Rotting Food?

MornaStar · Post by **MornaStar** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:45 am

Can hermit crabs eat rotting fruits and meat? If it isn't molded of course. I don't know the answer and my friend asked for her crabs. star

jgfceit · Post by **jgfceit** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:07 pm

I guess they could, but that probably wouldn't be the best thing for them

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 1:06 pm

Like JMT, once said a little rot is good in a hermitcrabs diet as their digestive system was made for consuming deceased sea life, wild life and rotten fruits so only feeding them fresh meats, vegtables and fruits actually throws the digestive enzymes out of whack and can cause the hermitcrab to become sickly after a while.Once a month I would do some rotten fruit or maybe some spoiled shrimp just to keep the digestive tract in order but I do have to caution the smell wont be easy to tolerate and I would not handle the food bare handed.It would be best to remove the rotten food within twenty four hours to prevent it from attracting gnats and flys.Hope this helps answer your question.

jasonmom · Post by **jasonmom** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 5:19 am

Who would have ever thunk it .

MornaStar · Post by **MornaStar** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:19 am

Thank you. I was wondering because I keep throwing out rotting fruits and if they can eat it then I'll give it to them lol

finalfantasyxii · Post by **finalfantasyxii** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 5:26 am

What if you allow the food to rot in the crabitat? Just for a few days - like leave an apple or some chicken in there for two or three days. Would that give them an opportunity to eat rotten stuff? I find that things rot very quickly in the tat but always figured it was bad for them so try to remove everything the next day.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 7:03 am

@final fantasyxiiI'm no expert, but I always leave the food for 2 days. I have noticed sometimes on the 3rd, but mostly on the forth that the food gets moldy. I didn't wait that long on purpose, but have had something come up on feeding day on occasion so I forgot til the next day. So 2-3 days is ok but I wouldn't purposely leave food longer than that. Fruit by then would probably be considered rotten but I don't think meat would be considered rotten. I think for the meat part you would probably have to take a small piece and put it in a zip bag on the counter for a few days before putting it in.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:44 am

I agree with Jenok, the baby food I use tends to get moldy in my tank if it stays too long. But I've never seen anything rot unless maybe it gets buried in the substrate. I've put thawed shrimp in there and they just dry out eventually without rotting.And fruit seems to always attract those little flies out of nowhere.That's an interesting idea though - purposely rotting food in a zip lock bag.This is interesting. It's like pro-biotic supplement for the crab. I just looked this up: Hermit crabs like organic live culture yoghurt. I'm going to try these things.http://hermitcrabassociation.c...iewtopic.php?t=64004Thank you Mornastar! Good thinking.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 6:26 am

This is small print of the link she just listed.(once every 30-60 days as a treat not as a food source) "After extensive tests in several EH member tanks, it has been discovered that diary items are not lethal to crabs. Most crabs seem to enjoy cheddar cheese, live-culture yogurt, and the occasional drink of milk. Extended testing is still ongoing, but it has been 8 months of trials with no noticeable harm to the test crabs for now diary is considered acceptable once every 30-60 days."(not exact quote from link)We have no way of knowing their testing methods, however this being said, a few times a year probably wouldn't affect the crabs much as I'm sure they run across cheese from somebody's picnic lunch in their natural habit.Anyone else's comments on this is more than welcome.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:50 am

I actually don't offer dairy products as with milk it tends to by highly processed ie it's homogenized and pasteurized to make it safe for human consumption which actually removes quite a significant amount of nutritional value.All dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, milk, ice cream and the like have been processed for our supposed benefit when the processing actually destroys the nutritional value of these items which is why things like Vitamin D are added back in post production.I can see offering organic yogurt once every couple of months as a beneficial bacterial booster for the hermitcrabs digestive tract but I would not rely on it as a sole food source.That being said I would definitely stay away from the cheese, milk and ice cream these things wont do any good and may end up doing more harm in the long run as they don't occur naturally in the hermitcrabs native environments they are actually foreign and therefor harder to digest.

beka · Post by **beka** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 6:03 am

aw, one of my guys loves cheddar cheese! but, he only gets it once every two or so months. he will straight up steal it out of the dish and run away with the whole piece!as for rotting food, i also tend to leave food in the tat for 2-3 days, while still adding new food every other day. since i read somewhere on here that they wont eat the same thing two days in a row, but that rotting food is a large part of their natural diet. i don't think that the fruit is preferred by my group, but most often i will see them revisit the meat often.