HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been dehydrating fruits and veggies for my hermit crabs. I've never done a pretreatment on them before. Does anyone know if absorbic acid-citric dips are safe? I know I can just do a lemon or lime dip but absorbic acid is stronger.

I just dried apple slices for the first time and I didn't pretreat. They were supposed to be for the crabs but we ate most of them, lol, they were delicious! I just skimmed the pretreatment directions, is it mostly for looks or does it affect flavor/texture?

I sliced them paper thin with a mandolin, but they didn't get crisp like the freeze dried kind, is this your experience as well?


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Yeah I've done apples in teeny tiny cubes and they stayed a bit soft. Pretreatment the foods is supposed to help save nutrients lost in the dehydration process. I make a lot to last me about a year or so for my crabs but I'd like to have as high of nutrients as possible.

From what I understand the ascorbic acid really just preserves the color and not any nutrients. I'd honestly skip it altogether if it's for the crabs.

The book for the dehydrater I'm using said it did both. But does not say really by how much. I'll probably do just a pineapple soak since I dry pineapple anyway.

I think my book mentioned both, too, but was skimpy on details. Google?


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I was mostly trying to find out if absorbic acid in these amounts is bad for crabs.

The only difference I noticed is everything is bit chewier.