Safe Food List from EH

[Kat]

Hi I just bought a mixed bag of unsalted roasted nuts. It has cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts and hazelnuts. Are any of these a problem for my 3 medium Aussies (I'm in Australia).
Thanks, PS this is my first post of assume will be lots of annoying questions!

Just check the list to make certain, but I'm 90% sure that those nuts are okay.

[torito]

I did look but I couldn't find all the nuts, I though maybe only some nuts were okay, thanks.

[katybug13]

Anybody know about white rice?

[Cassafrass1999]

Anybody know about white rice?

I think I have heard white rice is "ok", but it has really no nutritional value for them (it is basically crabby "junk food"). :/ I wouldn't feed it to them until someone can give you a sure answer, however.

[Jackolope]

Anybody know about white rice?

i've tried it and it doesn't seem to hurt them but mine showed little interest in eating it

[katybug13]

Okay thank you!

[SachOfSCP]

I literally just went through this thread from beginning to end & would like to share my thoughts, opinions and experiences.

*Of note is that 8 PPs of my current colony have been with me since I started 3 years ago.

Although I haven't had access to them since, yes I'm confident in saying peonies are safe since my original group had them fresh from my yard & loved them.

I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the foods considered unsafe are just things oft-repeated & not necessarily up to date, but that's just me I suppose

My opinion on seasonings, etc is this: when we season our foods, most of the time, we are using a minuscule amount of those seasonings to begin with, often in a dehydrated form (like garlic or onion powder for example) to the point that when our crabs get their bits, it's really just the flavor that's left. I don't know about anyone else, but there are very few meats I cook that I don't season with something My crabs love getting stuff like pork chops cooked in mushroom soup, roast seasoned with garlic, onion & Italian seasonings, taco-seasoning'ed ground beef, etc. I just don't think they are as dainty on that front as many believe. I feel the same about salt, butter & sugar. Mine have only ever had popcorn that has butter on it at the least & would probably snub their antennae at plain, lmso. They love cereal but the only ones I ever feed are honey nut cheerios (both generic and plain), Pops (made from corn), Honey Bunches of oats (plain, with almonds & recently the kind with banana & blueberry clusters) and I stay away from the really sugary ones since I don't buy those for my kids either.

I feel generally the same way about processed foods. We eat a lot of that stuff, so the crabs do get stuff like that sometimes too. Anything from mac & cheese to bacon, hot dogs to French fries. They don't get it all the time; it isn't their staple just sometimes. Is it "good" for them? Probably not any more than it is for us, but will it kill them? I sincerely doubt it & have had no reason to believe otherwise.

I can't get behind the idea of having to treat the water before cooking pasta or rice either, for 3 reasons.
*I never have & have had no ill -effects on them in 3 years
*The crabs aren't drinking the water
*The crabs aren't or bathing in the water
(I feel the same about boiling shells, washing their dishes or doing soaks on wood items)

I also have been told & strongly believe that the crabs know what is safe for them to eat, as well as what they need for their particular molt cycles. I have tried a lot of different natural things and have seen this for myself. I put some IVY in my PP's tank (anything I do feel like I have to "test" gets tried on them before the exotics, since they are hardier & have been with me longer). I'd heard it was a no-no, so, trusting their instincts, I put it in thinking it would make a pretty decoration or climby thing. That was last summer. I just took the black shriveled remains (it was poked up in a corner of where my forest tile meets the top) out yesterday. The crabs climbed all around it & over it; even slept in that corner, but not one nibble, ever. But that could just be that particular kind of Ivy, who knows. I know when I tried a polyester net, they would get right to it, antenna it and turn & walk away. They wouldn't step foot on it. They really do seem to know what is okay & what isn't. (the only 'exception' is that they nibble on my repti-vine, though that hasn't any ill-effects either, so....)

To cover a couple other things I saw through here, acorns go over better if they are at least broken open and a friend of mine swears by grinding up stuff for her crabs with a coffee grinder Any type of seafood you can get at the store, or dehydrated is safe in my opinion. Regular white bread is ok, Animal bones from foods we cook (chicken, fish, steak, ribs, etc) go to the crabs, either whole or snapped, fresh or frozen. I also buy a bag of mixed fruits (ok, this time I bought two-berries and a tropical mix) and freeze them for the crabs about once a year (I cut into small pieces so less is wasted or carted off to mold) and I freeze fresh coconut that I smash into chunks a few times a year so yes, frozen stuff is okay (the tat conditions thaw it quick anyway).

Mine even get occasional treats like the rest of the exo when Hubby gets a lobster, a chunk of granola bar the toddler drops (holy crab, I put one in the other day & it was a Quaker peanut butter & chocolate one. The piece was about half a golfball size & within minutes I had 7 PPs swarming it at 4 in the afternoon!) and even a cut off piece of a BK burger (the first day, they drug off or ate the cheese & pickles, yes, they like them, and went to work on the bun & meat the next day.).

So....I guess my summation after this rambling spree is that these guys have been around more than 5 million years; they probably aren't as delicate dietarily speaking as people might think and likely know better than we do what they are able to eat

[Jackolope]

I agree with you. You don't have to be so crazy when preparing your food for them. I just feed them what I have for dinner, they eat it, they are fine. Heck if Oliver can eat and survive eating a plastic fern in his crabitat, they can survive some garlic. they eat junk food too if you give it to them, yes chocolate, and my friend gives hers coconut macaroons, if it is done in moderation it is fine. AND YES PIZZA!!! My god they love pizza! and they love shrimp tails when i eat shrimp. i do have to grind up some things for Ghost, who is missing too many legs, and Babe who is too small. I also feel annoyed about how everyone insists on buying a dehydrator for dried foods. No. I don't have the money and it's just as cheap to go down to the local pet store (which is cheaper than Petsmart in my case) and buy the stuff. i don't care if I'm paying for the packaging! I don't have the time to dehydrate food on my own. As for cleaning the shells and dishes: yes i do their dishes. i clean the water dish every 2 days or daily if they get a lot of food in there. it gets really scummy if you don't. shells i run under hot water and shake to get stuff out, but if it's really dirty i just don't bother giving it to them. i stay away from processed foods most of the time and junk. But if you haven't fed your crabs Cheerios yet then they are bored. come back in 15 minutes and there ain't a dang one left in the bowl

[SachOfSCP]

i do have to grind up some things for Ghost, who is missing too many legs, and Babe who is too small. I also feel annoyed about how everyone insists on buying a dehydrator for dried foods. No. I don't have the money and it's just as cheap to go down to the local pet store (which is cheaper than Petsmart in my case) and buy the stuff. i don't care if I'm paying for the packaging! I don't have the time to dehydrate food on my own. As for cleaning the shells and dishes: yes i do their dishes. i clean the water dish every 2 days or daily if they get a lot of food in there. it gets really scummy if you don't. shells i run under hot water and shake to get stuff out, but if it's really dirty i just don't bother giving it to them. i stay away from processed foods most of the time and junk. But if you haven't fed your crabs Cheerios yet then they are bored. come back in 15 minutes and there ain't a dang one left in the bowl

Awww, what happened to Ghost?
Yeah, I wanted to get a dehydrator but A: they are expensive and B: I have had MAJOR electrical issues in my house since winter started & we had to start using the furnace so I'd be afraid of it tripping too many breakers, lmso

Just for clarification, what I meant about dishes & shells was that I don't treat the water that I clean them with. I wash their dishes in hot water with Dawn, just like my own dishes and the shells get boiled (when I get new or wanna freshen them) in tap water with table salt since again, they will be dry before coming into contact with the crabbies. But yeah, they really do love Cheerios

[Jackolope]

Awww, what happened to Ghost?
Yeah, I wanted to get a dehydrator but A: they are expensive and B: I have had MAJOR electrical issues in my house since winter started & we had to start using the furnace so I'd be afraid of it tripping too many breakers, lmso

Just for clarification, what I meant about dishes & shells was that I don't treat the water that I clean them with. I wash their dishes in hot water with Dawn, just like my own dishes and the shells get boiled (when I get new or wanna freshen them) in tap water with table salt since again, they will be dry before coming into contact with the crabbies. But yeah, they really do love Cheerios

Ghost has only had 3 legs and her BP since I got her. She got into a fight with my friends crabs and they ripped her legs off, so I adopted her from my friend. She does surprisingly well but has a hard time feeding herself if the food is too big. Then she gets discouraged and sits in the corner So I crumble food for her to eat. She has an amazing appetite! She has yet to miss a meal since I got her. Her legs are starting to "jelly" so hopefully by next molt she will have them.

Dishes: That's what I do, and sometimes I through them in the dishwasher.

[SachOfSCP]

HH, I am the dishwasher 'round here

Aww! Poor Ghost! How long have you had her?

I had a crab who lost all but her little claw and 1 leg & I nursed her by using lots of powdered & soft things like the minerals & castings from HCP and stuff like applesauce, very thin shavings of coconut, mashed up fruits & soft veggies like green beans & mashed potatoes or huskless corn. She literally slept on her food plate every day until her next molt

[Jackolope]

LOL that's what she does. I've had her since last May, so about 9 months. she is such a funny little bug eyed thing:

[SachOfSCP]

Awww! She's pretty and I love that ramosa! I bought some from AbCrab with really long spines & no one will wear them, though they do eat the spines, lmso

How big is she? 9 months seems to be quite a while without molting.

[Jackolope]

she's a little thing, maybe a little over 2 inches across because of the shell, which she came with. Babe likes to use her as his own personal jungle gym LOL
she will probably molt within the next few months, usually it takes them a year. she shows no signs of molting yet (personality wise) she is still a hyper active little brat

[wolfnipplechips]

Kinda getting off topic here guys. Please keep it food-related or take it to pm's please. Thanks.