HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Just curious what people prefer offering, mixes of different things or just single ingredients? Is it just a preference thing? Has anyone noticed if their crabs chow down on mixes more than specific ingredients? I'm currently planning on probably doing a bunch of different mixes so I can give them a greater variety of things each day.

Right now my tentative plan is to have a dry food mix (which I'm mainly making for my lazy days, when they all disappear underground at the same time, and when I'm gone for 3 weeks in October so my friend can feed them that instead), a seaweed/algae powder/flake mix, a few different flower mixes (so I can alternate), a few different leaf/bark mixes (same thing), a nut/seed mix (which I already have started), and possibly a bean mix to alternate with the nut/seed mix (not sure on that yet).

I also have several things which will still be offered on their own - earthworm castings, calcium supplement, bee pollen, and probably goji berries & rose hips. I would have those things in the "dry food" bowl, along with a bit of the nut/seed mix, the seaweed/algae mix, and the dry mix. The flowers & bark/leaves are in their own bowls. And then I have a fresh food bowl that I've been changing every other night & will continue to do so when I'm around. Will they be getting enough change in their daily food with alternated leaf/bark & flower mixes, and the changed fresh food so that it won't matter too much if their dry things don't change too much?

I like feeding animals way too much. Kelly, I'm going to attempt to challenge your food collection!

I did single items for years, until frankly I got tired of having so many baggies and jars of food shoved every place I could find room. At that point I slammed everything I had with a rolling pin, tossed it into big jars together, and put them in the freezer so it all stayed fresh. I don't regret it for a second. If there's somethjng I want to give them specifically, it's easy enough to pick back out.

My plan is to do up frozen and dried mixes, but still offer some individual foods, like when making my own, when I have the time.

I forgot to mention that I"ll probably have leftover ingredients once I'm done drying and mixing stuff anyway, so I'll probably just stick in something extra into the dry bowl every time I change it.

That was the other reason I was leaning towards mixes - much easier than trying to rotate a ton of single items & keep track of what they haven't had in a while, etc. I have a horrible memory. :roll: Glad I'm not the only one going for mixes!

I'm seriously getting way too into this. This is my plan for my dry meal mix so far:

(45% meat, 35% veg/fruit/seafood, 15% grains/seeds, 5% pollen/calcium)
(34oz meat, 26oz veg/fruit/sf, 11oz grains/seeds, 4oz P/C)
- freeze dried chicken, salmon, beef liver, powdered egg (3.75oz each)
- freeze dried krill, bloodworms, shrimp, mealworms, crickets (3.75oz each)
- dried veg (broccoli, peas, corn, carrots, squash, peppers) (2oz each)
- dried fruit (blueberries, raspberries, mango, coconut) (2oz each)
* hibiscus powder (2oz)
* dulse flakes (2oz)
* nori flakes (2oz)
- raw rice, quinoa, 10-grain cereal (1oz rice, 2oz others)
* barley grass powder (2oz)
* beet root powder (2oz)
* hemp seed hulled (2oz)
- bee pollen, powdered bonemeal (2oz each)

Yeah, I'm planning to measure it all out & everything. Someone hire me to make animal food, it'd be my dream job.

Everything used to be completely separate but for a while now my dried food is mixed somewhat. I don't put together "daily" mixes but have a fruit mix, veggie mix, etc. My frozen foods are still separated at this point. And fresh is tossed in daily from bits of our meals.

Mine mostly get single foods, oysters, pork lumps, sprouts, veggie chunks, etc, unless it's peanut butter. Then I'll mix in some oats, bit of honey, ground-up freeze-dried mealworms / shrimp / crickets, seaweed, banana, powdered cuttlebone, anything small enough I have around.

When I've had them longer and know which things are most popular after offering single items, I might start making "top ten" mixes.

I'm going to be testing with small mixes, as my blender sucks, so I was thinking some whole strawberries, frozen mango, and some frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms for one mix to put into ice cubes. Maybe tomatoes, celery, and more frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms for another. I want to be sure my wet mixes all have protein. We also need to use the fresh stuff we bought up before we go away this weekend haha

I left the calciums out of the mix and have a separate mix for just those. They go through them so slowly that they were constantly getting thrown out when food got replaced. I don't like waste, so now the calciums get their own bowl that gets topped off as needed.

Sounds like I'm in good company with my plans! Dry mixes, single frozen/fresh ingredients. Thanks everyone who's chimed in so far! And that makes sense, Wode. I'm not planning on having a ton of calcium in the dry mix because I still plan on having my friend leave a little separate in the dry food bowl, plus they'll have some other sources in the tank (mussel shells, extra shells, crab carapace). I have a ton of the powdered bonemeal & I'm happy to have a chance to use it, so I don't mind if it gets thrown out more often than not (at least right now!).

The bullet rocks for dry mixes! Omega One products only.
I use dried shrimp, krill, bloodworms, color enhancing flakes and cuttlebone for a protein/ calci sprinkle or side offering. All my species scoop it up by the claw full. It is basically a Mega-protein alternative.