HCA: Hermit Crab Association

The Hermit Crab Patch is a great place to find all sorts of product from many individual vendors! I'm so proud to be partnering with them to offer Crabotanicals! Love working with Tammy!

Even rotting fallen leaves have nutritional value for crabs. I would risk the pests and not bake the leaves personally. Nowadays we are moving toward adding natural bacteria to the substrate instead of sterilizing everything. There are kind of two camps. I've done both and there are benefits to both...

My crabs have been eating mulberry leaves and bark for many years without any harmful effects. If it can be gathered from a safe place where pesticides and chemical fertilizers have not been used, then it is perfectly safe. The tree parts have a lot of natural latex, but hermit crabs eat a LOT of th...

Endive is safe.

Sadly, this myth has been resurrected again in certain circles, but the trial was completed and reported on Jan 1, 2006. Dairy is beneficial because of the calcium and protein (casein). It is unlikely that hermit crabs would ever encounter milk and cheese in their natural, unpolluted environment. Ho...

Glad they liked the puffed millet!

A great way to see if they're eating on the sneaks (because they often prefer privacy) is to smooth out the substrate around the dish and then check for footprints in the morning. Also, sometimes they're eating substrate and tank decorations instead of the foods you're offering.

Fingernails are worn down (a newly molted crab has long black fingernails and hairy legs).

Congrats! and welcome! When you do your research and get in the groove, keeping hermit crabs is very rewarding!

They've been through a lot when you first get them, so they need time to recover. Offering quality food is important...even if they haven't regained their appetite, because you want their first meal to be epic! And they may eat on the sneaks (possibly at night) for a while too.

I'm not crazy about how "fortified" it is. Adding vitamins in those quantities just don't make sense to me, if the food base is high quality. I'd rather have whole foods than individual vitamins and minerals because whole foods have thousands and thousands of phyto-nutrients. Do the crabs eat it on ...

Depends on the type of tree. Some are toxic and some are excellent crab food! And it is best to collect bark or wood from pristine areas where there aren't a lot of sources of pollution, no chemical fertilizers, and absolutely NO bug repellents.

Sounds like a great thing to offer. Something they'd find in the wild. If the rabbits eat a lot of alfalfa, then I bet there are some really good nutrients left over in the poo with the addition of good bacteria from the gut. (That's why it makes such great fertilizer too.)

"Wild-harvested" and "wild-crafted" are good terms to see when shopping for flowers for hermit crab food.

You're right! They are lovely folks at The Hermit Crab Patch! (They changed their name a few years ago). They carry Crabotanicals products too!