HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm planning on getting two PPs near December, but I need some help with food, it's the only thing I'm struggling with. We have a very low budget and we rely on food stamps/EBT, but I want to avoid commercial pellet food. I assumed I can feed them cut-up fruit/meats that we eat (like apples and chicken) with dehydrated mealworms and mineral supplements. I'm worried about pesticides . I heard it can shorten their life span so I need help knowing what food isn't too expensive and is also healthy for my future cabbies, maybe gonna be named Neil and Teddy

I love looking on the safe food list and finding different things already at home to feed. Such as nuts, oats, rice, olive/coconut oil, quinoi, tea (if all safe ingerdients, I break open the tea bag), honey, dried fruit (if nothing added.

And from the fridge, like you said fruit, veggies, and meat on the safe lists. I often save the ends/safe seeds (like with peppers) to feed. My hermits were excited over the brocolli scrapes, includeing the leafs attached to the stem. If I eat a corncob with dinner, I put the eaten cob in the tank. I eat straberries, peaches, apples (just be careful they don't eat the seeds), and put the core/top in the tank. Someone in my house peels their apples, and mine went crazy over the apple peel that had some apple on it. If I eat steak/chicken on the bone, I will put the bone in (if cooked with safe ingredients) for them to eat the small bits of remaining meat. Egg shell can be saved and dried to provide calcium.

If you know anyone with a chemical free yard and they have safe to eat plants, I have asked for fallen branches of safe trees or leaves/flowers from the plants.

They also sell some dried insects with multiple kinds on one container, so one container has variation for their diet in it. Like grasshoppers, crickets, and mealworms all in one.

Hope that helps some!

It does actualy! thank you so much!!/gen

Peeling or washing can have a major effect on any residual pesticides on fresh fruit and veggies. There are tons of crabbers who never bother or just don't have the option to use organic. It's a concern to keep in mind so that exposure is limited, but a diverse diet is more important!

I'm new to hermit crabs and still learning but what I've been doing to give mine a variety of fresh (and cheap) fruits and veggies is to go to my local grocery store that has a decent salad bar and go down the line getting one or 2 pieces of about everything (spring mix greens, spinach, bell pepper, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, mushroom, peas, chopped egg, dried cranberry/raisins, strawberry, melon, grapes, granola, sunflower seeds, almond slivers, etc.) Then I go thru the produce area and pinch off pieces of things people usually toss after buying the veggies like leafy carrot tops, celery leaves, broccoli leaves, etc. I put a kale leaf in the container too. I put everything in the salad bar container so I'm paying for everything I take since it's sold by weight. I only have 2 small crabs to feed but I average about .80 - $1 which lasts for a week. $4/month isn't bad. I also got a shrimp ring that was on sale. I keep it in the freezer and each week I pry off 2 shrimp to feed them. That ring will last me several months. Then I supplement their diet with whatever we are eating (chicken, pork chop, tuna, fish, eggs, egg shell, oats, banana, apples, corn on the cob, etc.) The only extra thing I bought is a bottle of freeze dried brine shrimp from the pet food section. I put a couple in their food dish a couple times a week.