New Owner, what to feed them?

[CrabbyJo]

llmercl,
honestly, I purchase the mixes online only if they contain ingredients that are difficult or very expensive for me to purchase singly, such as a mixture of different seaweeds and freezedried shrimp and mealworms.
I highly recommend purchasing some organic worm castings. This is actually earthworm leavings, and contain a high amount of nutrients your crabs will love. Mine always go nuts for it when I put it in the tank.
Unfortunately, any mixes I would buy off the sites you have listed are not available.
So I pick up kelp granules and spirulina at my local grocer in the natural food section. It's sold in bulk, so it is incredibly cheap considering the tiny amount you need. I buy about a tablespoon at a time and it's around 50cents.

I've also purchased any mixes of seaweed that I can from online stores like keep on crabbin' or the hermit crab addiction store.
Otherwise, I just make sure I have a good variety of foods that include proteins (can give them any meat you cook for dinner, just snip off a small piece and cook without seasoning), fruits and veggies, and I even had a lot of fun just going through the bulk foods in the natural food section (think organic!) and got them lots of treats, like dried fruits (no sulfates) and nuts.
I get them natural peanut butter too, which they also love.

[lilhoney42380]

I am new to hermit crabs and have a question concering their eating habits. I have 2 hermit crabs and have had them for about 2 weeks. I've been feeding them chopped carrots, celery, peanut butter, romaine lettuce, strawberries, melon, grapes, and mango. I don't notice any of the food missing in the morning when I come down. I understand that they are small and so they probably don't eat very much but I'm just scared that they're not eating! However, if they weren't eating then they'd probably be dead right now right?! I'm freaking out about so much right now because there's so much information to learn!

HELP!!!

[emmac350]

Crabs need more than just fruits and veggies, lilhoney. I suggest you try feeding them some cooked unseasoned meat (ask your mom for a small piece before she seasons it for dinner) or even microwaved scrambled eggs (no salt/pepper) and see what happens. Crabs need a source of animal protein every day, and a source of calcium and a seaweed or algae (you can get spirulina at health food stores or sheets of seaweed at big name pet stores) every day along with fruits and veggies.

[CrabbyJo]

Emma is right, lilhoney, and as for them not seeming to eat, they may be eating, you just can't tell. Look veeerrryyy closely at the food you put in there - do you see any little claw holes, or lines like a claw having been drug across it? They can be very tricky to see.

What kind of substrate do you have? If you have sand, you can smooth out the sand around the food dish to see if there are any tracks to it. Also, look to see if there is any substrate in the dish itself.
If you feed some natural peanut butter, you can smooth it out so that if they do eat any, you can see the little holes from their legs or claws.

Give them a huge variety of food, try to feed different things each time you feed them (every day). I notice that sometimes my food dishes seem undisturbed, and after long periods, suddenly the food dish is trashed every single time I feed them! Don't worry, they will eat, especially if you change their food up every day. If you do it at the same time each day, they will also begin to associate that time of day with feeding time and may even start coming out when they know food is coming. This can take months, so don't expect much too soon, but feeding at the same time each day is a good habit for you, and will train your crabs, too!

[lilhoney42380]

Emma I'm 30 years old and no longer live with my mother, however, last night my boyfriend and I made hamburgers so I gave them a few crumbled pieces of that. I also gave them some corn, some ground up cuttlebone, and some FMR hermit crab treat which contains papaya, coconut, pineapple, sea salt, banana, apples, mangoes, rolled oats, and wheat germ.

[emmac350]

Haha, sorry, lilhoney! I had assumed you were younger. We do get a lot of younger members on the forum! How did the crabs like the hamburger?

[lilhoney42380]

*LOL* No worries Emma.

I couldn't tell if any of what I offered was missing because I put so much in the dish. I need to start putting less so I can tell! There was some sand in the dish though so maybe some did get eaten! I just went out to the store and bought them some seaweed to try for tonight! I think tonight will be seaweed, chicken, cabbage, grapes, and some ground up cuttlebone! I tell ya they eat better than I do!

Oh and I tried the FMR hermit crab treat myself and thought it was pretty good! *LOL*

[emmac350]

Sounds like a yummy dinner for the crabs! My crabs always ate better than I did (they're still alive, but I had to move to where I couldn't take them, so my sister is watching them for now).

As for the FMR treat, I've never tried it with my crabs, but as long as it doesn't have any nasty suspicious ingredients, sounds good!

[Wai]

I haven't heard of anyone having problems with FMR treat, so it's likely to be safe.

[CrabbyJo]

My crabs eat better than I do, too lol. They have inspired me to eat better myself though, and I buy things for myself so I can give them to the crabs, too.