Am I Ready for a Millipede?
Giant millipedes are among the calmest animals anyone keeps. They are slow, harmless, surprisingly long-lived, and they can be handled gently by children who would find an insect frightening. They cost almost nothing to run and need very little space. The whole of their care comes down to one thing: the substrate they live in is also their food.
The 6 questions worth answering honestly
Work through these before you decide rather than after. There are no wrong answers and a "not yet" is a perfectly good result — it usually means one fixable thing stands between you and a pet you would do well by.
Millipedes are gentle, slow, and mostly like to burrow and munch. Are you happy with a calm, watchable pet?
- A gentle tank of leaf-munchers — lovely
- Might be too quiet
- I want excitement
If that one gave you pause: Millipedes are the chillest pets around. If you want action, retake the quiz — if calm sounds nice, you'll love them.
They need deep substrate (soil + rotting leaves — yes, their home is also their food!). Can you build and refresh that?
- Collecting leaves and building soil layers — fun!
- I could learn
- Sounds odd
If that one gave you pause: Learn the recipe with a grown-up: coco fiber + hardwood leaf litter + rotting wood (from pesticide-free spots!).
Their tank needs regular misting to stay humid. Can you spray it every day or two?
- Misting duty accepted
- Most days
- I'd forget
If that one gave you pause: Keep a spray bottle next to the tank and mist when you say good morning — easy habit, happy millipede.
Millipedes can be gently held (they tickle!), but they may release a smelly (harmless-ish) liquid if scared — wash hands after, always. Deal?
- Gentle hands + washing after — deal
- Probably
- Smelly liquid?!
If that one gave you pause: Learn the rules: scoop gently with a flat hand, never pull (their legs grip!), and wash hands after every time.
Giant millipedes can live 5–10 years. Surprised?
- A decade of 'pede — wonderful
- Longer than I thought
- Very surprised
If that one gave you pause: Plan for the long term — millipedes are quiet, but they count on you for years.
They also need calcium (cuttlebone) and veggie slices, with old food removed before it molds. Can you keep the buffet fresh?
- Fresh snacks in, old snacks out — easy
- Mostly
- I'd forget the old food
If that one gave you pause: Make a twice-a-week snack swap routine: new cucumber slice in, old bits out, cuttlebone always available.
The part people underestimate
That the bedding is the diet. A millipede eats decaying leaf litter and rotting wood, which means the deep substrate in its tank is not decoration — it is the food supply, and it needs topping up and keeping damp. Keepers who treat it as bedding and feed only vegetables end up with a slowly declining animal and no obvious cause.
Who a millipede suits — and who it does not
Right for you if you want a gentle, genuinely low-cost, low-space pet that a nervous child can hold, and you like the idea of maintaining a small patch of forest floor rather than a conventional cage.
Probably not if you want something that reacts to you — a millipede is serene to the point of being uneventful — or if collecting and storing leaf litter sounds like more trouble than it is worth. Some species also secrete a harmless but staining defensive fluid, which is worth knowing before a child handles one.
What a millipede actually costs
Running costs land around $8–$18 a month once you are set up, on top of the one-off cost of housing them properly. The setup is usually the number that surprises people, not the animal. And it is not a short bill: expect 5–10 years of it. Our pet cost study compares the running cost of all 50 pets side by side if you want to sanity-check the number against the alternatives.
Questions people ask before getting a millipede
Should I get a millipede?
If you want one of the calmest, cheapest, most child-safe pets available and you are happy to keep a deep, damp, leafy tank, yes.
Are millipedes good pets for kids?
Very much so — they are slow, they do not bite, and they are a good first hands-on animal for a child who finds insects intimidating.
What do pet millipedes eat?
Mainly decaying leaves and wood, which is why the substrate matters so much — it is their habitat and their food at the same time.
If a millipede is not the one
A "not yet" is often really a "not this animal". These three ask less of a household on the things millipedes ask most — worth a look before you rule out getting a pet at all.
Still deciding?
If you are not certain a millipede is the right animal rather than just an appealing one, the quiz is a faster way to check than reading ten care guides: it scores all 50 pets against your space, time, budget and allergies in about a minute.