HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey there!
I'm just wondering what sort of horrible things this community has tried to tempt their crabs with. Whether it was only nasty when you removed it from the tank or if it was horrific even before you put it into their dishes, I'd love to hear about it.
Bonus points if your crabs absolutely loved it, of course!

This is a good one. Maybe I'm not feeding disgusting enough foods? You figure these little buggers gotta eat some really gross stuff in the wild..

Probably the grossest thing I've fed is runny eggs. I've tried them hard boiled, scrambled and runny. The only thing I can see they've ate is the shell!

Our hermit crab tanks are in a room that is shared by my oldest son (17). I don't wanna make the room smell any worse, which is why I haven't tried anything stankier than eggs or broccoli. LOL

well all of their 'meals' that i got from Etsy sound pretty disgusting to me... Cricket Broccoli? Worm Castings? GROSS!

however, luckily it doesn't look or smell gross... lol

I put in a partial can of sardines in oil for the crabs to eat because they love it, got the flu the following morning, and promptly forgot about the can as I laid in bed for three days feeling like I was dying. Cue coming back to the land of the living to a house FILLED with blow flies. Hundreds. Everywhere.

I was running around like a Disney Killer Princess with a fly swatter all day, until the sun went down and the house got dark. The flies were suddenly attracted to the fish tank lights. Ding ding ding, idea! We shut off everything, blocked the windows, and left one aquarium lit up like the empire state building. About 15 minutes in and there was a pile of fly corpses and none left in the house. Success!!

Have to admit I haven't given them fresh sardines since.



As far the grossest though, that would have to be either the beef they dragged off and I couldn't find for a week, or the smell of rotting frozen blood worms after a couple of days. Both those made my stomach flip. Prompt removal saves lunch.

Not sure if it’s disgusting or not but the aroma is off the charts with water Buffalo dog treats. Hope they are safe!

I feed my crabs pinkies, (baby mice). They aren't gross until the crabs disembowel them. They really seem to enjoy them and find them in 30 minutes or less of being put into the tank.

Frozen bloodworms, feed them to my fish and frogs and aren’t very gross but once they sit for a little the whole tank smells awful and they are dragged around the tank


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Second Motorcrab.
WARNING GRAPHIC: I have a snake, and he decided he didn't want the large mouse I had already thawed for him. So I tossed it to the crabs rather than compost and they didn't even wait for nightfall to dig in. Almost darkly comical to see them startle away from an open mouse with literal blood on their claws. They only ate the eyes and liver like the little vultures they are...
Their enthusiasm definitely shocked me and made me think about getting more whole prey options. I gave them sardines which stunk up the whole house and they didn't seem that impressed by. I'm hoping to try whole thawed silversides next. Maybe squid? I don't have a seafood market nearby. I think they'd like cow eyes too if I can get ahold of some.

Side note: When I was telling my boyfriend about my plans to introduce as much variety as possible he said they would probably eat fingernails with no complaints. He was joking but just in case I looked up the calories in fingernails.... Probably not worth it. For some reason thats the line I won't cross.