HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I am a new crab mommie for about three weeks now and I have read to pretty much stay away from the commerical food, which is okay by me.

I work alot, mom to a 16 year old and have a house with three dogs and three cats. So I am busy, not too busy to check my crab cage every morning and every night though. But honesty cannot spend tons of time every day preparing crabbie food. I hope that doesn't make people think I don't care about the hermies cause I really do it is just my time is spread thin especially during the weekdays. I promise I will do my best to take the best care of them.

What I am looking to do is mash, shred and puree or whatever a mixture of good foods that give the crabbies all the nutrients they need as a staple food item and then maybe freeze and take out a week or half weeks worth at a time and then add what I have fresh in the fridge or cupboard for some variety. Or I don't have to freeze I could probably make a weeks worth of this concoction like every Sunday. Will this idea be okay? Does anyone else do anything like this. If so, could you please post a good recipe for a staple food mix I really would appreciate it. I have a copy of the safe food list and the non safe food list but just want to make sure by going with a natural food diet that I am not depriving them of important nutrients, and I don't feel comfortable putting it together myself.

Thank you for your help
Kad plus four hermies, with no names yet except hocus (hocus pocus) who has been buried in the sand for 1-1/2 weeks.

Check out the recipe for kibble on my webpage listed below. (On the recipes page) It is a very good staple, but I still encourage fresh food varieties as well. (meats veggies, fruits, nuts, etc.)

Spirulina will almost replace commercial food, so that is a must. Protein and calcium are also very important. Cuttlebone or eggshells are good calcium suppliment, but raspberry leaves have the highest bioavailable calcium. I like to feed protein from all three catagories: meat/fish, bean, nut/seed. Don't go overboard w/ the starches (a lot of recipes call for mostly rice). Try to buy organic if you are not going to do a lot of suppliments to this main diet. Also, I would recommend that you include oakleaves and crabapple bark inside the tank at all times or include some mangrove meal in your kibble because leaves and bark are very beneficial to their diets. You might search ebay for crab food because there are some very good mixes created by forum members for sale their at very reasonable prices.

Do you cook? I recommend in addition to a premade staple food (which is always good to have around), taking a little bit of whatever crab-safe foods your family is having for supper and putting it in the crab tank. Like when I make a curry (most common thing for me to cook), I take out a little chunk of the raw, unseasoned meat and some of the veggies (peas usually) and put them in a bowl for the crabs. Or I eat a lot of fruit, so I give them say the tops I cut off my strawberries, or a little chunk of my banana. Or some peels from potatoes or carrots. If I've got it around anyhow, it's not harder to stick some in a little food dish than to just toss it in the trash.

Feeding fresh foods doesn't have to be a lot of extra work, especially if they've got a staple food in there to make sure their diet is balanced.

I do what WickedWit does---set aside a small amount of unseasoned meat/veggie/fruit from my dinner or snack, and it's their "crabbie dinner." i change their food around dinnertime every day, so it's easy! my crabs LOVE broccoli, carrots, and chicken! they've also enjoyed dragging corn kernels all over the place!