Hermit Crab Cost
More and more people are realizing that hermit crabs can make for the perfect pets. In addition to being personable and fun to watch, hermit crabs are inexpensive to purchase, with an easy-to-maintain habitat. Many people mistakenly believe that, due to their small size and inexpensive cost, hermit crabs will only live for a few years, like mice and other comparably-sized pets. In reality, hermit crabs in captivity can live for twenty years or even longer in the right environment, which is surprisingly inexpensive to provide.
The hermit crab habitat is easy to set up. A single crab can be kept in a ten gallon aquarium with a screen lid. Hermit crabs are even more economical if you plan to keep a group of them, because they can all live in the same 30 to 40 gallon tank. The materials needed to furnish their habitat, such as sand or coconut fiber bedding, food and water dishes, and a heat lamp, can be found in any pet store, since they are used for many other pets as well as for hermit crabs. Special hermit crab supplies include a dechlorinator to remove chlorine from the water, and a few shells to move into as your crab grows. Neither of these should cost more than a few dollars, though.
Because the supplies are the same for one crab as for a community of hermit crabs, and it can be a lot of fun to watch them interact, many hermit crab owners opt for a group habitat. In fact, it’s not unusual for people to keep eight or ten crabs in the same aquarium. Other than the larger aquarium, caring for more than one hermit crab isn’t any more expensive than keeping one crab. The full setup, including the aquarium and all of the supplies, usually costs well under a hundred dollars. Few other pets can be set up as inexpensively as a hermit crab.
Once you get past the expense of the tank and the necessary accessories, the cost of keeping hermit crabs is actually quite small. As far as food, the hermit crab can eat many of the same foods you yourself eat, especially fruits and vegetables. Because they are so small, they don’t require much food. Popular foods for hermit crabs include bananas, grapes, applies, carrots, lettuce, spinach, plain popcorn, and peanut butter. You might even have all of your new pet’s favorite foods in your kitchen right now. There are hermit crab foods that can be purchased at a pet store, but those looking to minimize the costs of their new pet often feed healthy foods that they would eat themselves.
When compared to the costs of raising other animals, hermit crab costs become even more insignificant. You don’t have to buy special pet food or lots of expensive toys and supplies, and your pet hermit crab won’t need to visit the vet for a checkup and vaccinations. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and easy to care for pet, check out hermit crabs.
