HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I checked both food lists, safe says pinecones, unsafe says nothing about pine... Would pine branches be safe to put in for climbing? (it's the only tree that grows around here that has fallen branches I can harvest)

I was just hoping to add some enrichment on the cheap... since I've already dumped over 200 dollars for supplies. (100 on heating supplies alone)

I made the huge beginner mistake of buying things like tiny food and water dishes that were marketed for the crabs. I feel so dumb for wasting 30 bucks on things that were essentially useless.

Eventually, I plan on getting them some big pieces of cholla wood, but it's just out of the budget for right now.

Pine and cedar, even the branches are dangerous to crabs because they are crustaceans (I think).


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I guess I was a little confused because I thought I saw wodesorel mention in a different thread that pine was okay... and if pine cones are safe, why wouldn't the branches be as well?

I honestly have no idea, I have just heard really bad things about pine and I am too scared to try using it.


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It's not recommended to use a lot of pine, especially fresh pine, since it is heavy in oils and sap that could potentially cause trouble in a closed environment. We've dispelled the myth years ago that small amounts of pine will kill crabs instantly. However, testing hasn't been done to see how much they can stand for long periods. With small animals, pine and cedar are dangerous because of the phenols they release which cause lung damage. Hermits don't have lungs, they have gills, so they shouldn't be affected in the same way as say a hamster, but the problem is that we don't know for sure that they aren't affected in some other way. Out in the wild, hermit crabs are found climbing native pines and living around them, but so are small animals in the rest of the world so that's not a clear indication that is safe. In the wild there is rain and wind to prevent a build up of toxic gases and the concentration of sap, unlike in a closed tank where there is limited airflow and nothing to wash away anything harmful that may be present on a regular basis. The crabs also can't walk away and leave if they are exposed to something harmful, as they're physically trapped with whatever is put in with them.

So, the short answer is - no one can say for sure that large pine climbing branches are safe and it would be an experiment to try. I'm not entirely convinced it would be harmful if the wood was dry and aged and there wasn't much sap left, but there's also a good argument that it could cause gill inflammation no matter what. Giving them snack size pieces of bark or wood or pine cones for them to eat is definitely okay.

Thanks for clearing that up. I think I'll just skip the pine entirely. No point in running the risk.