosity.
And because they will become bored, regularly introducing new elements or rearranging things is an easy way to keep them happy and stimulated.
Ways to Add Fun and Stimulation
There are lots of ways to provide fun and stimulation for your hermit crab pets, including both adding new things to the enclosure and actions you can take like moving things around!
Providing fun and stimulation will not only make them happy, it’s essential to keeping them healthy and living longer happy lives!
Add fun elements
Adding fun elements to your crabitat can be as simple as placing a new tree branch or piece of driftwood for your hermit crabs to climb on. Bendable vines are also a great option (but make sure to secure them well so they don’t shift and cause your hermit crabs to fall!).
Some things to consider adding to your hermit crab habitat:
- hanging coconut hideaway (this one works for hermit crabs, not all of them have wood rungs close enough for hermit crabs to climb easily, and most don’t have the last rung close enough to climb inside the coconut… this link will show you which one we use, that has worked for all sizes of hermit crab)
- rope ladder (products)
- driftwood and cholla (products)
- leaf litter (products)
- small wood houses/structures (click for DIY project ideas)
- moving water (click for photos and ideas)
- live clumps of microgreens (click for DIY tips and photos)
Look in the "bird", "reptile", "small animal" and "hamster" sections of your local pet store!
Hermit crabs LOVE suspension bridges and rope ladders, hanging hideaways and coco-huts. Most of these things can’t be found in the hermit crab section of your local pet store.
Hermit crab sections of most pet stores are very limited.
To find fun products to add to your crabitat, look in the bird, hamster, reptile and small animal sections!
Important tip: hanging coconut hideaways should have attached rope ladders where each step is close together, and has more than 3-4 steps. Why? It needs to be safe and easy to climb on for small hermit crabs as well as large ones.
Also, if you have large hermit crabs, make sure the coconut and opening are large enough… some are not.
Note: if your habitat has high humidity, it’s possible that certain wood products could produce mold. We experienced this with the a different type of suspension bridge product sold for hamsters, when we placed it too close to an automatic fogger we were experimenting with. However, we haven’t had mold on any other products.
If you do see mold, chances are your humidity is too high. Remember, if you have Caribbean Purple Pincher hermit crabs, they do not need heat and humidity at high levels like most other types of hermit crabs. See my post “Purple Pincher Hermit Crab Care” for more information on best parameters and care tips.
Large hermit crab crawling into a large water pool. Pool has a mini water filter and aquarium safe plants to make it look more natural.
The pool is a large Tuperware bowl, converted.
Because it’s clear, we placed it up against the back glass of the enclosure so that the backlighting shows through the water.
Water bowls large and deep enough to bathe in!
Most hermit crabs like to submerge and bathe in their water source. Every hermit crab needs clean fresh water in their habitat at all times. Some types of hermies also require an additional saltwater dish.
If the crabitat enclosure has enough space, a fresh water bowl should be large enough for your largest hermit crab to submerge. It should also have an easy and safe way for hermit crabs to climb in and out (yes, they can drown!).
For hermit crabs that are 2 inches or larger, look at reptile water bowls for a depth that will allow your hermies to bathe generally a height over one inch. Make sure you provide a safe way for them to climb in and out if needed, so no drowning can happen!
If space is limited, a saltwater dish can be a little smaller than the freshwater dish, depending on the type(s) of hermit crabs you have.
Medium water bowl with an air stone, aquarium safe plants and a sponge.
Air stones will still work if not completely submerged, look for the white ones that are thin and long for shallower depths.
Add an Air Bubbler to their Water Dish
Consider adding a small air stone for water movement, into the water bowls. This not only provides fun and stimulation for your hermit crab pets, it helps oxygenate the water, keeping it cleaner and healthier.
Adding an air stone means connecting a small (mini, micro, extra small) air pump and air line tubing to a small air stone, and placing it inside the water bowl. The mini air pump should be placed outside of the hermit crab tank or habitat. The airline runs from the pump and into the habitat.
An airstone fits at the end of the tubing, and is placed in the water dish. Lots of tiny micro bubbles are created, without any splashing or waves. It’s a safe way to add water movement without worrying too much about excessive splashing and water loss. See our easy how-to and photos here: Hermit Crabs Love Moving Water
Tip: place the air stone under a couple of rocks for a more natural look, and your hermit crabs will love it! Just make sure any rocks added to the water bowl are stable, because hermit crabs try to climb on everything! Keep it safe and stable most especially for your smallest, most vulnerable hermit crabs.
Warning: ALWAYS use a check valve with air pumps and airline tubing. It prevents malfunctions and issues by stopping water from flowing the wrong way.
Hamster wheels for extra exercise?
Many hermit crab pets parents place hamster wheels in their crabitats. And guess what? Their hermit crabs seem to like to climb on them and crawl, slowly turns the wheel.
It’s a pretty cool thing to watch, as the hermit crabs choose to do this and seem to like it! Make sure they are safe and very stable.
Hermit crabs should easily be able to crawl onto and off. These hamster wheels could be a good way for hermit crabs to get extra exercise in a smaller habitat.
Note: I’ve never used these hamster wheels in a hermit crab habitat. I prefer to keep everything more natural looking… but if you have limited space for exploration and exercise, this could be a great solution.
I don’t know if there are any safety precautions to take with these, do your research or if you put one in your habitat, make sure to watch your hermit crab’s behavior with it very closely for the first few days.
TIP for EXTRA fun and stimulation:
Have a few extra crabitat elements available for fun and stimulation and rotate them periodically.
Since hermit crabs get bored, it’s a good idea to have a few different things that you can swap in and out every once in a while: extra shells, different climbing branches, leaf litter, and even a hamster wheel can all be swapped in and out easily and without adding any stress to your hermit crab pets.
Last update on 2024-04-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API