Stop Buying Your Children Hermit Crabs (Why They Suck as Pets) 

Me before this video: Ehh I don't really like crabs Me after: Hermit crabs are sacred and shall be protected as innocent beings

Am I going to buy a hermit crab? No. Was I planning to buy a hermit crab? No. Did I watch a whole video about why not to buy hermit crabs? Yes. Yes of course I did.

"No animal is simple" So true and yet marketing has taught us otherwise. But think about it. Any pet is a product of millennia of evolution. Of course it isn't simple!

When I was a kid my mother got me a hermit crab at the local mall. I loved him, but we didn't know how to look after him properly. My mom threw him in the trash when his molt fell out of his shell. I had no idea until years later that he wasn't dead when she threw him away, still upset to this day.

I have 15 hermit crabs in a 150 gallon aquarium. Temp is steady at 78-80 degrees. Humidity stays at around 90-100%. 10-12inches of eco earth mixed with high grade play sand. They have two 7 inch deep pools 1 salt water 1 fresh water with bubblers to keep the water circulated. I also have over 100 beautiful shells in a bunch of different sizes. I feed them shrimp, eggs, bugs, organic baby food, apples etc. Their tank has A LOT of drift wood and hides to keep them entertained.They are awesome pets if you treat them right and the tanks are beautiful to look at. Don't buy them for your kids and if you do please do the research.

Why can't people keep a hermit crab with it's normal shell?! They're beautiful

If you think your hermit crab is molting: please please DO NOT TOUCH IT! do not try and remove it no matter how "careful" you do it. If it hasn't shed completely you could quite literally pull its legs off. They also NEED to eat their old exoskeleton do not remove/ throw it away. It is super important to regain their strength after molting. The best and only sure way to know if it is dead: is it smells, REALLY bad. Basically don't touch the hermit crab (like ever they are prey animals) unless it literally smells like death, and in that case, you can remove it. (Also I thumbed up because this was mostly accurate, but I wanted to add this bit of info)

I think hamsters are the most neglected pets; people buy them cages that are way too small, and use them as decorations. My brother has a Robo hamster, and ignores him! No wonder he’s so mean. I have to feed him, and water him. My brother also has tiny cage for him. I beg him to let me take care of him but he declines. Sometimes I put him in my hamster’s larger cage and take out my hamster so he can play with his toys.

Its so sad that the crabs get their natural shell cracked off for some painted shell :(

there was an ad for crab legs at red lobster before this video ...

Spongebob Squarepants can bring up the topic of molting, but a pet store can't do that when a family wants a hermit crab? What the heck?!

I have 2 hermit crabs, and they both are opposite genders... We are now expeting the probobility of having over 800 baby hermits....

My cousin had a *bunch* of hermit crabs when he was ten. He had like 12 and his tank took up almost half the room. They never fought and they lived for about 21 to 23 years (they were healthy and well fed and they had natural shells (except for Sunny, may he rest in pepperoni))

If there's anything I've learned from being the animal/pet lover I am, it's probably NEVER. ASSUME. Always do a shit ton of reading/research, you can never know too much about what to do for critters, at LEAST to have all the basic needs down! Heck D:

i was at my local fair and noticed a herm with a broken off leg. i took him home with me and due to me providing the right conditions he had a successful molt and his leg was repaired :) he's been living with me for about 6 months or so! he's my first time having them but i made sure to do my research and i keep his enclosure's humidity at the right levels as well as the correct temperature and he's been doing well. edit: i got him because i wanted to give him the chance to fix his leg. the enclosure at the fair had no sand or anything to burrow into to molt and he would have no chance to fix it, and i wanted to provide a safe environment :)

Why am I watching this? I've never had a hermit crab and I'm never gonna own one... But it was quite informative

you should make a video about pets that could be good for kids/ families, i am not a kid nor do i have a family of my own but i think it would be helpful to give some suggestions for families that do want pets. you always suggest what not to get but i think it would be interesting to hear about the opposite situation:) just a thought. i love u and i love how you're informing people about the truth of responsible pet owning❤️❤️

I think your frog would eat you if it was as big as you were. ._.

i had a hermit crab called peanut when i was 10 and he died 2 weeks after i got him. i remember getting a weird feeling when i saw him sitting in his tank. he seemed miserable and the whole thing felt off to me. to be fair we had no clue about any of this and all we knew was what the pet shop told us, but i feel so bad after watching this video :( i hope peanut is in hermit crab heaven having a beautiful life. it's what he deserved

I'm 13, I have two crab and they both have painted shells. Once I found out they were bad for the crabs I replaced the empty shells with natrual shells. Now they molted into there new healthy shells

you know how this goes: 1)Cheese 2)Cheese 3)Cheese 4)Cheese 5)Cheese 6)Cheese 7)Cheese 8)Cheese 9)Cheese 0)Cheese comment what you got below

I bought two hermit crabs a year ago and they had painted shells I bought natural shells for them and they moved into them

I don't like PETA either but they are great at exposing places like this, when they're not murdering dogs they are great at exposing pet trades and cosmetic companies

Chain stores are the worst... before I moved across the country we had a little local NON-CHAIN pet store near our house. They had hermit crabs with NATURAL shells, and HUGE enclosures for their animals, and employees were constantly refilling water bowls, misting reptile tanks and cleaning fish tanks ect.

My hermit crab lived for 7 years and changed his shell 4 times

when i was uh.... i'm gonna say about 7 years old, i was at the beach with my mum having a normal day. i will never forget this. there is a huge pile of thousands of rocks at the beach near my house. they (the rocks) are normally about halfway in the water. my cousins and I liked to go search for crabs and hermit crabs in the rocks because there was and still is a large population of them in there. so when we were looking for them one day (we always put them temporarily in a beach bucket to look at the for about 30 seconds then release them.) one of them, when it had been in the bucket for i'm gonna say about 10 seconds, it actually came out of its shell and was completely naked. we were like "OMG WHAT DO WE DO" so we brought it back near our beach towels and stuff where we were sitting and go some water, rocks, and sand in the bucket. we then rushed to get some bigger shells than the size of the old one. we got about 5 shells and placed them in the water with it. it actually liked one and got into it. i was so extremely happy that i almost started crying because i knew we had just probably saved the little guy's life. p.s. thx for reading my crazy long comment xD p.p.s. ik im super late to comment. luv u taylor

My parents got me a hermit crab when I was a kid and it died within a few months. NEVER GET YOUR KID A PET AND EXPECT THEM TO TAKE CARE OF THEM! I NEGLECTED MY CRAB AND NOW I FEEL AWFUL!

My shitty ex didn’t want his hermit crab, so he basically gave it to me when he left for college. Naturally, he won it from a shitty carnival. I hated the little one at first. I was terrified of him and did not want it in my home. It has been well over a year, his name is Zoidberg. He’s got moss and dirt to dig around, a heating pat, 5 empty shells to pick out from, a spray bottle to moisten up the environment, 2 little dishes: one bottled water, and the other is special salts for his exoskeleton. I love my little one now and really appreciate him. He loves to eat deli ham and banana

this makes me cry... i don't have hermit crabs but its sad how people take them away from their home and family and toorture them :(

I can 100% confirm this, when I was like 7 I BEGGED for a hermit crab and at that time I was getting all of my information from petsmart who told me that they lived 5 years and didn’t need anything bigger than a 10 gallon so I managed to convince my mother that these were low maintenance little things and I got two... big mistake, one died a couple of years later and the one that lived got very depressed so I got another crab, well my original one killed it so I was very confused at that point and just let it live on it’s own. Fast forward to like 5 years ago I finally got it a bigger tank, 40 gallons with ample space to climb and explore; I tried getting another hermit crab and it got killed, then I tried again and it got killed so at this point I just haven’t bothered trying again (if anyone has advice I’d appreciate it because I don’t want the crab to be lonely but she will literally rip up the other crab). I love her, I feed her well (new mixture every day with a few added commercial pellets) and she molts regularly and has the right conditions to live long but if I had to do it again I definitely would not have gotten her. These are NOT pets for kids and aren’t even good pets for most adults.

Hermit crabs are fantastic pets, but they are for advanced keepers only. One should always read up on what animal you're keeping, whether it is a hermit crab, a tarantula, fish, or a cat. The information pet stores give out can't be trusted, and you should always do your own research.

actually, don’t buy Pac-Man frogs. They eat fingers. 😂

My sister and I had two little hermit crabs and I kept telling my mom we needed a humidifier and a heat source but she wouldn't buy us one ): We got the perfect habitat and everything for them, but they died after a week because of the lack of heat ):

You should make a video educating people about buying bunnies at Easter. I used to work at a rescue and the amount of abandoned bunnies we got right after Easter would quadruple! Most people don't realize the care that goes into looking after a rabbit.

I have two pet rats, could you please make a video of how to take care of pet rats??? They are wonderful unappreciated animals and so much stigma surrounds them. It hurts me when I see rat traps and rat poison and rat chew toys for sale in shops, when they are actually so loving and intelligent and the best pets I ever had.

When I was 12 I wanted a hamster so bad, so to prove my responsibility to my parents I asked for hermit crabs. My dad did hours and hours of research, got me an exoterra, a heat lamp and mat, thermometer/ humidity measurer, no painted shells, etc etc to make sure everything was okay. I did research too and took care of my two crabs every day and misted them, had salt and fresh water, etc. we put so much effort into them, spending tons of time and money on them. We had a molt / quarantine tank. Having all these resources on how to adequately care for these crabs from such a young age, I still don’t recommend them as pets. I especially don’t recommend them for someone looking for an interactive pet, because all they really do is crawl and climb. I still think they’re great creatures, but I don’t think I’d buy any again anytime soon. Unless I can find captive bred, which is unlikely.

I THOUGHT THE TITLE SAID "Stop Bullying Your Children Hermit Crabs"

I had two hermit crabs when I was a teenager and I hated them so much. I bought them at this gift shop from this tourist trap area in Florida, and I did not expect all the work they would take. I hated the coconut stuff they were in, it's the only time I've ever had bugs grow in my pets substrate, I hated handling them because they pinched, I hated how much work they were (because I hadn't expected it). They were really neat little guys, but dang. After my research I tried my best to make a good home for them, and they lived for a little over a year, and then one day ( I had been gone for a few days and my dad was supposed to be in charge) I take off the lid to change food/water etc. and found that one of my crabs had apparently torn the other out of his shell, and then crawled naked into the corner and died anyway. I figured I didn't have the right shell sizes and they ended up fighting over them (I had a few in the enclosure, but it was getting hard for me to find shells that would work for them, since I knew painted shells could have toxic flakes peel off that they could eat and so I wouldn't buy them). It was gross and horrifying and disturbing and they look like aliens when they're naked and in conclusion, while I loved my individual pets it was pretty much the worst pet experience I've ever had (and I've had dogs,cats,fish,lizards,snakes,birds,ferrets,etc, so I'm familiar with pet care). Also in conclusion, never ever ever trust the person your buying your new pet from to know what's good for them and don't ever buy something your not already familiar with the care of. Impulse buys are exciting, but ultimately you'll always regret jumping into the work without thinking it through.

Me : doesn't want a hermit crab or is planning on it Also me : *watches anyway*

You know the drill But do u know that with geico u can save 15% or more on car insurance

I had a hermit crab and I regret getting it. Once I brought it home I hated it and never really took care of it. I mean I obviously fed it, but I didn't really like it and I never really payed attention to it. It died and I honestly think it killed itself as ridiculous as that sounds. I think parents should stop buying their children hermit crabs and I honestly regret getting a hermit crab.

I saw the title My reaction: CRAP I HAVE A HERMIT CRAB Edit*** I'm watching the vid rn and mine has a natural shell not painted**

I have had 20 hermit crabs no joke. There the best and some of them were 18 years cuz my mom originally owned them. There beautiful cute and magestic creatures. They all had natural beautiful shells. I bought them all from pets mart They all had a huge nice tank. I have a heater for them and they are very moist all the time. I take care of my hermit crabs

You know the drill 1. Cheese 2. Taylor 3. Zazu 4. Blue Tobi Puffer 5. Solara 6. Toast 7. Grumpy betta 8. Mushu 9. Crested geko 0. A hermit crab

No lie my son wants a pacman frog and i told him lets just get a hermit crab. Thank you for enlightening me.

I will be working at petsmart and I will make sure people have the right place for there animals

PetCo:We are getting rid of all of our wild caught animals by 2019! Me: laughs in 2020

Fun fact: Hermit Crabs can live up to 30 years in their natural habitat, but at most 2 years if kept in captivity Edit: I just wanna say that I'm so glad all of you guys truly take care of your hermit crabs😊! And this is just a fact I heard on the internet and yah know "the internet is always true"😂

I GOT A CRAB FEST AD BEFORE THIS VIDEO💀💀💀

One of my friends moved and gave my sister her hermit crab for her birthday. My sister never took care of it so it became mine. I loved him so much I took him to class every Friday and let the kids in the class look at him. He was my personal pet and it freaked me out the first time he "molted" I thought he had died (don't worry I didn't throw him away). I had him for two years, I don't know how long my friend had him. One day my family went out of town so we got a friend to babysit him and that day he decided to climb out and look for me so we called him Houdini. He passed less than a year ago and I would just like to say.. Rest In Peace Lil Bud I Still miss you but I know somewhere you are out enjoying the beach... RIP Houdini ????-2016 Edit:don't worry he didn't have a painted shell

I just went to Petco yesterday February 3 2019 for my geckos crickets. I saw an around 20 gallon long tank with 6 or 7 hermit crabs in it They all had painted shells

I really agree i have a hermit crab and my mom really researched how to take care of it so now ive had it for 7 or 8 years

Finally someone who can understand and relate to my dislike of peta.

I have a problem my parents don't seem to listen to me when I say that our 2 hermit crabs need a bigger tank,heat lamp,humidifier,and more sand they don't seem to care I try to explain to them that their conditions aren't acceptable

Omg just found this video. My son "won" 2 at the carnival. They have quickly became mine once I realize all they need. Join groups on FB. I learned SO much!! Everything related to Hermit Crabs at pet stores is wrong, I wasted so much money 😩

I had hermit crabs growing up, now I feel horrible 😭

Honestly, The crabs aren't bad pets, The people that handle them are.

I had a hermit crab that killed its roommates while they were molting... Not so social....... edit) to clear things up the hermit crab lived for a loooong time and we eventually had to find them a better home and i don't know if they're still alive... also they were very grumpy, we had bought multiple companions and they killed all of them. they always had food and two bowls (salt) and normal water. (They didn't have a painted shell)

i will never forget the day i went in my room and saw my hermit crab rip the shell of the other hermit

Omfg I love hermit crabs but right before this video there was a red lobster “crab fest” add smh

that moment when i finally got a mastercard and i am supper happy the merch is back so i can finally buy a cheese shirt. i click on the link, pick the shirt and start filling out the customer information and than i get to the part where it says "country". i start scrolling and scrolling and after a few seconds i realize my country is not on the list... and now i am seriously considering moving to a different county for like a month just so i can buy this shirt.

why would anyone want a painted shell. ive nevr seen any but it sound whack.

Thank you for saying this. My ex bought crabs for our kids. After two deaths I took them over, and managed to keep them alive for several years. I still have one.... I've had it for about 5 years. There isn't much reward in keeping them after the novelty wears off, but i have taken it on as a quest because its not their little bug eyed fault they wound up here. You have to buy or get different shells, feed them, manage their environment, etc. One way I used to enjoy them was I had a webcam running on the tank 24/7 that was recording. If you take the recordings and watch them at X16 speed the little buggers perk right up and do all sorts of stuff.

When she said they don't wanna live in the sewers and become a monster I thought about the TEENAGE MUTAN NINJA TURTLES

Kermit krabz just want some luvin But then thEY ATTAK

As far as I know, get kids a praying mantis or something. You can just keep em in a mesh butterfly enclosure with a few sticks, mist daily, and throw in a cricket twice a week. (The parent could even do this without too much hassle) If you get one that lives in your area, you can easily release it, and you can also find them outside pretty easily as well. They live for about a year. They can be taught simple tricks (Like jumping from one hand to the other), can get very tame and handle-able, and can be pet and given bananas as treats. Heck, they're a good low-maintenance pet for anyone. ...This was random. I'll go.

It makes me so sad when I go to beach and see a store with a tiny tank filled with like 15 hermit crabs and their shells are painted, and the tanks are filthy and it SMELLS.

I have two hermit crabs in a thirty gallon tank I did tons of research before I got them I take care of them they are so cute

I had 3 hermit crabs Me: *knows that paint can kill her it crabs* Me: *drives to cristi corpus and gets all the shells I can find* *puts the shells in cage* *hermit crab is stuck to shell with paint* *sister stars crying* *the body comes out and gets to a bigger shell* *sister stops crying* Me: I guess he was too fat Sister: HE??! Me:'I DONT KNOW ANYMORE!?

Taylor is blowing up. 739k. Amazing. It makes me so proud and happy cause she is spreading awareness about such important topics

Me: OoooOoo hermit crabs as pets Me learning: Oh god If I want the hermit crab to be happy I would need a 50 gallon long tank with echo earth and a heat lamp...

It comes down to parents thinking their children are little angels and just giving them a pet cause their cute. A half a year to a year later they end up getting rid of the pet/ or it dies do to the stress the child/family puts on it.

I was thinking about getting a hermit crab for my kid but after I watched this u opened my eyes and now I won’t get her one because it dosent deserve to go threw the misery it would of gone threw if I didn’t see this vid. I truly thank u

cermet krab be NEKED, then they ATTAC!!!

It’s 2019. I saw hermit crabs in my local Petco today. Looks like they didn’t keep their promise to not sell anymore hermit crabs. :/

I feel so guilty because after my hamster died my mom wanted to have a “easy” pet to care for, so we went to pet smart and got a hermit crab. When we got him the employee only told us that we needed a sponge in his water bowl to drink from. He lived in a smallish cage and of course we didn’t know anything that you told us. We had no idea he needed a heated light, and that he needed a huge cage with 6 inches of dirt. No wonder after 3 days he died... (btw I know we was fully dead and was not shedding because his body was not in the shell)

*E y e b r o w s o n f l e e k*

Everyone needs to see this

I’m a child and I respect this! I am planning on getting a hermit crab. Every day I research for hours just so I can give them the right care. I won’t take them out to much because they need humidity and temperature in 70 to 80 degrees. I plan on giving them a variety of food and eco earth. I have much more but no one what to read so much lol. But i totally agree with you. Some kids will put their hermit crab in these tiny little plastic things and it’s just horrible.. the kids will get them painted shells and take them out for waaayyy to long. But I know how to correctly care for them and what home they need. But yes I agree because some kids just can’t handle it.

My hermit crab lived for such a long time ......about 12 years 😉😉😊

This broke my heart 😢 years ago I purchased one from 2 girls with a stand in LBI, i loved him but was so stupid and ignorant to the care he needed. I didnt know to continuously mist him , and he got too dry and all his legs fell off !!! By the time I called the nearest aquarium, they said it was possible maybe forhim to regenerate his legs but he had no claws to feed himself. He ended up passing away and to this day, I feel like a piece of crap for not knowing how to properly care for him, please no hate, I still hate myself enough for it over 12 yrs later 😢

Was Was Was that a Jake Paul reference

“You see hermit crabs all the time in painted shells at the store” Jokes on you im not tall enough to see the hermit crab tank.... Also, oopsie because i keep taking it out of the ground....

My hermit crab ate his brother...

'No animal is simple' AMEN

I accidentally left my hermit crab out when I went to the pool and I found him 6 months later in our laundry room

I saw a hermit crab get ran over by a bus and...... IT SOME HOW LIVED THERE SO STRONG

I’ve had my crab for 12 years and my other one for 6 years and they are happy and healthy (I always give them shells I find at the beach or all natural shells) and I love them💖 this gave me such great info though thanks ✨

Is anyone else here wondering how they got here?

I have five hermit crabs and I think I take good care of them. I let them soak for an hour every other day and I have dirt/sand in their tank, some vines, a long piece of bark for climbing, a hiding log, food bowl and water bowl with sponges. I spray them everyday and change their food every week. I use to have some years ago but I never took good care of them. I’m trying to do better for these ones because I love them so much.. they seem happy. I love watching them walk around and just chill..

Thank you Taylor, I had no idea pet chain stores got hermit crabs from the wild. This is so upsetting! But I’m so glad your informing people about the truth, it is very very important. Keep doing what your doing, and I hope you are doing better! ❤️❤️

I have hermit crabs and I absolutely love them, but I completely agree with you on this video. Not only are they treated horribly by the pet trade, it's also pretty tough to get their environment just right for them. Feeding them is pretty fun though, since I can take bits of stuff I'm using for meals, and give it to them (fresh and unseasoned, of course)

I'm literally not even a pet kinda person, but I really like your videos, they're really relaxing for some reason! Lol

Whenever I go to the pet stores I live looking at hermit crabs they're just so cute and beautiful creatures, but I absolutely HATE the painted shells I think they are hideous... I prefer natural shells, like actual shells not some plastic shell, that doesn't look good ( in my opinon) so when I'm older I plan to get hermit crabs and get them real shells and do all in my power to care for them because I love them♡ Of course I can't get them now because my parents don't like them, but when I'm older I'm going to study all my animals throughly and make sure to give them the best life possible!♡

I have three crabs in a big tank with natural stuff. i=I take them out and play. They are loved and cared for

Wow I didn't know this, thanks for sharing. (I've never had them and never plan to have them but this was cool to learn)

It’s because ur a gorgeous human being who loves animals, shows that humanity isn’t lost. Congrats on 1 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS 🍾🎉

Who else wanted cheese

I bought some today and I did so to rescue them. I've done so much research on them. I've been up all night just cheaking the temp and hum on the tank.

I hate walking on the board walk and seeing cages of hermit crabs with painted shells I've always seen them as animals who are abused humans abuse animals everyday unlike ppl like you who care for the ones who need help how hermit crabs are treated everyday is terrible and 1 day I will say something and change the world and save all hermit crabs lives and more, 1 way or another