HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I bought a small food dehydrator today in the hopes that drying food for my crabs will keep me from having to throw so much out--with only two crabs, pretty much any fresh food goes bad before they can get through all of it.

I was looking through the instructions, and it said to blanch any food items before putting them into the dehydrator. The phrasing, however, made it sound like this is mostly to preserve the colors and flavors that humans prefer, so I wanted to ask those of you with experience with dehydrators: is this a necessary step when preparing food for crabs, or could I just put the berries, veggies, etc. on the trays straight away?

I personally just plop them in but I am no expert. I don’t know if that would really help since I have never done it. Not blanching it works for me.


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I would personally tend to skip the blanching part. Once your food is dehydrated, it will keep longer if you bag it up and freeze it.

I have blanched the veggies that nutritionists instruct to in the past. It's not just color and flavor, but a way to preserve some extra nutrients. Not all veggies need it, only certain things like broccoli and green beans. Fruits can all be dried straight out.

"Blanch and shock" is a mantra for cooking vegetables, but I've never blanched anything prior to dehydrating it. Granted, I mostly dehydrate herbs and make kale chips.