HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I’m still figuring out what my little guys like to eat. They love sweets (fruit spread on a rice cake) but I know the need more nutrition and variety. I have tried different proteins, fruits, veggies. I work at Whole Foods so I usually just pick up stuff from the salad bar for them. There is a salad with quinoa, fruit and veggies that I think would be great but it’s got a balsamic vinaigrette on it. Would this be ok?
Thanx!
noddiemarie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s not harmful but large amounts of processed sugar aren’t good for them. I wouldn’t use a vinaigrette as a dietary staple.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't really pay a lot of attention to what my crabs 'like' to eat. And it can take a number of tries before a crab will eat something new.
I put in a variety of healthy foods switching them out and not feeding the same things all the time. The crabs will eat what they need, as long as you are giving foods that meet their nutritional needs (ie- calcium and protein daily, etc).

The salad sounds amazing to me. When's lunch? LOL

Thanks everyone!!!
Taking care of hermit crabs sure is different from when I was a kid. Back then we just did what the people at the beach souvenir shop said ( the pre google/ look in an encyclopedia days). Im glad I found this group!! We love our little crabbies. Thanks again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

noddiemarie wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:54 pm

Thanks everyone!!!
Taking care of hermit crabs sure is different from when I was a kid. Back then we just did what the people at the beach souvenir shop said ( the pre google/ look in an encyclopedia days). Im glad I found this group!! We love our little crabbies. Thanks again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right? I remember my first attempt at keeping hermit crabs back in the early 1980s. I had 2 in an ancient metaframe 10gal tank with an inch of gravel, no top on the tank. No heat. One water dish and pellet food. You can imagine how it ended.

Fast forward to 2021 and here I am with a night vision wifi camera begging for some hermie movement.

Yup. Exactly. The little plastic tote they give u with one bag of gravel, whatever food they sold, and tap water!! We would take them out and “play” with them…poor little guys. They are way more complex then they tell you. At least back then, they were still in natural shells not painted ones.


*not sure how to reply directly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I remember a few years back, I went to my friends house to find they had recently bought some hermit crabs. They where kept in a ten gallon terrarium with half and inch of sub, pellet food and only like, a millimeter of water. Pelleted food and painted and GLASS shells. Even worse, I know pet stores don't usually sell exotic species, at all. But mine sometimes do. I'm pretty sure one of them might have been a strawberry! it may have been a PP but I doubt it. It was such a bright red... I can't wait for people to learn to properly care for them.

Yes it’s been fun for us to learn about them and observe them. It is a shame all the misinformation about them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk