They are ugly and have creepy looking eyes. However, my teenager seems to love them and wants to bring two of them home to live with us. Seriously! Should I let her do this icky thing or not? Who has experience with these strange creatures, and who can help me talk her out of getting them.

I actually don't think I mind letting her have them, but I don't know anything about them other than what I just read on some I-love-hermit-crabs website. They seem complicated with their weird molting, cannibalism, shell stealing, need humidity or die ways. Help, please!!

Oh my..I have no advice, just a for you.

Well.... they are kinda yucky. The molting thing freaks me out. If they get sick, they crawl OUT of their shell to die and they are GROSS looking!!!! But overall they are pretty easy to take care of. They are only slightly less boring than goldfish and worse to dispose of when dead.

Thanks for the Chicky. I can always use one.


Tiffany, you see that is what I'm talking about. GROSS!! I did point that out to the kid, but she doesn't seem to feel that is an issue. Although, she does want baby crabs because she bigger ones freak her out a little and she thinks she will be able to get use to them as they grow.

We have two and they are lower maintenance than ... pretty much anything.

There are little sponges that you can keep wet for them to drink with their antennae. We put their food in a shell. Totally low key.

I had 2 as pets for awhile - most of the time (99.7%) they stayed neatly in their shells. They were easy to take care of and kind of cute. I never got pinched and they liked to crawl around on my hand. I got them a "hermit crab ball" so they could roll around on the floor, they seemed to dig it.

I did get to see one switch shells and it was actually very very cool. He found the new shell and turned it around and around and around, ran his hands inside and all around it, gave it a very very close inspection. Then, he switched shells (fairly quickly, I did get to see his body, but it wasn't really that gross, kind of like a slug) and that was it. He spent a lot more time figuring out if he wanted to do it.

One thing to know, it is very very difficult to breed hermit crabs in captivity. Most crabs for sale in a pet store were scooped up from the wild. Something to consider - taking a wild creature (even something as "low rent" as a hermit crab) from its normal life.

Mine lived a little more than 3 years, I am not sure why they died (about 6 months apart).

Thank you Sue and Glory. I suppose I will let her have them as long as she is fully educated on their care and expense. I just remember that when she was little we got to tiny slider turtles that turned into two big slider turtles that I had to take care of. Not doing that again!

I swear, they are kind of fun. Hold your hand flat, put the hermit crab on your palm. Be still, wait until they start to peek out under their shell, first their little eyes, then their feet, it's really darned cute (and I am a spider phobe, so you'd think all the legs would freak me out). It has been 5+ years since I had them, but I recall they were very easy to take care of.

My daughter was looking at some hermit crabs at the mall (they were on SALE) and I said "poor little hermit crabs". Another little girl was standing there and said "why do you say that?"
I told her "because they should be out on a beach somewhere"

You should let her have them cause they are easy to take care of and their shells are so pretty when decorated =) on the plus side they may look ugly but their shells are gorgeous so they can hide their uglyness by staying in their shell lol