How much Food per Crab?

[quietthinker]

I'm looking at all the great stuff at the hermitcrabaddictionstore, but I'm not sure how much I should give my crabs (once I get them, that is). As in, how much does each crab eat per day. Please tell me in grams, ounces, scoops, whatever, I just want to know so I don't feed them too little or waste food. Also, change the food every day, right? Thanks you guys.

[Wai]

I don't know how much the food weighs, but hermit crabs don't eat a lot. You'll know how much they eat over time with practice. Just observe how much food gets eaten each day.

[quietthinker]

Thanks, I guess I'll just start out with what I think will be too much and see how much they take each day. I should change the food everyday though, right? Also, when I buy crickets, mealworms, frozen chuncks of food, plants, and anything else that isn't fine or powdery, do I need to crush it with a mortar and pestle? Or do they rip it apart on their own? I'm kind of confused because they sell mortars and pestles on their site.

[emmac350]

You don't need to crush anything - actually I've noticed my crabs prefer things they can carry around to powders. I feed them things like the cuttlebone powders, spirulina powder, etc. but I don't crush anything, and the food bowl is always attacked at night. Crabs have pinchers that they use in the wild, so they don't need everything crushed in captivity - they don't get crushed food in the woods!

Also, if you buy one of the Can I Have a Taste packs, I use the little spoon for feeding my crabs. They get like...1/4-1/3 of a spoon of food, and I have 8 crabs. For non powdered things (like the dried fruits, etc.), I cut the fruit when I get it into similarly sized portions and just put one out for them. For mealworms, I tend to break them up a little bit, and they get maybe a total of 1/2 inch of mealworm (it's usually two smaller pieces).

[quietthinker]

Thanks Emma, I should have realized that they eat crickets and stuff in the wild without being crushed up. That will save me $8 on a mortar and pestle. I can't believe 8 hermit crabs would only eat 1/3 of those little spoons a day. Is that really true? I can't wait to get my hermies this winter.

[emmac350]

They get 1/3 of a spoon of everything I offer them - they get 1/3 spoon of a fruit, cellulose, seaweed/algae, nuts/grains/puffs, cuttlebone treat, veggies, calcium, bug/shrimp/plankton/chitin-providing protein, flower, non-chitinous protein (fish, beef, liver, etc.), and "other" (worm castings, multi flake, color bright flake, safe salt, etc.). Not just 1/3 spoonful of one thing a night. Sorry if I didn't make that clear!

[ladybug15057]

I do grind majority of the food up here for these hermies. I do not have a mortar and pestle, but do have a blender. I also have a coffee grinder that has been known to come in handy as well. I cut the fresh foods up with a knife and offer them that way. This way a hermie doesn't run off with the chunk of food and nothing left in the dish for the others.

[Jedi_Sena]

You don't have to change the food out every day, but some do if they have many different food items to offer, in which case only a small amount is needed.

[Wai]

You could have two food dishes, one with dried food and the other with fresh food. You could live the dried food in the tank for two or three days, but change the fresh food daily.

[CrabbyJo]

I actually leave dried food in the tank for a couple of weeks at a time. it doesn't get moldy - but I have noticed they tend to not bother it much once it's been in there about a week, which is making me reconsider leaving it that long.

I offer fresh foods every day or two, depending on how fast an item will mold. I also put several chunks of each food in so everyone can have a chance at it if someone wants to drag a piece off.

I usually end up throwing out most of the food I put in, but it's such small amounts of everything anyway, it doesn't matter anyway.

with the dried foods, I only put in very small amounts (maybe 1/8 to 1 tsp) depending on what it is.

I have 11 crabs.