HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Wuen it comes to fruits/veggies, meats, nuts - do I need to cut them up/crush them/tear up pieces? Or do they prefer their foods whole?

Is there too small of a piece of food? Do they prefer cooked or uncooked? I have such odd questions!

I have a good idea of what they like and need, just looking for advice on how to prepare it, or if thats even necessary. Thanks in advance!

You can give it all different ways. Different crabs have different preferences.

Agree with HG, all different ways. As long as you are giving safe foods, and following the food pyramid, variety is good! Some people will give the same food at different times prepared different ways. Like put a couple of whole nuts in sometimes, or crush them up at other times. Cooked meat sometimes, raw meat sometimes. Fresh sometimes, dried sometimes.

MauiMama wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 11:51 pm

Wuen it comes to fruits/veggies, meats, nuts - do I need to cut them up/crush them/tear up pieces? Or do they prefer their foods whole?

It doesn't need to be crushed, as they have claws
But I tear up some food a bit, to prevent them from taking it away and hiding it were it can get moldy.
E.g.: I usually break peanuts or popcorn (plain, without butter, salt, sugar, of course!) in two to four pieces, I also tear/crush crab carapaces (found on the beach) a bit. Food that's for sure too big to be taken away, like a lettuce leaf or a slice of apple, stays as it is.

For fruits and veggies, my rule is: as long as I can eat it raw, I prefer to feed it raw instead of cooked. (Of course, I don't feed things I could eat but are on the "unsafe" list.) To make an example, I rather feed a slice of apple instead of applesauce, rather fresh cucumber pieces instead of cooked one (yes, one can cook cucumbers!).

Typical dry food I feed them is bloodworms, dried shrimp (as I don't feed meat), crab carapaces, cuttlebone (I can get both from the beach), nuts/seeds/ dry fruit (I eat a lot of organic, unsalted, unsugared trail mix (really just dried nuts, seeds and dry fruits without anything else) and give them that). I also feed them rather small seeds like sesame.
I found that my large to XXL crabs (shell almost as big as a tennis ball now!) refuse to eat powder-like food if anything else is offered. I guess it gets too cumbersome for them to pick up the tiny pieces until being done. I once bought powder-like organic hermit crab food, ingredients are good (not the ZooMed stuff!). They touched it only little. I then mixed it with a bit of water to create a mash/"porridge" and then they ate it.

This is great information, thanks for the input! I figured he wouldn't mind whole foods, but I like to make things easy for him right now, since he is still getting used to his new home. So far, he's especially partial to grapes and walnuts.

Hey Maui, howis he doing?

I find that I have the same questions as u did months ago. My 2 small ones I don’t ever see but the bigger two come out nightly and I see them in the food dishes but naturally I swear they eat nothing! I’ll put lettuce and peppers in whole slices and see no difference but I keep trying. Anywayzzzz.....I digress! I’m curious how the past few months have been for u!?

Unfortunately, he dug down for a particularly long molt shortly after I made this post! So lately he hasn't eaten anything! XD

I noticed that he had distinct likes and dislikes. He never went for dried bananas or almonds, but he would hoard walnuts and saltines and grapes. I usually ended up breaking most foods into pieces that were a good size for him to grab with his big claw, so he could hold it easily, or carry it off somewhere. But that wasn't necessary - sometimes I'd just throw a whole spinach leaf in there too, and he'd nibble on that. It's like everyone said. He was happy to eat it however.

They do eat very little, (or some days not at all!), so it can be hard to notice! I also hear they enjoy eating dirt, cholla wood, their own poop. Maybe they are eating their own specially-crafted diet!

Keep trying different foods, check the food list here for more ideas. You'll find something they love!

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When my crabs were small, the only way I knew they must be eating was that they were still alive. It seemed like I put in and took out exactly the same amount of food. But they must have eaten something if they didn't die! Now that they are bigger, they make a visible dent in the food amounts!

MauiMama wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:29 pm

Unfortunately, he dug down for a particularly long molt shortly after I made this post! So lately he hasn't eaten anything! XD

I noticed that he had distinct likes and dislikes. He never went for dried bananas or almonds, but he would hoard walnuts and saltines and grapes. I usually ended up breaking most foods into pieces that were a good size for him to grab with his big claw, so he could hold it easily, or carry it off somewhere. But that wasn't necessary - sometimes I'd just throw a whole spinach leaf in there too, and he'd nibble on that. It's like everyone said. He was happy to eat it however.

They do eat very little, (or some days not at all!), so it can be hard to notice! I also hear they enjoy eating dirt, cholla wood, their own poop. Maybe they are eating their own specially-crafted diet!




Keep trying different foods, check the food list here for more ideas. You'll find something they love!

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Ty! I shall definitely continue to try. Glad u mentioned they don’t eat everyday sometimes bc last night they didn’t come out at all and I was super nervous until now lol
I hope the molt goes well and he comes up in better health from the molt. Good luck to u both!

curlysister wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 03, 2019 11:48 pm

When my crabs were small, the only way I knew they must be eating was that they were still alive. It seemed like I put in and took out exactly the same amount of food. But they must have eaten something if they didn't die! Now that they are bigger, they make a visible dent in the food amounts!

ty for the comment! Makes me feel better to know I’m not actually going crazy thinking nothing is gone!

Crabby in NJ wrote:





Ty! I shall definitely continue to try. Glad u mentioned they don’t eat everyday sometimes bc last night they didn’t come out at all and I was super nervous until now lol
I hope the molt goes well and he comes up in better health from the molt. Good luck to u both!

Before I read up on crabs as much as I have, I was also panicking about him getting enough food/water/access to those things. I felt like I had to make sure there was a clear, flat path from his favorite hiding spot to his water and food dishes. I thought I had to "save" him from starting to climb upside down. I was worried he would need help coming back out of a backdug tunnel. I was a wreck.

Something I read here really helped me deal with this. Somewhere it says, Crabs have been doing their thing for hundreds of years without our help. They know what they're doing. Reading that reminded and reassured me that they don't need all this special assistance. Just gotta let them do them!

Try a walnut. If any of them are anything like mine, they'll take it, run into a corner and start munching! Good luck with your dudes too, keep us updated!

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MauiMama wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 04, 2019 8:33 pm

Before I read up on crabs as much as I have, I was also panicking about him getting enough food/water/access to those things. I felt like I had to make sure there was a clear, flat path from his favorite hiding spot to his water and food dishes. I thought I had to "save" him from starting to climb upside down. I was worried he would need help coming back out of a backdug tunnel. I was a wreck.

Something I read here really helped me deal with this. Somewhere it says, Crabs have been doing their thing for hundreds of years without our help. They know what they're doing. Reading that reminded and reassured me that they don't need all this special assistance. Just gotta let them do them!

Try a walnut. If any of them are anything like mine, they'll take it, run into a corner and start munching! Good luck with your dudes too, keep us updated!

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Ty. I surely will.