HCA: Hermit Crab Association

list foods .. i want to know which is best Red and White meat for hermit crabs ,, i just learn , but too many list that i dont know of.. can you list it for me ? i got blink shrimp and bloodworm ,, but what else ,, chicken ? hamburger ?? huh ?? thank for helping!

They can have Shrimp, Chicken, Lobster, Crab meat, fish, and pretty much any meat As Long As It DOES NOT Have any Seasonings on it

Look here for other foods and meats they can eat:
Epicurean Hermit - Adulterants and Additives

I don't know that either red or white meat is "better" for crabs as they both do different things. I always lean towards giving them seafood because it's probably closest to thier diet in the wild and because I find mine prefer it to things like chicken and beef (although I've read others saying their crabs love chicken). I feed a lot of shrimp, salmon, krill and silversides. Those are my staple meats and I'll feed other things as I have them. I use nuts and eggs as additional protein sources.

what kind of egg ? boil ? cook ? raw? or what ? nut ,, is that hard to eat ,, it is big , do i have to chomp them?? or crush it?

I use free range, organic eggs because that's what I eat. I usually take about half of raw egg, stir in a teaspoon or so of spirulina powder and a few chunks of shrimp meat. Then I pour it into a pan greased with olive oil and either cook it like an omelet, flipping it when one side is done or scramble it. I've use hard boiled eggs before also.

As for the nuts, I use a mixture of peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, flax seed, hemp seed, sunflower seed that I crushed into a powder-like mixture. I used to use all of those individually, so you could do that too. As to whether or not the crabs can eat them without them being crushed, it depends on the nut. Some of the softer things, like hemp seed, I'm sure they could tear up themselves...but like any other food, the less work they have to do the more likely they are to eat it, so I'd opt to crush them.

for meat, I serve steak, hamburger, pork, chicken, shrimp, krill, salmon, cod, tilapia, catfish and scallops. shrimp and salmon are their favorites, but I like to give them a nice variety.

for nuts, I chop them up really fine so they are crab sized bites.

Caroline

I feed more seafood & nuts than anything else as protein sources. (Not too many cows & chickens running around on the tropical beaches!)

I do feed chicken & occassionaly beef, but no eggs. They REALLY stink up the tank, & the little buggers have a habit of burying it, too....which makes it all the worse!

I do feel you on the egg smell, but I've been serving it with a side of warm honey and flowers, which smells nice and tends to overpower it. They still like to drag it into the water, though...haven't solved that problem.

I've been giving them small peices of raw shrimp, another day dried brine shrimp, and I gave a little scrambled egg the other day.

The chicken and beef.. do you give it raw or cooked?

Also what flowers do you give? Or is that something to just mask the egg smell?

I usually give my chicken cooked and my beef uncooked...but that's just because its the form that most readily available for me, as I figure they probably aren't too picky with regards to rare vs. well done meat .

Caroline

I do actually feed the flowers. I freeze them a few days after getting them so I don't have any of the packaging handy, but I get them at a local health food store and I've seen them in several cities. They're actually okay for human consumption also...sold for use in salads and such. They're called “eatable flowersâ€

Would calamari (squid) be okay to give hermies? The pet store where I work sells dried calamari, no other ingredients, as a cat treat, and I almost picked some up today, but I wanted to be sure.

My hermies don't like dried calamari, but it is safe (provided it has no preservatives). It's worth a try, maybe your hermies will like it.