Powdered Fruits

[Motörcrab]

This batch turned out great, even the peppers.

Only one issue,
When using parchment paper always use a crab safe oil like organic coconut oil, or organic olive oil. I spent an hour peeling the paper off the back of the pears.


I can't wait to try these tonight!

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[Maddamay32]

How do you turn the fruits/veggies into paste?

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[Motörcrab]

I cut them up into small pieces then toss them in a coffee grinder. Once it's like a smoothie I pour the paste into the parchment paper. I need to repeat that process a few times for each item depending on how much I'm making.

It isn't bad on a small scale. With this last batch I probably have 30 minutes of prep cutting and blending everything. After the dehydrating I had about an hour and a half involved. It would have been 45 minutes if it wasn't for the pears sticking to the paper.

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[Crabby7Crabber]

I cut them up into small pieces then toss them in a coffee grinder. Once it's like a smoothie I pour the paste into the parchment paper. I need to repeat that process a few times for each item depending on how much I'm making.

It isn't bad on a small scale. With this last batch I probably have 30 minutes of prep cutting and blending everything. After the dehydrating I had about an hour and a half involved. It would have been 45 minutes if it wasn't for the pears sticking to the paper.

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I'm sure thes treats are worth the time to your hermies!

[Maddamay32]

I cut them up into small pieces then toss them in a coffee grinder. Once it's like a smoothie I pour the paste into the parchment paper. I need to repeat that process a few times for each item depending on how much I'm making.

It isn't bad on a small scale. With this last batch I probably have 30 minutes of prep cutting and blending everything. After the dehydrating I had about an hour and a half involved. It would have been 45 minutes if it wasn't for the pears sticking to the paper.

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Thanks for the info. I tried putting some cut up fruit pieces into my dehydrator and I had that things running 24/7 for almost a week and the fruit was still squishy lol. I'll just pop them in my food processor first next time.

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[Motörcrab]

I'm back at it more dehydrated fruits for the crabs! This time I'm attempting oranges, kiwi, and avocados.

I'm not sure how the avocado will turn out, but it doesn't hurt to try.

My strawberries have been tearing into pieces of orange the last few times I offered it. I figured since we are shell-tering in place I may as well be somewhat productive.

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[CrabbyLover77]

I'm back at it more dehydrated fruits for the crabs! This time I'm attempting oranges, kiwi, and avocados.

I'm not sure how the avocado will turn out, but it doesn't hurt to try.

My strawberries have been tearing into pieces of orange the last few times I offered it. I figured since we are shell-tering in place I may as well be somewhat productive.

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Yummy! Let us know how they turn out!

PS-I read your post quickly the first time. I was looking for strawberries (the fruit) in with your oranges. Then I realized you meant your strawberry CRABS LOL.

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[Crabalicious]

Shell-tering
Thanks for posting all this info. I want to try it too. I have to say I was pretty shocked at some of the prices for tiny packets of food. Or rather surprised at the tiny size of the packets. I love the dry food though, molds slower and less waste. Really, thanks for posting!

[Motörcrab]

Here are the finished fruits. The avocados are a little brown but I think they will be good once the skins are removed and they are powdered.



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[CrabbyLover77]

Here are the finished fruits. The avocados are a little brown but I think they will be good once the skins are removed and they are powdered.



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Nice!

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[Motörcrab]

Shell-tering
Thanks for posting all this info. I want to try it too. I have to say I was pretty shocked at some of the prices for tiny packets of food. Or rather surprised at the tiny size of the packets. I love the dry food though, molds slower and less waste. Really, thanks for posting!

You are welcome. With us having around 40 hermits we try to save money on food anyway we can. If we had 5 or 6 crabs we would just keep buying everything from all the vendors. Small packages of foods that would last people three months our crabs will devour in less than a month.

Full packages of these fruit cost me around $12-$15 at the grocery store. I used less than half of what I bought for the crabs and the rest is for me. So $6-$7 worth of hermit crab food compared to probably $50 if we bought it. It takes time to prep, dehydrate and package I can understand why the powders cost what they do. Add in the cost of packaging the product and having to make money and fees sites take off the top the prices actually aren't bad.

Buying in bulk for some foods is the way to go. Searching Amazon can lead to a lot of good deals if you don't mind buying a few pounds of crab exo, green sand, and other things. It would be several years worth of these things, but from other places for the same price would be maybe a years worth.

We still use vendors for our animal proteins since neither of us can stomach the smell of baking flesh. We still purchase our crabs favorite mixes too. We can just buy larger quantities of the mixes they really like and buy or make the rest!

[Crabalicious]

True, we only have the 4 crabs so the food does go pretty far. Yes, it is definitely nice to supplement food groups that we don't have on hand.

[odelayheehoo]

Wow, this is so awesome! I definitely need to try this

[Crabby7Crabber]

Wow, this is so awesome! I definitely need to try this

Agreed! I think my crabs would love it! Motörcrab-- you and Xenocrab definitely need to make a Etsy store or something to sell your stuff (especially the Coenobita Curiosities merch)! I'm sure we'd all line up

[Motörcrab]

We have a good bit of inventory on our ropes, cubes and other stuff. If Crab Con doesn't happen we will have to open shop to sell everything! We just bought 5 pounds each of greensand, powdered fishbone, and crab and lobster exo. We will have to unload some of that too. Our guys go through a lot but not that much.

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