Fresh food: organic vs. non-organic

Lynx · Post by **Lynx** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:17 am

This has been on my mind for a while. My crabs eat a lot of dry food and not much fresh for most of the year. Obviously it's best to feed crabs organic foods, but if it's not possible to get organic, how risky is it to feed them typical non-organic stuff? I'm fearful of giving my crabs anything with pesticide/chemical residue, and also nervous about giving them food washed with soap in case soap chemicals hurt them. But I'm also worried that on a dry-only diet, my crabs are being deprived of important vitamins! Is it potentially worse to give them non-organic fresh food than to stick with only dry organic food that's guaranteed safe? As a last resort, what about frozen organic food, is that a decent substitute for fresh food?

Blah, blah, skip this paragraph if you like... it's just background for why I'm asking. My father takes care of my crabs for me when I'm away at college. I need to make everything as simple for him as possible since if some aspect of crab care gets too involved and complicated he'll just refuse to do it. Feeding has to be kept quick and easy, no buying them special things. And he almost never buys organic food because he thinks it's a scam to drive prices up. So when I'm not feeding them myself, which is sadly often, they get an easy-to-prepare diet of mostly NarNar's mixes plus some extras such as cuttlebone and dried leaves, but barely any fresh food. And in the past year as my crabs have molted, they've lost some color. They're not terribly pale, their behavior is normal, they're just not as dark and vibrant as I would hope. I believe this is probably because they're not getting fed as many fresh things as they used to.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:00 am

I think you've hit on a topic that a lot of crab owners find frustrating. The problem is we don't have a lot of information, concrete information, that petsticide grown foods are deadly.

Here's what we do know.

-Hermit crabs are related to insects
-Because of this they are much more sensitive to the chemicals in pesticides that other types of exotics might be.
-Pesticides work differently and some of them may have harmful effects on exo skeleton and cell structure without killing crabs immediately.
- Pesticides arent something that can be washed off, they infiltrate the cellular structure of the plants

Because of this, crab owners, over time, set up guidelines based upon what would be safest.

In a perfect world, noone would have to have pesticides on their veggies.

;All I can tell you is what I would do.

Over the next few weeks visit your local farmers market and gather ingredients. Get things with leafy tops as well, really make your money stretch.

Steam and chop these foods and then place them in ice cube trays. Try to have different mixtures, so one week do corn, beets and beet greens, peas, and carrots

and the next time pick different veggies.

You could even dice and chop some steamed shrimp in one of the batches.

This way your father could just get a "cube" from a small stash in the freezer and once a week or so drop in a cube of veggies in addition to the dry food.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:42 am

There are some fruits and veggies that MUST be organic (IMHO for people too) due to the amount of pesticides used (and the fact that there's no peel in some instances). I had a top 5 list somewhere I'll see if I can dig it up, I know the #1 fruit was grapes. Darn it I can't find the article just my notes but I wrote grapes, apples, peaches and strawberries.
Soft fruits are a real draw for bugs and we eat the whole fruit skin and all so these pose the highest pesticide risk.

NaRnAR · Post by **NaRnAR** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:11 am

Luvmycrabs, I remember reading the list too...any fruit or vegetable with a THIN skin should be bought organic...apples, bell peppers/peppers, grapes, tomatoes, eggplant...things like that where the skin is thin and you are more than likey going to eat the skin as well.

Things like oranges, because the skin/rind is thick will have a greater chance of holding the garbage in the skin that letting it leech into the fruit. So those were "ok" to purchase non-organic, assuming youre not eating the skin.

My hermit crabs love the skin of an orange so I make sure its organic and pesticide free.

Kilimanjaro · Post by **Kilimanjaro** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:27 am

I can't afford organics, so I am forced to give my hermit crabs regular food that has pesticides and all the other junk. I always give them a good wash, and so far, after two years, my crabs have been fine.

Obviously, it could do some harm, but I really cannot give them everything organic. I try to do as much as I can, but most of the stuff is not organic.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:03 am

You know for those of us "economically challenged" (like me) I suggest checking the mark down produce bin as well as speaking with your produce manager. They'll often save stuff for you and I find a great deal of it is salvageable.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:09 am

^^ Not to mention the crabbies tend to prefer slightly... Um... Over ripe (let's say) food.

Kilimanjaro · Post by **Kilimanjaro** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:10 am

Raen wrote:^^ Not to mention the crabbies tend to prefer slightly... Um... Over ripe (let's say) food.

Haha, Raen, you mean ALMOST ROTTEN!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:15 am

Yup! That's what I meant!

lol

Lynx · Post by **Lynx** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:56 am

LolaGranola wrote:In a perfect world, noone would have to have pesticides on their veggies. All I can tell you is what I would do.

Over the next few weeks visit your local farmers market and gather ingredients. Get things with leafy tops as well, really make your money stretch. Steam and chop these foods and then place them in ice cube trays. ... You could even dice and chop some steamed shrimp in one of the batches.

This way your father could just get a "cube" from a small stash in the freezer and once a week or so drop in a cube of veggies in addition to the dry food.

This is exactly my plan. Great minds think alike.

It sounds as though I'm right to be cautious of many, if perhaps not all, non-organic veggies and fruits. Thank you for your input, everyone!

That "thin skin / thick skin" fruit theory is interesting. I haven't heard that before. I'll see if I can track down the article or a similar one; it sounds like it's definitely worth a read.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:22 pm

I found this

Can I effectively wash off pesticides from my fruits and vegetables?

First, it is good to know which fruits and vegetables have been found to be among the top twelve that contain the greatest amounts of pesticide residue. In descending order they include:

1. peaches
2. strawberries
3. apples
4. spinach
5. nectarines
6. celery
7. pears
8. cherries
9. potatoes
10. sweet bell peppers
11. raspberries
12. grapes (imported)

We would suggest you peel any of the above fruits and vegetables (that can be peeled) to avoid the pesticides.

Using a mild soap solution to wash your vegetable will help remove some pesticide residues, but it is best to peel fruits and vegetables that are coated with wax such as eggplant and cucumbers as the wax cannot be washed off.

Well I've got to go, I've got a LOT of grapes to peel . . . and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to peel the spinach. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Seriously, who writes this stuff?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:34 pm

lol That is a good question, Lola. lol

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:52 pm

One of the things we learned when we (we being the staff of the vet clinic I was working at) were being trained about flea/tick products is that Frontline's active ingredient Fipronil is actually a pesticide used on bananas. Now we were told this to make us feel comfortable with the product, mostly it just made me suspicious of bananas LOL.

ElinaGrace · Post by **ElinaGrace** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:21 pm

Steam and chop these foods and then place them in ice cube trays. Try to have different mixtures, so one week do corn, beets and beet greens, peas, and carrots

and the next time pick different veggies.

You could even dice and chop some steamed shrimp in one of the batches.

Honestly, that just made my day!
I have a garden that is growing 20-40 cucumbers and tomatoes,sunflowers, AND blackberry plant so now I have a good use for them!

GENIUS.

You just made my day.

So now I'm off to the garden!

NaRnAR · Post by **NaRnAR** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:22 pm

Heres another LIST

and another, page three explains the thick skin thing sort of:
clicky