Homemade mixes

[Moonlightdreams]

Hello, all! I'm hoping to replace commercial food entirely (with a safe brand on standby for convenience, if needed), and today I made a mix of dry food. It consists of Quaker Oats (not the best, I know, but I needed a little something to finish it off), almonds, freeze-dried shrimp, cuttlebone powder, a pinch of Fluker's Instant Treat powder, and to top it off, a raisin.

They have some clover in their tank that I picked yesterday, and they get fed fresh food nightly. (Last night was shrimp, watermelon, and potato. Peanut likes potato, we've discovered.) Is this mix I made lacking in anything, and if so, what could I add to remedy that? (I know it doesn't have any vegetables, but I'm trying to use just dried food, so it won't mold as fast.) I'm also looking to make some different mixes in the future, do any of you have any suggestions as to what I could include in them? I only have freeze-dried shrimp for dried protein, unfortunately, but I'm wondering if there's some sort of dried protein mix I could get.

Anyway, any thoughts you have would be nice!

[wodesorel]

Check out the Zilla Muchies - it's all dried veggies, fruits and proteins and completely crab safe. They have a few different mixes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Moonlightdreams]

Check out the Zilla Muchies - it's all dried veggies, fruits and proteins and completely crab safe. They have a few different mixes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I'll look into them, thanks.

[gunstreet.girl]

I also make my own food mixes to supplement fresh foods. It’s extra helpful for me because i’m vegan and my husband, while an omnivore, is averse to eating anything that lived in water so the crabs only get fresh seafood as a rare treat and having dried on hand makes me feel less like the crabs are suffering as a result of my personal ethical choices

as far as dried protein, blood worms are a staple for my hermies, as are freeze dried shrimp, krill, crickets, and grasshoppers (all can be found in a decent pet food store, there are dried Insect mixes for bearded dragons and tortoises by flukers and a couple other brands that are just 100% pure insect good ness without preservatives or other garbage). I buy all natural dried salmon “leather” dog treats and pulverize in a coffee grinder (very clearly labelled “for disgusting hermie food making only”), which I store in the freezer so it won’t go rancid. I do the same with freeze dried organic chicken cat treats (discovered the hermits loved them after discovering my cats don’t).

It’s a bit of an investment, but a dehydrator is also a huge game changer for making your own hermie food mixes since, as you noted, fresh fruits and veg will moulder if added to mixes. I dehydrate a whack of greens from the garden and dandelion and other treats in the summer for use all year, and am able to put by a fair bit of organic fruit when it’s in season via dehydrating, which ensures a good variety throughout the year.

Health food stores are also a saviour, if you have one nearby. They often have bulk organic dried veg mixes (spinach carrot potato tomato type thing) and in the herbs and herbal teas section you can generally find organic roses, rosehips, calendula, raspberry leaf, hibiscus, and other stuff that go great in a food mix. The local hippie shops are also where I stock up on dried sea vegetables, bee pollen, etc. All the above is at least 20x cheaper from a health food shop than from a hermit crab supply shop (not pooping on the hermit supply shops).

[Moonlightdreams]

I also make my own food mixes to supplement fresh foods. It’s extra helpful for me because i’m vegan and my husband, while an omnivore, is averse to eating anything that lived in water so the crabs only get fresh seafood as a rare treat and having dried on hand makes me feel less like the crabs are suffering as a result of my personal ethical choices

as far as dried protein, blood worms are a staple for my hermies, as are freeze dried shrimp, krill, crickets, and grasshoppers (all can be found in a decent pet food store, there are dried Insect mixes for bearded dragons and tortoises by flukers and a couple other brands that are just 100% pure insect good ness without preservatives or other garbage). I buy all natural dried salmon “leather” dog treats and pulverize in a coffee grinder (very clearly labelled “for disgusting hermie food making only”), which I store in the freezer so it won’t go rancid. I do the same with freeze dried organic chicken cat treats (discovered the hermits loved them after discovering my cats don’t).

It’s a bit of an investment, but a dehydrator is also a huge game changer for making your own hermie food mixes since, as you noted, fresh fruits and veg will moulder if added to mixes. I dehydrate a whack of greens from the garden and dandelion and other treats in the summer for use all year, and am able to put by a fair bit of organic fruit when it’s in season via dehydrating, which ensures a good variety throughout the year.

Health food stores are also a saviour, if you have one nearby. They often have bulk organic dried veg mixes (spinach carrot potato tomato type thing) and in the herbs and herbal teas section you can generally find organic roses, rosehips, calendula, raspberry leaf, hibiscus, and other stuff that go great in a food mix. The local hippie shops are also where I stock up on dried sea vegetables, bee pollen, etc. All the above is at least 20x cheaper from a health food shop than from a hermit crab supply shop (not pooping on the hermit supply shops).

Thank you for all of this advice! Unfortunately, I live in a small town, so no health food stores. I'm looking into getting one of the Zilla Munchies if I can. My crabbies would probably enjoy bloodworms, but I'm very hesitant to get them, seeing as I'm pretty accident-prone and I'd probably get them all over my hands. Eep.

[LadyJinglyJones]

They're only irritating to skin if you're alergic. Freeze dried bloodworms aren't very messy compared to frozen ones, and if they do irritate, you can wear gloves (as I probably should, you know, if I weren't a bit of an idiot).

Other freeze dried options are daphnia, tubifex, krill, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp... see what your fish section has! There's a fair variety.

I recently found frozen oyster eggs. They smell so ick - it's great!

[Moonlightdreams]

They're only irritating to skin if you're alergic. Freeze dried bloodworms aren't very messy compared to frozen ones, and if they do irritate, you can wear gloves (as I probably should, you know, if I weren't a bit of an idiot).

Other freeze dried options are daphnia, tubifex, krill, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp... see what your fish section has! There's a fair variety.

I recently found frozen oyster eggs. They smell so ick - it's great!

I'm late, eep. I'd heard that, but I'm just wary. And generally grossed out by worms. Could be because my niece always found worms in my backyard and held them two inches from my nose. . . . blech.

I'm a girl on a budget, so right now I'm looking for something easy on the wallet, but something that'll last a while. Looking into the Zilla Reptile Munchies, they seem like a good option. Maybe I'll just ask for Petco gift cards for my birthday. Why do crabbies have the ability to make us melt and buy them all sorts of weird stuff? It's so great.

[Moonlightdreams]

Made them a new mix last week. I don't have any dried vegetables, but I do have some dried herbs, so I added a few pinches of herbs that were on the safe list.

Would nuts count as plant protein? They make up most of the mix. Right now it's hazelnuts, freeze-dried shrimp, basil, parsley, a bit of crushed up pinecones, cuttlebone powder, almond, a pinch of Fluker's Instant Powder, and some oats. (Had some of the first mix left over, so I just mixed 'em together. Crabbies didn't seem to mind. )

I'm almost out, so you know what that means! TO THE KITCHEN!

[LadyJinglyJones]

They're only irritating to skin if you're alergic. Freeze dried bloodworms aren't very messy compared to frozen ones, and if they do irritate, you can wear gloves (as I probably should, you know, if I weren't a bit of an idiot).

Other freeze dried options are daphnia, tubifex, krill, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp... see what your fish section has! There's a fair variety.

I recently found frozen oyster eggs. They smell so ick - it's great!

I'm late, eep. I'd heard that, but I'm just wary. And generally grossed out by worms. Could be because my niece always found worms in my backyard and held them two inches from my nose. . . . blech.

I'm a girl on a budget, so right now I'm looking for something easy on the wallet, but something that'll last a while. Looking into the Zilla Reptile Munchies, they seem like a good option. Maybe I'll just ask for Petco gift cards for my birthday. Why do crabbies have the ability to make us melt and buy them all sorts of weird stuff? It's so great.

If you don't like normie backyard worms.... ... do not wikipedia bloodworms!

I think we buy all kinds of stuff for them because they withhold affection, so we're always trying to prove our worth to them. So that they'll love us.

More seriously though, nuts are a plant protein, and that's good, but we continually recommend including animal protein because e want to do as much as we can to prevent anyone from getting the cannibal urge, which they theoretically might if their diet is lacking. It's rare but has happened.

That does look like a good mix.

[Moonlightdreams]

They're only irritating to skin if you're alergic. Freeze dried bloodworms aren't very messy compared to frozen ones, and if they do irritate, you can wear gloves (as I probably should, you know, if I weren't a bit of an idiot).

Other freeze dried options are daphnia, tubifex, krill, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp... see what your fish section has! There's a fair variety.

I recently found frozen oyster eggs. They smell so ick - it's great!

I'm late, eep. I'd heard that, but I'm just wary. And generally grossed out by worms. Could be because my niece always found worms in my backyard and held them two inches from my nose. . . . blech.

I'm a girl on a budget, so right now I'm looking for something easy on the wallet, but something that'll last a while. Looking into the Zilla Reptile Munchies, they seem like a good option. Maybe I'll just ask for Petco gift cards for my birthday. Why do crabbies have the ability to make us melt and buy them all sorts of weird stuff? It's so great.

If you don't like normie backyard worms.... ... do not wikipedia bloodworms!

I think we buy all kinds of stuff for them because they withhold affection, so we're always trying to prove our worth to them. So that they'll love us.

More seriously though, nuts are a plant protein, and that's good, but we continually recommend including animal protein because e want to do as much as we can to prevent anyone from getting the cannibal urge, which they theoretically might if their diet is lacking. It's rare but has happened.

That does look like a good mix.

Got it. No Googling bloodworms!

I have shrimp in all of their mixes, and I'm looking into some more animal protein, hence the Zilla mixes, but they always have shrimp. I've given them chicken once, but I haven't had chicken since then. (Except of the nugget kind. ) I don't have much in the way of dried fruits or vegetables though, so I was hoping the nuts were a good plant protein. I do have some baby food I made that's nothing but fruits and vegetables, and I offer that to them quite a bit.

Probably. Why won't you love me, crabbies? WWWWHHYYY???

Okay, all dramatics aside, you're probably right. Plus, if they have to live the rest of their lives in a little tank, the least I can do is pamper them.

[wodesorel]

If you have bad reactions to mosquitos it's not a bad idea to stay away from bloodworms totally. Allergic reactions can cross react and cause both to get worse, and bloodworms are larvae closely related to mosquitos, not a worm of any sort. I started off slightly allergic to bloodworms the first time I used them (itchy palms) and within a few years it had ramped up to borderline anaphylaxis (closed airways and swelling lips). My mosquito allergy got worse at the same time, from just itching to getting grape sized welts! Hubby was also having itching and trouble breathing when around them. The hermits do love them and if you have no reaction they are awesome and nutritious, but if you have a history of allergies it is something to watch for, and if you have kids it's important to tell them what is and is not normal - I was 11 before I learned that bananas and melons and other fruit is not supposed to cause an itchy throat and tongue! Kids take what they experience for granted.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[LadyJinglyJones]

If you have bad reactions to mosquitos it's not a bad idea to stay away from bloodworms totally. Allergic reactions can cross react and cause both to get worse, and bloodworms are larvae closely related to mosquitos, not a worm of any sort. I started off slightly allergic to bloodworms the first time I used them (itchy palms) and within a few years it had ramped up to borderline anaphylaxis (closed airways and swelling lips). My mosquito allergy got worse at the same time, from just itching to getting grape sized welts! Hubby was also having itching and trouble breathing when around them. The hermits do love them and if you have no reaction they are awesome and nutritious, but if you have a history of allergies it is something to watch for, and if you have kids it's important to tell them what is and is not normal - I was 11 before I learned that bananas and melons and other fruit is not supposed to cause an itchy throat and tongue! Kids take what they experience for granted.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I thought bloodworms were carnivorous polycheate 'worms'? Not fly larvae?

[gunstreet.girl]

This Fluker's mix for bearded dragons is also a good non-shrimp dried, mixed proteins source (grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms, if memory serves): https://www.amazon.ca/Flukers-72021-Bea ... ded+dragon

It's affordable and a jar will last you forever.. Can be ground and added to mixes, or fed as-is (my hermies love pulling the legs off the grasshoppers..)

[GotButterflies]

Bloodworms are mosquito larvae.

Edit: There could be different types though...

[wodesorel]

The kind sold as fish food are non-biting midge larvae.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk