subject: Are Natural Or Painted Hermit Crab Shells Better? [print this page] When you venture to the pet store to purchase hermit crabs, you may notice there is quite a variety in the types of regular or painted hermit crab shells available. There is also some debate whether or not the painted variety of shells is healthy for the crabs.
First it is important to understand a bit of background why specifically the hermit crab has many shells over its lifetime, which it was not born with. Hatched from eggs in the ocean, the hermit crab has no shell, but only an exoskeleton, and heads to the shore to look to borrow the discarded shell of typically a sea snail. This is to protect themselves from predators lurking around who want to make them lunch.
Notice in the wild, these crabs select natural shells that can come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures. Natural shells range from being rough to glassy smooth, to being more of a nautilus shape or an oval shape, and many shell openings in between. Hermit crabs naturally molt, and every time they shed their exoskeleton in this process, they require a new and larger shell. It is at this point where they trade shells for something bigger and better. Shells that the hermit crabs find in the wild are not painted with acrylic paints, nor do they have any kind of external decoration glued to them.
It seems very cute and fun to customize our hermit crab pets when we purchase them from the pet store by selecting those shells that fit our personalities better. This could include personalized colors, patterns and designs, or even shells that reflect various sports or super heros. However it has been concluded in certain studies that painted hermit crab shells can actually do physical damage to the health of the crabs held in captivity.
As the crabs walk around and live their lives, there is the possibility of flecks or chips of the acrylic paint to be consumed by the crabs. Also such chips of paint can become a major irritant inside the crabs shell. Craft paints may say they are not toxic, but this is according to human ingestion, and not consumption by a crab. Many times the paint in the inside parts of the shell are also wet for an extended period of time, thus when a crab molts or outgrows their shell, they are unable to move to another shell since they are stuck inside their shell permanently. This can easily result in death of your crab.
Painted hermit crab shells also sometimes have external crafts glued to their shells to make them more cute or attractive for potential owners. The most common craft is google eyes which are adhered to the top of the shell. Should the craft come off in your crabs cage, this can also create a major health hazard to your crabs or at a minimum an irritant if this becomes lodged inside their shell.
It is very hard not to choose the bright shiny object but it is important to be most concerned for the health and happiness of our crabs to provide them with the most organic resources available. This includes choosing natural crab shells rather than painted hermit crab shells.
