My crabs wont eat!

[mossthewolf]

I have a commercial crab food, TetraFauna Hermit Crab meal, and I've never seen them touch it! They seem really disinterested in it! I fed one of my crabs some honey today and he ate that, but their actual food inspires no such interest! Is there something wrong with the food? Should I try a different brand?

[CallaLily]

Most commercial foods are made with harmful ingredients. http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92555

These articles will also be of help to you:
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92554

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92557

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92556

[Teedeums]

Ok, I have a couple of tips that might help...
1- besides the honey, have you ever fed you crabs some natural foods? They can eat a lot of varieties of "human" food. Most people go mostly "human" food with some crab safe crab food (that sounds weird, but it makes sense) from places like the hermit crab patchhttp://www.hermitcrabpatch.com/.

2-hermit crabs eat in small amounts, maybe you just aren't seeing them eat. Try smoothing out the substrate near the dish to see if they are going in.

3-I'm not sure the crab food you are giving them is exactly the best thing for hermies, like Calla said...

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Mine love multi grain cheerios!

[Teedeums]

Yum...yum! :spam:

[mossthewolf]

Thank you very much for the advice! I got rid of the food I was giving them since it had a harmful preservative and am feeding them some fruit mix and ordered a safe commercial brand listed that has both animal and vegetable bits in it. That should be here in a couple days.

I once tried giving them grapes, but they didn't take to them. I have tried smoothing the food before and there was no disturbance. I have caught them munching on the coconut substrate in their tank or the climbing wood piece I got them.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

When I was new to this I still had the commercial coconut huts in my tank. I did away with them when I upgraded for 3 reasons. 1 they weren't necessary, 2 they didn't fit my theme and 3 - my crab Thor balded them both! He ate all the coconut fuzz off the top! Lol they eat strange things. No worries.

[hermieluv1]

Since I try to do everything as simply as possible, here is my routine: every other day, on the lid of a square plastic container, I put down the following:
Honey Nut Cheerios, a few whole and a few crushed
Wheat germ
crumbled slivered almonds
sliced carrot
2 blueberries cut in half (I get the snack pack size container from Walmart)
a few raisins
slivers or a chunk of fresh coconut (this is my splurge for them since they love it so much!)
dried mealworms (from fish section at Walmart)
small slather of peanut butter , natural kind, of course
drizzle with honey and top with crushed cuttlebone.

I don't ALWAYS see them eat, but sometimes I catch them in the middle of the night. If you think about how small their stomachs might be, then you realize why they don't eat so much!

[mossthewolf]

Oh wow! That's pretty wonderful! I,unfortunately, need to keep myself to a tight food budget and I don't have time to make them a whole little meal, but next year I'm hoping to invest more time for their food care and also get them a new tank since I'm moving to an apartment and will have the space for something like that. (also, I will have a kitchen)

Thanks to all of you for your help! I'll see what little treats I can pick up for them from the grocery store next time I go. I heard crabs enjoy strawberries!