Once a week??

[Christinieo]

Hikari Crab Cuisine is pelleted food, and you shouldn't feed your hermit crab pelleted food. Try to buy a pelleted food that has ingredients that anyone can recognize, like vegetables. Feed them a small amount and try to replace it every night, also give them vegetables/fruit with their meal.

[Mama Crabs]

I think Christinieo is 11 years old, maybe trying to be helpful...

[Mama Crabs]

That was nice of you to apologize. I understand your frustration, I've been there before on another forum. FYI, Christinieo isn't my son, I just saw this persons age on a website.

[wodesorel]

From their USA website.
http://www.hikariusa.com/crustaceans/crabcuisine

Hermit Crab Care & Maintenance: With proper care and feeding hermit crabs can live to be 10 years old. A clean environment free of debris and stagnant or soiled water is necessary for optimum health. Hermit crabs require large amounts of clear, clean water as part of their feeding. Their water source should be changed daily. Ideally, the temperature of their enclosure should be 75ºF(24ºC) with higher humidity and free of rapid temperature changes or drafts. Hermit crabs have no regular dining routine, rather they tend to eat at varying intervals from days to two weeks in length. For the best results feed Hikari Tropical Crab Cuisine in a clean shallow dish once a week. After 24 hours remove the food from the enclosure. Feed an amount equal to 2 grams of food (approximately a thimble full) for each hermit crab per feeding.

They are absolutely full of it!
Of course they eat every day! Maybe not the pelleted food, but all of mine are in the fruit and insects on a nightly basis.

[TwoC.Anne]

That actually suprises me. I would have expected them to direct people to feed much more frequently. Resulting in the food being used faster so they would need to repurchase more frequently. It would add up for more money to them. Plus, no commercial food wants animals to fail to thrive on their foods due to the animal just not getting enough. This usually leads to the directions telling owners to overfeed. I mean a thimble full is one thing, but once a week doesn't make sense from a business stand point either.

[Christinieo]

I'm sorry, didn't mean to offend you, I said, "Give them a small amount and try to replace it EVERY DAY, and try to give them fruits and vegetables too," Don't try to make me feel bad, if you guys don't like my info, don't take it, and I'm a GIRL!

[wodesorel]

Plus, no commercial food wants animals to fail to thrive on their foods due to the animal just not getting enough. This usually leads to the directions telling owners to overfeed. I mean a thimble full is one thing, but once a week doesn't make sense from a business stand point either.

Except that the average owner expects crabs to only live for a few months. It's a failed molt that will kill them before lack of food, so no matter what a food company does the crabs will still die. The other thing I'm thinking is that the average hermit crab eats very little in the span of one day - so small that a casual owner wouldn't even notice that the food is being touched, which would cause them to switch brands looking for a better food. With feeding once a week, not only will food be devoured out of desperation and therefore the owner will think that it's a good food, it also makes the crab a very easily cared for pet, which means they may by more in the future despite the (falsely) shortened life spans. We take very good care of our hermits, and expect them to live for decades or more, but we are a very very tiny percentage of hermit crab owners in the world. If 99% if hermit crab owners try their food, they are still making a ton of money.

Part of me is still hoping that it's a translation error.... I really like Hikari products - the quality is top notch and my longest living betta thrived on their food.....

I'm going to PM Yadokari and see if she can check the Japanese site to see if the information is the same...

[CrabbyIrene]

I sent Hikari an email because I'm curious also about the once a week recommendation. But I think wodesorel is right

With feeding once a week, not only will food be devoured out of desperation and therefore the owner will think that it's a good food, it also makes the crab a very easily cared for pet

But if/when I get a response I'll post it.

[TwoC.Anne]

That's a good point Wodesorel. If they do devour that thimble food, that is much more apparant than picking every day. Poor Crabs! I like their porducts too. We use their Cichlid and Koi formulas.
I also wonder where some of these companies come up with their statistics.....

[wodesorel]

Their freeze-dried proteins are top notch. I've tried several brands of krill before buying the more expensive Hikari, and it was the first one where I actually got hungry when I opened the lid! It smelled just like fresh shrimp, and it was a perfect pink color, and there was nothing but whole krill with absolutely no broken bits in the bottom for filler. (It was so much better than any dried shrimp I've ever had in human food.) Drives me nuts really to feed it since I can't even afford to buy shrimp for myself, yet my crabbies get it. That's why I'm hoping their directions are just a big mistake, since I feel strongly about only supporting companies that aren't deliberately harming pets. Telling people to feed once a week is completely irresponsible, and goes against basic common sense. *pout*