HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi everyone! It's been a while.

I've decided that I need to switch up my crab's diets. Currently they are mostly on: dried mealworms, dried shrimp, dried crickets, dried bok choy, carrots, zucchini, green beans, peas, apples, bananas, strawberries, peaches, pears, mangos, blueberries, and honey as a treat (note, all of these foods are dried/dehydrated). I have occasionally thrown in ripe bananas, seaweed, fresh coconut, and a bit of raw salmon, which not only smelled awful, the crabs ignored it lol.

Anyways back to the main question. I'm not going to lie, after reading multiple things on a crabs diet, I'm still at a loss as to what to feed them on a regular basis. I'm honestly looking for something prepackaged/preprepared due to my fear of forgetting to mix in a main food group. I plan to also supplement the diet more, as I have read that variety is very important.

Even after looking through Etsy and other websites, I worry those diets that they have aren't truly complete! Is there any certain ones you guys reccomend as a base diet?

Hermit crabs are similar to us and how we need a balance of the right items in order to stay healthy. It sounds like you are off to a pretty good start already. You can probably just expand on your current food items and be sure they get a mixed variety of each.

There are also a guide to nutrition and safe and unsafe food lists in the pinned topics in this section for more references. You can use those guides to really help.

This is a basic percentage for a daily diet.
50% Plant Litter: bars, twigs, seaweeds, sprounting seeds
25% Fruits, Seeds, & Nuts:
25% Animal Proteins: shrimp, fish, chicken, meats, mealworms,

With having 3 E's I would offer 2 or more Animal Proteins everyday.

It is always a good idea to have calcium available at all times as well in its own dish. Egg shells, A Cuttlebone shoved into the substrate works too.

My crabs may not eat a food that has been dried but love it either steamed or raw. Sometimes you need to experiment a little.

Motörcrab wrote:Hermit crabs are similar to us and how we need a balance of the right items in order to stay healthy. It sounds like you are off to a pretty good start already. You can probably just expand on your current food items and be sure they get a mixed variety of each.

There are also a guide to nutrition and safe and unsafe food lists in the pinned topics in this section for more references. You can use those guides to really help.

This is a basic percentage for a daily diet.
50% Plant Litter: bars, twigs, seaweeds, sprounting seeds
25% Fruits, Seeds, & Nuts:
25% Animal Proteins: shrimp, fish, chicken, meats, mealworms,

With having 3 E's I would offer 2 or more Animal Proteins everyday.

It is always a good idea to have calcium available at all times as well in its own dish. Egg shells, A Cuttlebone shoved into the substrate works too.

My crabs may not eat a food that has been dried but love it either steamed or raw. Sometimes you need to experiment a little.

Wow thank you! I started making a chart. Looks like i need more nuts and seeds for sure

Your welcome. I found that having several types of each food group is the easiest. I keep my foods small bagged foods stored in larger bags by category. As I use a food for a feeding I will put it in a "served" bag. Once I go through all the varieties I start over.

I also tried making meal bags, small food packs made for feedings. They would have 3 or 4 plants, 1-2 fruits, then 1-2 proteins for each day. They I would just just feed from each day rather than trying to figure out a new meal every time. I would also add different nuts and whatever organic veggies I would make for dinner. By having 7 day bags presorted that is 2 weeks of feedings if you feed them dry foods every other day. I'll use that technique if I ever need someone to crabsit for a few days.