A huge, slow, utterly harmless millipede that ambles across your hand on hundreds of legs — one of the best and gentlest invertebrates for handling.
🟢 Gentle giant🖐 Handleable🌿 Detritivore⏳ 7–10 years
Care difficulty
Easy
Animal cost
£15–£40
Full setup
£40–£150
Adult size
20–30 cm
Lifespan
7–10 years
Min. enclosure
60×30×30 cm
📋At a Glance
The giant African millipede is one of the largest millipedes in the world — a gentle, slow-moving detritivore that curls into a spiral when startled and simply trundles along on hundreds of legs. Hardy, long-lived and genuinely handleable, it needs a warm, humid, deep-substrate setup and eats decaying plant matter. A superb, calm invertebrate for handling sessions.
Best for: keepers and handling sessions wanting a large, gentle, genuinely handleable invertebrate.
💷Costs & Getting Hold of One
The animal
£15–£40.
Full setup
£40–£150 (terrarium, deep humid substrate, hides, calcium source).
Ongoing costs
Very low — vegetables and decaying leaf/wood.
Availability
Fairly easy; buy captive-bred where possible.
These are minimums, not budgets. The low end still has to meet the animal's needs — proper UVB, a heat gradient, space and filtration are not optional extras. A vivarium alone can cost £250–£300+, and a tortoise's UVB lamp alone is often ~£100. Price the whole setup before you commit to the animal.
Buying tip: Choose an active, intact millipede. Note they often carry harmless mites — a clean, captive-bred animal is best.
🏠Enclosure & Where to Keep It
A burrowing detritivore needing floor space and deep, humid, dig-able substrate.
Adult
60×30×30 cm with deep substrate.
Substrate depth
Several inches of moist substrate with rotting leaves and wood to burrow in and eat.
Furnishing
Cork bark hides; a calcium source (cuttlefish/eggshell).
Where to keep it
A warm, stable room out of direct sun.
Keep the substrate humid and rich in decaying leaf litter/wood — it's both home and food.
🌡️Temperature, Lighting & Humidity
Temperature
24–28 °C; warm and stable.
Lighting / UVB
No special lighting (nocturnal burrower).
Humidity
High (70–80%); keep substrate moist.
Bedding / substrate
Deep, moist coco fibre/soil with leaf litter and rotting wood.
🍽️Diet, Supplements & Feeding
A detritivore — decaying plant matter plus fresh vegetables.
Staple
Rotting leaves and soft wood in the substrate, plus fresh veg (cucumber, courgette, soft fruit).
Calcium
Provide a cuttlefish bone or crushed eggshell for the exoskeleton.
Frequency
Fresh veg every few days; keep leaf litter topped up.
Water
Moisture from substrate and veg; a shallow dish optional.
Calcium matters for the exoskeleton; keep the substrate rich and moist as their main food source.
✨Grooming, Shedding & Additional Needs
No grooming; they moult underground and are soft and vulnerable afterwards — don't dig them up.
Don't disturb a millipede that has burrowed to moult; keep humidity correct for a successful moult.
🖐️Handling & Interaction
Gentle and safe — one of the best invertebrates for handling. They don't bite; the only caveat is a mild defensive secretion, so wash hands after and don't touch your face.
How to handle
Let the millipede walk across flat, still hands, low over a surface. Move slowly. It may curl into a spiral — just wait calmly. Wash hands afterwards.
✅ Do
Let it walk across flat, still hands, low down.
Move slowly and let it curl if startled.
Supervise children.
Provide calcium and moist substrate.
Wash hands after handling (defensive secretion).
⛔ Don't
Don't grab or pull it off a surface.
Don't touch your face/eyes after handling (secretion can irritate/stain).
Don't dig up a moulting millipede.
Don't keep it dry.
Don't drop it (a fall can crack the exoskeleton).
🦎Fun Facts
One of the largest millipedes in the world.
Curls into a tight defensive spiral when startled.
A detritivore — nature's recycler, eating decaying plant matter.
Has two pairs of legs per body segment (millipede = 'thousand feet').
Native to East Africa; long-lived for an invertebrate.
⭐Overall Verdict
A gentle giant and one of the best invertebrates for handling — slow, safe and fascinating. Give it a warm, humid, deep-substrate home with calcium, wash hands after handling, and it's a superb, long-lived, hands-on invertebrate.