HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have been feeding my little guys a Flukers Variety diet for over half a year now and they really seem to like it, then I noticed the forum about unsafe commercial foods. It does not contain Copper Sulfate like the ones on the list, and several other Flukers foods are on the list that they are safe.

I have this:

Ingredients:
Dried River Shrimp, rice bran, wheat middlings, fish meal, alfalfa, soybean meal, cane molasses, calcium carbonate, corn meal, whey protein, chicken meal, dicalcium phosphate, salt, DL-menthionine, Vitamin A acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin 12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selenite, Biotin, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate.

I really would like to make sure that this is safe for my little guys, and that I can feed it along side fresh stuff, just gave them some honey it seems to be a hit <3

I personally wouldn't use it as a staple, but a once in a while thing is probably fine.

Hello!

You've come to the right place to look for advice regarding your hermit crabs. If the hermit crabs are eating it and have bright color, it should be safe. Now, if you offer a second food in the crabitat and they stop eating the commercial one then you know you should switch. You want to try to stay away from the sulfates as much as possible.

Happy Crabbing,
Richard

Okay, so more as a treat then main food but otherwise it is okay, they do seem to like it a least.

Yes, as a treat it should be fine. Always double check ingredients because there are brands out there that have harmful ones. A variety of fresh foods is best and there are dried blends made and sold by other crabbers that are safe (check the Shopping Resources page and the Store Review section. Or you can dehydrate or freeze your own blends.

I do have a couple commercial foods that came with an adoption a little over a year ago, that I do very occasionally offer. Their ingredients checked out enough for me to use them as a sometimes treat and my crabs do seem to like them (though that's not always proof of healthy or safe). However, once they run out I don't plan to get anymore. It just felt wasteful to chuck them when I did toss so many other bottles that had harmful ingredients. One that I kept has ingredients similar to yours. Just thought I'd mention it so you're not overly worried.

I personally try to stay away from anything with "meal" in it, since it means that it's the scraps left over from other food processes. I don't think it would be harmful though, and it should be safe as a treat.

What worries me is it's being sold as a complete meal, but with no fruit or veggies in it. Soy and corn is not native to where they live. It's like a partial diet of protein and fillers.

I've seen worse commercial diets out there, that's for sure. When I first started crabbing, I fed pellets very briefly but once I switched to fresh and dehydrated foods, they wouldn't even touch the commercial stuff.

I just wanted to comment, a lot of people think meat meals are not good. But NAMED meat meals (like chicken meal, turkey meal, etc.) are fine, and actually even better to see in a pet food than just straight chicken or turkey, etc. (as far as I know and have read). A named meat meal is just the muscle meat that has already been cooked down & ground before being added to the food. The reason this is better than seeing just "chicken" or "turkey" is because ingredients are listed on the label by order of weight before being added to the food. When you have just straight chicken, a lot of that weight is water, which disappears once cooked for the food. The final amount of chicken ends up being a smaller amount in the food than whatever the next couple ingredients might be (which are frequently fillers). When they use chicken meal, there's very little water weight that will disappear when cooked for the food, so it still ends up being the bigger portion of the food. I hope that makes sense, lol.

The thing you don't want to see is anything "by-products". That's all of the leftover stuff. And to be honest, that does sometimes mean good things, like organs (which are necessary in a complete raw diet for carnivores & contain lots of nutrients). But the problem with by-products is you can't guarantee it IS good stuff like organs. A manufacturer could use nothing but chicken feet for one batch, which is okay in small amounts, but obviously isn't great to have as the main protein source in a food fed every day.

And with any ingredient (meats, meat meals, etc.), always avoid anything that isn't specifically named (poultry meat, poultry fat, blood meal, etc.) since the regulations are much more lax for those things & can include dangerous things.

(I hope this is actually useful & doesn't offend anyone...I see a lot of people who think named meat meals are a bad ingredient when they're actually a good one to look for! And if anyone's curious about reading more, I love this website - http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php ... ngredients They discuss meat meal here - http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=meat-meal )

This is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

With how easy it is to provide crabs with a good diet just from scraps of what we cook in our family, along with mealworms/crickets/dried shrimp, we never use commercial crab mixes. There are a few indie places I buy mixes from, but I trust their products and know they have the crabs best interests at heart. You just have to use your best judgment. One of our household rules of thumb is that if you can't pronounce the ingredients, you probably don't want to eat it.
Again, this is just an opinion and you are under no obligation to adhere to my crabby ways.

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I was actually thinking more of the grain meals, those have been reduced to mostly fiber as the oils and nutrients have been removed.

Ahh, I'm sorry. My mind went straight to meat meals, sorry to babble on!

The mention of meal worms actually made me think of something.
Since the crabbies are scavengers would they eat dead meal worms?
We buy meal worms and crickets for our leopard geckos and if the hermits would nibble on the dead ones then they wouldn't be a complete waste, our geckos won't touch them unless they are moving (the tail wiggle when they hunt is adorable)


-edit:unedit-

I've only ever given them dried, lol. They wouldn't be a waste at all.

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Yes! Use them as a clean up crew for the dead ones. The crabs will thank you.

(Just adopted a rump butt gecko myself. That wiggle is so adorable. )

Lol I went to edit my last post then saw you guys responded already.

I do have one question before I give any to them, my father feed both the meal worms (at least I think he mixes it with their bran) and crickets this Flukers food, I just glanced at the ingredients and it mentions copper sulfate which I know is a no-no

Though most of the time there are already dead meal worms once the container thaws out, probably would be safest just to fish those out wouldn't it <3