Organic

[jasonmom]

So there are no organic food stores in this area. I've just been feeding stuff I've bought on line stores and unseasoned meat my family eats - their favorite is venison. My husband thinks I'm going overboard. Am I right that I can't feed them things like strawberries from Walmart?

[landlubber]

I also would not be likely to buy strawberries in Walmart. Like you I feed mostly dehydrated, totally organic food.

However, some people buy organic at a grocery store, or even regular produce at the store. Some people just wash regular veggies or fruit thoroughly and feel like that's protection from pesticides. Wode has actually provided a list in the past that of the top foods to avoid in the grocery store because they are more likely to have more pesticides on them-like celery.

There is no consensus on how harmful pesticides on store bought foods are if the produce is carefully cleaned, and whatever potential harm would probably be mostly over the long term. I simply prefer to be highly cautious in this area because of what I feel is the importance of nutrition on HC's health.

[jasonmom]

Guess I'll be continuing on with freeze dried stuff mainly. I've forgotten what is best places to buy & right now I'm really needing some hermit crab food.

[landlubber]

So many good places, I like Deliciously Crabby, The Happy Hermit, Alaska Hermit, Canadian Crab Connection and The Hermit Crab Patch. So many online stores I have yet to try. Oh, and Classified Ads on here too, many people announce sales of food in that section of this forum.

[Pinchersparadise]

I'm starting to sell "in bulk" all my food is organic and dehydrated, I just started selling the food - even though I've been preparing it for my own crabs.

If you're interested, my page is

Etsy.com/shop/Pinchersparadise

I'm new to etsy, but not new to crabs, all my food is safe and organic!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[CallaLily]

I buy organic when I can, I wash and peel the rest. Somewhere there is a list of foods that are best bought organic - the dirty dozen or something along those lines. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214

[hprmom]

Years ago I went to a container gardening workshop where I learned about the "dirty dozen". The presenter advised, if your funds are limited, these are the items you either want to buy organic or grow yourself; but to save your money and buy regular for everything else. That helped me a lot! I used to have a "dirty dozen/clean fifteen" app on my phone that I could refer to when out shopping.

[Jedi Sena]

I LOVE it when I can go organic--for my family and my crabs and I always hunt for the organic options. That being said, I also feel that a wide variety trumps organic. If I only buy organic apples, I would still offer my crabs non-organic celery, broccoli, kale, mango, nuts, oats, you name it, not just keep offering a fresh apple slice every couple of days.

[hprmom]

I buy organic when I can, I wash and peel the rest.

I do this, too, if I'm not sure about pesticides on the skin of a fruit/veg. Just trim off the peel/rind.

[mool]

My how times have changed! A few years ago when I was perusing these now two combined forums the thought was that you were basically an abusive crab owner if you didn't offer your hermits a 100% organic diet.

That is now so thoroughly ingrained in my brain that I do not ever feed my crabs anything that isn't 100% organic or at least wild sourced from an untainted area.

"Back in the Day" it was also thought to be harmful if you put plastic or the especially vile killer, PVC, into your tank. The substrate had to be more EE than sand, etc., etc... It's nice to see that folks have relaxed on some things, but I do wonder about others.

[wodesorel]

I'm extremely careful with what I sell since it's for other people, but am a lot more relaxed about what I feed my own hermits. Learning about where food comes from, how its treated and what options are available has made a big difference.

[CallaLily]

My how times have changed! A few years ago when I was perusing these now two combined forums the thought was that you were basically an abusive crab owner if you didn't offer your hermits a 100% organic diet.

That is now so thoroughly ingrained in my brain that I do not ever feed my crabs anything that isn't 100% organic or at least wild sourced from an untainted area.

"Back in the Day" it was also thought to be harmful if you put plastic or the especially vile killer, PVC, into your tank. The substrate had to be more EE than sand, etc., etc... It's nice to see that folks have relaxed on some things, but I do wonder about others.

I don't recall any of that. Was this LHC (I wasn't a member) or on HCA before 2008? I do know it's been said (at least since I've been an HCA member) that organic is best, if you can swing it.

Truly only curious if I missed this completely or if it was elsewhere. Sometimes it comes down to how you take something ..... and then sometimes I miss things. In my own little world. Definitely don't recall any complaint/worry over plastic or the substrate thing.

[mool]

I'm sure it was one or the other (if not both) of these forums. I never joined, I just read, read, read all I could.

Don't get me wrong, I learned a ton and am forever grateful for the knowledge I gleaned. I think crab care is a quickly evolving hobby; that is the point I was trying to make.

The standard of care that I learned became ingrained and I was/am surprised at how much it's changed from when my first crab unexpectedly landed on my doorstep (literally)!

I'm so glad I revisited this forum and am getting the up-to-date information. Some things confuse me (such as not always having to feed organic); and other things delight me (such as not having to have such an EE heavy substrate).

This was about 6-8 years ago, as near as I can recollect.

[CallaLily]

Oh yes, for sure things have changed a lot. In the time I've been here substrate minimums have deepened, space requirements grown, there's more opinion on the "correct" type of substrate, and there seems to be ever climbing temp/humidity minimum recommendations too. Some things we learn a better way. Some things seem to just slowly change as different crabbers come through and recommendations get repeated.

[mool]

I specifically remember that PVC was taboo because it was thought to out gas toxic fumes. The reason I remember so clearly is because I spent a bunch of money and time buying a lot of PVC to construct an elaborate second level in my tank. I made a staircase out of PVC and cork bark tiles all covered in netting that I hand wove. It gave my tank multiple levels and it looked so cool. I threw it all away when I read it was toxic. Oh how I wish I would have kept it...