Proper care for a Hermit Crab

Hermits crabs are nocturnal (they sleep during the day and are active at night). Taking care of them is not hard it only requires a bit of dedication. When taking good care of hermit crabs they become very comfortable and do not really need to be disturb.



In order for them to live well you will need the following:



Food and water

Below are the do and don’ts


· They are very sensitive to metal and chlorine. So when choosing their food and water bowls, use non-porous containers.


· The bowls and containers should be large and shallow. This allows the crabs to climb easily in and out as they feed. The water should be treated with dechlorinator or water conditioner. You can opt to put water in different bowls, where one they use to bathe and the other one drink. They enjoying floating in water.



· These animals are omnivorous. Since they enjoy eating in small quantities especially at night, it is good to make sure that their diet has variety of stuff. Fruits like chopped apples, grapes, bananas are their favorite. They also like vegetables such as dark green leafy ones. A good example of these vegetables is kales and broccolis. For the small ones, crush the food or buy the powdered ones. For supplements use calcium in the form of calci-sand substrate or cuttlebones.



Housing

When constructing a crabitat for your hermit crabs, you need to learn on how to make it as comfortable as possible since this is where they spend most of their time. Put this into consideration;



· Hermit crabs are comfortable with temperature not lower than 75 degrees F. Lower temperatures and too hot condition kills them. If you overheat their house, the consequences are slow and painful deaths.



· Construct a spacious crabitat to fit the number of hermit you need. This is the place that they will be feeding from and climbing so you need to have enough space for that.



· The type of substrate you put on the bottom of the crabitat should be able to accommodate your hermit’s activities, easy to clean and attractive. The best materials to use are sand and coconut fiber. There is special sand mainly used for constructing these crabitat so don’t go after just any sand. When it comes to coconut fiber look for the one that is fine and dry.


So, if you follow the above steps, then your hermit crab will be as comfortable as you would love them to be.