HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My crabs don't like hardly anything I have fed them. I have tried suggestions from the board, including the emerald entree, and it all just goes to waste, which gets very expensive!

The only things I know they have actually eaten was cheerios soaked in fresh coconut milk, fresh/frozen coconut and green beans. I also bought some freeze dried shrimp that they drag all over the cage.

They do not like most of the favorites of other crabbies here. Boiled egg whites and yolks, peanut butter & toast or crackers, emerald entrees etc.

I am stumped as to what to feed them for variety because everything I give them they don't touch. I have been told you have to a meal a few times before they will eat it, but it hasn't worked.

SIGH!

Quite possibly they are eating it, but such a tiny amount that you cant tell. Back when I had only 4 crabs, I was actually just shaving a little bit off the emerald entree cube to feed. Instead of a fourth of a cube it was more like an eighth or sixteenth. They eat a very small amount.

For protein foods, my E's really like the unsalted organic peanut butter, finely minced up shrimp, sometimes a sliver or two of cheddar or parmesan cheese, and raw ground turkey was a huge hit. The other thing I've noticed that they like is fresh pineapple and sweet potato baby food too. With the smaller guys, I have to look really hard to see if there are any little leg scratches on the surface of the food where they have been scraping the food to their mouths.

I did have a hard time being able to tell if your E's were eating or not when they were here. So I started smoothing out the sand and I could see definite marks where they were standing in one place, then turn around to hide under the coconut again.

I did have a hard time being able to tell if your E's were eating or not when they were here. So I started smoothing out the sand and I could see definite marks where they were standing in one place, then turn around to hide under the coconut again.

I could tell that someone was out last night in the KK because the food in the dish was moved, but they were dug back down this morning so I didn't get a chance to meet them. I added another cocohut and some moss so that hopefully they'll feel more comfortable about staying on the surface for awhile.

BTW: Good thing we decided not to dig them up because I was looking at the bottom of the KK the day after I brought them home and there was a molter who looked like he had just shed his exo and hadn't eaten it yet.

starmaiden wrote:Quite possibly they are eating it, but such a tiny amount that you cant tell. Back when I had only 4 crabs, I was actually just shaving a little bit off the emerald entree cube to feed. Instead of a fourth of a cube it was more like an eighth or sixteenth. They eat a very small amount.

I have 13 crabs now, and I know they hardly eat and all, but I know even more because there is never any crab prints in the sand, nor sand in the food dish when I put these foods in the tank.

For some reason, the most food activity I get is when I put spirulina pellats or other commercial pellats in the tank moistened with a bit of dechlor salt water.

For some reason, the most food activity I get is when I put spirulina pellats or other commercial pellats in the tank moistened with a bit of dechlor salt water.

That's interesting! Well, if it seems to be working for you, then I would keep doing what you are already doing.

Mine stopped touching the commercial food when I started feeding fresh. I tried switching them back to a high quality commercial food while I was away on vacation that didn't have preservatives to make feeding them easier for my petsitter, but they weren't interested. Scavengers? My eye! Picky little buggers if you ask me!

starmaiden wrote:BTW: Good thing we decided not to dig them up because I was looking at the bottom of the KK the day after I brought them home and there was a molter who looked like he had just shed his exo and hadn't eaten it yet.

Yeay! That makes me feel better. Hope it makes it up to the surface soon! Can't wait to hear how they are. Esp. the largest of them that is in a yellowish shell.