Crawdads or Crayfish make excellent pets for nature loving children. They are great to observe and make a great home-school project or classroom addition as they are very low maintenance and can live for several years.
Crawdads come from freshwater bodies of water around the world and there are over 500 species in this world, with 350 of those species living in North America! They are often known by other names such as Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdaddy, Yabbie, and Mudbug, and are very closely related to the Lobster.
During the day they like to hide under rocks and vegetation, but at night watch them come alive and do all sorts of fascinating things!
Crawdads are solitary creatures who prefer their own company so it’s important to only have one crawdad in a habitat.
Crawdads like both plants and protein to eat. Shrimp pellets are a Crawdad favorite. In 
addition to the shrimp pellets, they also like live plants and enjoy munching on the leaves. The live plant is very important because it helps add oxygen to the water. Important: if your plant dies or your Crawdad completely eats it you should get another one for the Habitat. Some Crawdads only eat at night so you may never see yours eating.
Crawdads will eat a wide variety of foods and it can be fun to experiment to see which your pet likes the best. Place some clover stems in with the Crawdad and observe; sometimes a Crawdad will grab a clover stem and feed the stem into its mouth like spaghetti! Also try dry cat food, a bit of hot dog, bacon, a live minnow, or bits of eggshell.
Start by feeding your Crawdad one pellet of food each day. You can drop the pellets right into the water. You don’t need to place the food near your pets hiding spot as it will smell the food and go out looking for it. Don’t worry if the Crawdad doesn’t eat for a week or more; he will eat when hungry. As your Crawdad grows you will need to increase the number of food pellets. Because left over food will decay – and having dirty water will harm the Crawdad – it is important not to overfeed him.
Clean water is very important to the Crawdad –most problems Crawdads have are caused by water that is not clean. Once a week, more often if the water looks cloudy, clean the Habitat and change its water. Important: Before you clean the habitat (or pick up your Crawdad) you must have clean hands with no soap or lotion on them that could get into the Habitat or on your Crawdad. To do this, first wash your hands and rinse them VERY well.
Crawdads are not the kind of pet that you pet, but you can pick him up if you’d like. Adult supervision is required when handling the Crawdad because he can inflict a painful pinch if he feels threatened. Wash your hands very well before and after handling your Crawdad. Only handle him over soft surfaces or above the Habitat in case he startles you and you drop him. Crawdads are safe to hold as long as they are picked up from behind the head by its shell so that you don’t get pinched. Approach the Crawdad from behind. Grasp it firmly on his shell behind the pincers and pick it up. It may try to reach back, but don’t worry- it will not be able to reach you.
Crawfish can be bought all year round so make a great winter nature project.
