Protein

[Love the hermits]

Hello, I've been doing more research on the topic of food for hermit crabs and found out that the store bought stuff is NOT good for them for the most part. I've switched them to lettuce and crushed egg shell but still give them some of the store bought crap because I'm not sure what to give them for a protein source? and is there anything else I'm missing that i should be feeding them? please let me know!

[emmac350]

What kinds of things do you eat at home? If you cook a lot of food from scratch you've probably got plenty to feed your crabs. Any meat that hasn't been seasoned yet is crab safe - I don't give raw meat to avoid bacterial overgrowth in the tank. Fruits and veggies (no onions or garlic and be careful with herbs - parsley and cilantro are safe and big crab favorites) are also mostly safe for your crabs. There used to be a safe/unsafe food list on the internet but I can't find it anymore.

If you want to get some stuff from the pet store, go to the fish/reptile food section. Dried or frozen shrimp, plankton, krill, tubeworms, bloodworms, crickets, etc. are all safe as long as there are no weird ingredients. A bottle of dried shrimp's ingredients should be just shrimp. Those are a great protein source for your crabs.

Your crabs will start getting bored with the same foods over and over again so please vary it. Lettuce everyday doesn't sound good to me so why would they want it? Offer tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, cucumber, avocado (I just put the avocado skin in the tank and they scrape off the little bits of flesh that didn't come out when I was getting it out for human food), bell peppers, a crumble of ground beef...really, the sky's the limit.

Marie - do you have the safe/unsafe food/wood list on the CSJ somewhere?

[Love the hermits]

I eat organic food to the max, bit of a health nut. Ive got loads of organic meat, so if i cook it up with NOTHING on it in terms of seasonings and oils and lubricants, it should be safe for them?

Alright, so how balanced of a diet do they need, like in terms of veggie to fruit to protein and such. And you said about varying, don't worry as the only thing I feed them every day is the eggshells, otherwise is a variety of greens.

[emmac350]

You can use oils on the crabs' meats - olive oil, coconut oil, etc. are all safe. I tend to steer away from the canola and/or spray oils or butter but fats are just fine for crabs - their cell walls are made of fats just like ours are so they need some. What I try to do for days where I know I won't eat anything crab safe is make some stuff ahead and freeze it for later. At one point my freezer had some sauteed shrimp in olive oil with lime pulp on them, individually bagged (I made shrimp for hubby and I then stole a few for the crabs) and a scrambled egg with spirulina powder and the eggshell broken up into it. The egg inspired quite a food fight between Rocky and Slightly -

http://thedailyhermit.tumblr.com/post/3 ... food-fight
http://thedailyhermit.tumblr.com/post/3 ... some-youre
http://thedailyhermit.tumblr.com/post/3 ... o-its-mine
http://thedailyhermit.tumblr.com/post/3 ... other-ever
http://thedailyhermit.tumblr.com/post/3 ... leeeeeease

Crabs do a good job eating what they need provided you offer them a good selection. Shoot for having a protein of some sort every day, a fruit, a veggie, and maybe a nut (unsalted) or avocado at least once or twice a week - something with some fat. If you can find it, spirulina powder and/or seaweed/algae (again, unsalted) is really good for them too. Brightly colored or dark colored things are good for coloring, as are eating crustacean seafood like shrimp tails and krill.

Seafood is almost always a hit - check out what my crabs did to the shrimp and scallop I gave them a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rtbDyiiARY

[Love the hermits]

alright, so seafood would be the best addition to their diet. And scrambled eggs with the shells cooked in will also work. then any combination of other proteins, nuts, fruits, and veggies. Is that everything?

[emmac350]

That should be good. Feel free to try anything else you find - oak bark/leaves, mangrove, etc. are all good for crabs. Not necessary per se but I'm sure the crabs would enjoy them.

[Wai]

If you need something quickly, you can buy a bag of mixed organic muesli, which has a huge variety of different ingredients.

[ladybug15057]

Wow Emma, had to look this one up! Since CSJ made it's move again a few years ago I just sorta dropped away from it. But here is the safe and unsafe food list:

http://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2012/ ... mit-crabs/

[emmac350]

That nutrition chart is really interesting, Marie - I'm looking through it right now. I find it interesting that it says 50% of calories need to come from protein, which really backs up what I've been doing with my crabs so far. I've seen my fair share of people saying how you don't need protein everyday and how crabs in the wild don't get it every day but seeing that makes me feel good about my crabs' diet (although even if it wasn't in there I'd still give my crabs protein daily).

[ladybug15057]

Happy it helped Emma, and living along/inland of the beach they do have access to protein daily. It does not prevent all cannibalism, but it does help to deter it some what. Not knowing which hermie eats what when, our practice has been something from each food group. They then have the choice of what they want/need.