Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

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Hermias_mom
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Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Hermias_mom » Thu Apr 06, 2017 4:38 pm

Could you guys provide some suggestions? I've read the safe and unsafe foods list and am trying to follow the food pyramid, but my crabs are not interested in animal protein. I'm starting to get a bit concerned.

In the USA, where can I find crab, shrimp, and lobster meat and exo? I prefer to shop at the grocery store, but most all the frozen seafood has preservatives, and the stuff that didn't, that I've tried so far, the crabs don't like. Should I buy shellfish from the seafood counter, take it home and cook it in dechlorinated water, and then store it in my freezer (forever...) while feeding small pieces to the crabs? Do they seem to care what kind of water their food is boiled in? I'm using glass cookware, with the occasional metal slotted spoon.

Also, my crabs seem uninterested in meat protein. I've tried dried river shrimp (no preservatives on label), canned river shrimp (in water only), canned crickets, canned mealworms, frozen shrimp (cooked, tail on, SimpleTruth Organic, no preservatives listed on label), peanut butter (with sea salt), boiled eggs (in shell), and the frozen blister packs commonly fed to saltwater aquarium/coral tanks having mysis, brine shrimp, spirulina, algae mix etc. No interest in any of this.

Is sea salt okay? The only peanut butter or PB powder I can find has sea salt in it. Also the seaweed and freeze dried sugar beets have sea salt. So far no interest in any of this.

No interest in fresh celery, dandelion leaves (I grow it specially so there's no chemicals on it), daylily shoots, romaine lettuce, baby carrots, organic fresh broccoli or cauliflower. No interest, that I can tell, in quinoa or chia seeds, wheat germ, or crushed eggshells.

Right now the only things they've eaten that I can tell are oak and raspberry leaves and bark, sphagnum moss, coconut oil, pecans, walnuts, and some of the FMR Fruit Treat (the only product they make without preservatives in it). The only meat-type protein that they've eaten is scrambled eggs, even hard-boiled eggs are not of interest. I think I caught one eating some honey once, but I don't think they touched the blackstrap molasses or maple syrup.

I am aware of the Hermit Crab Patch, and I think there's another, like Hugs for Hermie. Looks like a good idea, but buying online is hard for me. I'll probably try their products eventually, but first I was trying to see what things that could be part of my normal diet the crabs will eat.

Thoughts???

Any input you guys can give would be welcome. :D
4PPs and tons of FUN in a 29 gallon!
Hermia(F), Helena(F), Branch(M), and Tiger (M)
RIP Athena


Giner13
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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Giner13 » Thu Apr 06, 2017 5:56 pm

Hermie's Kitchen on Etsy is good too...I've only been crabbing for a good year and a half now. Maybe a longer time crabber will chime in on the variety interest??

Some hermies just are picky eaters I reckon??


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daws409
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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by daws409 » Thu Apr 06, 2017 6:34 pm

Also crabvilla and happy hermit supply both on etsy

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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by GotButterflies » Thu Apr 06, 2017 6:42 pm

First of all, imho I think hermit crabs are a lot like toddlers. Mine sometimes like things, and sometimes don't. Don't sweat it. I get the animal proteins for my hermit crabs at the seafood counter at the local grocery store. Yes, I buy a few shrimp. Do I cook them? Nope. Sure don't. Nobody cooks their food in the wild. I don't cook any of the food I give them. Well, I take that back, I do cook an egg for them on occasion. Lobster exo....so my step daughter caught the lobsters in The Keys. To me it's sad..I don't eat any animals. But, I saved some of the exo that I had room for in my freezer. It was boiled in water. (Not dechlorinated). I do use some freeze dried proteins. Bugs get ground up by either the coffee grinder (just used for crabs), or by pestil an mortar. Same with river shrimp. I do feed some freeze dried proteins. Those get ground up too. They can be purchased at health food stores.

As far as salt, I don't recommend it. I think here and there it would be okay, but on a regular basis, that wouldn't be good. I personally don't use any foods that have that, for my crabs, but that's me. To each's own. :)

I feed mainly fresh foods, with some freeze dried and a couple of dehydrated things.

Edit: The seaweed that has sea salt is natural, for example Kelp comes with naturally dried salt on it. That is fine. I usually brush the salt off of it. I wouldn't use the things that add sea salt for taste.
Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Hermias_mom » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:14 am

Thanks you guys for all your great input!!! I really appreciate it!!!

Now I've got to go digest what I've learned... (like my pun??? :D )

I think I'll be taking a trip to the seafood counter and trying raw/frozen crustacean protein/exo. Also sounds like I need to look around for a better health food store with greater variety. I'm having trouble finding freeze dried/dried foods and peanut butter without salt.
GotButterflies wrote: I do use some freeze dried proteins. Bugs get ground up by either the coffee grinder (just used for crabs), or by pestil an mortar. Same with river shrimp. I do feed some freeze dried proteins. Those get ground up too. They can be purchased at health food stores.


I've got a question for you, GotButterflies. Why do you grind up the freeze dried proteins (bugs, dried river shrimp, etc.)? Is this to make the food last longer (feed smaller portions) or to help the crabs eat it? I thought since they have claws, they are used to foraging and would like to break down their own food into pieces before they eat it, and that doing this would give them exercise. Are you trying to save them energy so they can use it for their molts? Or do they just seem to eat the ground up dried food more often / prefer it over the non-ground up variety?

[Non-related note: Last night Helena ate half an oak leaf. Yea she is eating!!! And I actually saw Hermia walking around, so I'm a lot less worried about her dying of PPS at the moment. Maybe she's just terrified of me. I'm really not that scary. :D ]
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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by GotButterflies » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:28 am

Love the pun! ;)

I have found that with my hermits they will only eat the freeze dried foods if I grind them up. (I do not grind up the fresh foods). I'm not sure if it's flavor, texture, smells, or what, but if I put a whole cricket in there I don't see anyone take off with it. If I put a seashell in there with ground up cricket, the shell is dragged across the tank. Same with the freeze dried meat. I bought freeze dried duck. I've got some spoiled hermits I guess. LOL :) I don't eat meat, or fish, I'm a borderline vegan, so I'm not about to taste any of this stuff!! I wouldn't remember what it tastes like anyway...

I know you don't like ordering online, but Amazon has a great supply of health food stuff. Whole Foods is great, as is Trader Joes not sure if you have one of those around. :)
Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Hermias_mom » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:55 am

Interesting! So presentation method matters. I'll have to try grinding up all my freeze dried foods. Anything to increase interest! Originally, grinding up the freeze dried foods sounded like a lot of work for an uncertain payoff, but if it works that well for you GB, I'm willing to try it. Freeze dried duck - I hadn't thought of that! LOL

Most of the insects the crabs are said to like really turn my stomach. And the smell of those mealworms! Grin and bear it, I guess. All in the name of crabbie nutrition, right? :D

We have a Whole Foods here, but it's all the way across town, so I haven't ventured that far yet. I guess a trip in order. The kids will like the free cookies in the bakery section. I can probably get an hour of good behavior in exchange for a cookie. :D That should be long enough to find a few items. :)

Once I figure out what I can get the crabs to actually eat, I probably will look into bulk online prices vs. local store prices, and on-line availability for hard-to-find items, but I don't want to purchase and pay shipping yet for something I'm not even sure I can use.

[Note: Above I'm not talking about the hermit crab stores mentioned in this post - I think those are a great idea, I'm sure I could use their food (looks really good!), I'm just not ready to buy online from anyone yet.]

Thanks for your help everyone!!!
4PPs and tons of FUN in a 29 gallon!
Hermia(F), Helena(F), Branch(M), and Tiger (M)
RIP Athena


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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Giner13 » Fri Apr 07, 2017 3:05 pm

It's always a fun learning process!!!


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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by cap7 » Fri Apr 07, 2017 4:00 pm

And like kids I would keep offering stuff they didn't like previously. My guys wouldn't eat mangoes for awhile then all of a sudden one of them started chowing down on it. Now it seems quite popular.


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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by GotButterflies » Fri Apr 07, 2017 4:52 pm

First of all, you are going to grind of such a small amount that it really doesn't smell. (They are freeze dried after all...not fresh!!) That would be disgusting!!

You can't buy too many things bulk...food does spoil. Dried flowers are good though. Even then, you feed very little of that stuff. :) Crabbies don't eat that much! :) Now, for me, I do like to nibble on some things I feed the crabs...fruits, nuts, but even then, I don't buy those bulk, it spoils over time too.

I used to buy from people making crab foods - but, I feel so much better feeding fresh. I also can make my own mixes if I want to. It's fun - really. This way I know what is being fed to my crabs. I think too many people don't know the difference between organic and natural and confuse them for the same when they are really very different. :)
Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by Hermias_mom » Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:34 am

Success!!!!!!!! :clap:

I went to Whole Foods, bought three raw shrimp and a snow crab leg, chopped it up, sprinkled some spirulina powder on it, and gave some meat and exo from each to the crabs last night. This morning, the meat and most of the exo have disappeared!!! Only a really thick piece of snow crab exo left in the food dish. So tonight I'll go hunting for where they've buried it and remove whatever's left. There's no way they ate a dime sized piece of raw shrimp (US dollars in case anyone is wondering), a nickel sized piece of shrimp exo, and about half that size piece of snowcrab meat & exo last night - I've only got two small/medium crabs up at the moment! But I'm super excited they're that interested in it! Yea!!! This is the first protein besides scrambled egg that they've really been interested in. I'm pretty thrilled!

They made a berm around their favorite nesting spot. Maybe that's where they're hiding their food...

Also, I discovered what in the world you guys were talking about with regards to seaweed/kelp. I found the sushi section of the grocery store - which was much more well stocked than at the previous stores I tried, and I got some Noru (Nori?). I think someone also recommended Dulse (sp?), but the bag was super huge, so I"m going to wait until that goes on sale.

I also found some spirulina powder. YEA!!! Searched the entire store with the help of about three salespeople.

And I think I found my new favorite dry goods section. Got a few different types of dried fruit and stuff (figs, prunes, coconut shreds, banana chips w no sugar, etc.). The crabs will probably get some of that tonight.

I'm ashamed to admit how much I spent. Because I couldn't go there and not buy one of their raspberry mousse tartlets. And then they were 2 tartlets for four dollars, so why not get a chocolate mousse tartlet too? I'd just run 3 miles, and it was past dinnertime, and I was hungry, and their food bar was looking pretty good, and while I was there why not bring home some sushi for my husband...

The spirulina powder alone was $24.00. I told my husband I got the more expensive variety with slightly better nutrition because I would be eating it too. :D Now I have to go eat it... :? I wonder what foods I can put the spirulina in that won't mess up the food flavor too much or kill the spirulina's nutritional value. Probably shouldn't cook with it, as that destroys vitamin K, I think...

Anyway, I wanted to thank you guys!!! Because of your help I will soon have healthier (and hopefully happier :) ) crabs!!

:crabbigsmile:
4PPs and tons of FUN in a 29 gallon!
Hermia(F), Helena(F), Branch(M), and Tiger (M)
RIP Athena

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Re: Protein Sources & Food Salt Questions

Post by GotButterflies » Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:19 pm

Yeah!!


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Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

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