HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I know there's seemingly endless ways to provide calcium to hermit crabs and that it is important for their exoskeleton, but is there any specific way that is the best method of calcium delivery? I know you can give things like cuttlebone, coral (I think), and eggshells, but is any one of this methods better than the other or is it just a matter of preference? I've also seen a lot about having a separate calcium dish, although I've been mixing either crushed oyster or a calcium powder I got from THCP into the general food dish.

I know with people there's certain ways to eat things to absorb the most nutrients so I was just very curious as to if the same went for hermit crabs in regards to calcium.

Personally, I think it is a preference thing. I give my hermit crabs a cuttlebone in addition to calcium-rich foods, and they devour it. I would just experiment and see what your crabs like best. I hope this helps!

-Cumba

Do you ground up bits of the cuttlebone or put a whole piece in?

Do you ground up bits of the cuttlebone or put a whole piece in?

I just put the whole thing in. I started by grounding it up and putting the whole thing in, and they were ignoring the ground up stuff and going straight to the whole thing.

I always offer all of them. The cuttlebone sticks up in the sand like a surfboard. I have a piece of coral in between the pools, an sea urchin there also, barnacles too, Then I serve all of my food in seashells. I offer a whole eggshell, crushed eggshells, crushed oyster shells, and I have calcium carbonate. I have found that by doing this it prevents them from munching on the shells in the shell shop. I have a 100g tank and a 75g tank.


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Thanks for the input!

GotButterflies wrote:I always offer all of them. The cuttlebone sticks up in the sand like a surfboard. I have a piece of coral in between the pools, an sea urchin there also, barnacles too, Then I serve all of my food in seashells. I offer a whole eggshell, crushed eggshells, crushed oyster shells, and I have calcium carbonate. I have found that by doing this it prevents them from munching on the shells in the shell shop. I have a 100g tank and a 75g tank.


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Whoa wait they'll eat the actual seashells?

I have my cuttlebone like the surfboard in my tank, but they don't seem very into it. They climb it sometimes but there's not any bits missing that I can see. The crushed oyster always seems to go every night though. Today's the first time I gave them some whole eggshell and there's pieces pulled off so I assume they're interested.

All personal choice. I do a cuttlebone surf board as well tho it seems untouched. Egg shell and calcium coated pyramid shells. I even got a jar of calcium for coating feeder insects they love. Mix it up i find mine will like it mixed one way but not the other

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kfinnz wrote:

GotButterflies wrote:I always offer all of them. The cuttlebone sticks up in the sand like a surfboard. I have a piece of coral in between the pools, an sea urchin there also, barnacles too, Then I serve all of my food in seashells. I offer a whole eggshell, crushed eggshells, crushed oyster shells, and I have calcium carbonate. I have found that by doing this it prevents them from munching on the shells in the shell shop. I have a 100g tank and a 75g tank.


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Whoa wait they'll eat the actual seashells?

I have my cuttlebone like the surfboard in my tank, but they don't seem very into it. They climb it sometimes but there's not any bits missing that I can see. The crushed oyster always seems to go every night though. Today's the first time I gave them some whole eggshell and there's pieces pulled off so I assume they're interested.

Yes! I had issues with the shells in my shell shops getting munched on all of the time before I offered them a variety every day. They will even modify their current shells if they need to! As far as the cuttlebone, it is possible that they have munched on it but you haven't noticed. Give it time!


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One thought on mixing calcium into other foods - smell is a big deal for crabs in general, and a study demonstrated that after eating one type of food, they avoided the smell of that food in preference of other food smells for a while afterwards.

So I split foods into different dishes, including calcium sources (though I do periodically add calcium powder to insects). Doing this gives them the stimulation of several distinct food scents to pique their interest, in case their interest in something that overwhelms the other smells in their dish is low.

It's just a thought - I certainly don't think this practice is necessary. I just think it might be worth considering.

LadyJinglyJones wrote:One thought on mixing calcium into other foods - smell is a big deal for crabs in general, and a study demonstrated that after eating one type of food, they avoided the smell of that food in preference of other food smells for a while afterwards.

So I split foods into different dishes, including calcium sources (though I do periodically add calcium powder to insects). Doing this gives them the stimulation of several distinct food scents to pique their interest, in case their interest in something that overwhelms the other smells in their dish is low.

It's just a thought - I certainly don't think this practice is necessary. I just think it might be worth considering.

Hmmm, I think I'll leave the calcium powder separate then since it coats whatevers in the dish and is honey coral powder. I imagine that would mess with the smell for sure and the food bowl hasn't been touched as much as when it was just solid crushed oyster bits that didn't cover anything (food bowls would be almost empty then), when I offer that it'll go in a scallop shell now.