HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been thinking about the amount of fats that my hermies get, and I'm worried that it may be on the low side. I can't stand the smell of rancid fat, so when I give them proteins it's always well trimmed and is just meat.

I have coconut oil for making popcorn, and I've been thinking about giving them a small amount of straight oil once or twice a month as a nutritional supplement.

Does anyone know if they might enjoy this, or if it would in any way be harmful?


(Coconut oil really does make the best movie theater popcorn EVER, just FYI. )

I think the hermit crab addiction store sells straight coconut oil. You'd have to ask if its recommended to give straight or if it needs to be diluted.

Sounds good! I'll have to try it on popcorn!

feed them coconut meat, mix a bit of olive oil, those should be enough of fat.

There is this alarm bell going off in my head about coconut oil, but I can't for the life of me remember what exactly. I daresay it was related to people diets, not crab diets though

Not sure how you are with the smell of boiled egg yolk when its started to go bad (ewww) but it's about 1/3 fat (4.8g of fat per 15g of yolk).

The coco nut oil that is thick and white looks a bit like crisco not the liquid coco not oil that is processed.. is great.. its pure coco nut unprocessed oil.. its very healthy for them as well as for you..

It's the kind in the canister. It actually took me MONTHS to find because I kept looking in the wrong place! I thought that it was a liquid like olive oil so kept looking for a bottle, and here it's a solid like Crisco. There's a little notice on the side that below 76 degrees the oil is a solid, but above 77 it's a liquid. It was fun over the summer, because I was never quite sure if I would be getting a canister of liquid or solid.

I'll give some to the crabbies tonight since it seems to be okay. I have a special bowl I think I can use so when it melts it won't go everywhere. Here's hoping anyway!

I'm sure it's not good for humans in large quantities, but it really does make perfect popcorn. I use the coconut oil and Flavacol butter-flavored salt and pop it on the stove, and then we use a butter topping from the Mennonite bulk food store. It comes out tasting exactly like movie theater popcorn, but instead of burning your mouth with salt and leaving you sick from the grease, it's seasoned just enough for us to enjoy it. Hubby begs for popcorn for dinner some nights now.

I feed coconut oil once a week. I mix it with peanut butter and honey. Yum.

I feed it to mt hermies alot..... I always pop my popcorn in it too... It is really yummy...


If you really want a treat pop your popcorn in bacon fat or Duck fat it is to die for we have it once in awhile for a treat!!!!!

Mrs. G