HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My first staple food for my wee crablets was Hermit Crab Variety Bites. I realize it as the same excessive amount of food the store had sitting in their original dish, also. My question, though, is about the last 6 ingredients. All ending in Proteinate, except the last, in this order- Zinc, Copper, Magnesium, Iron and the last ingredient is citric acid. But the rest of the ingredients looks at first glance to be about a thousand of the crabs' favorite foods. . . Odd how they supposedly pack it into this fish-food-sized canister. So is this Heinz-57 of hermy foods safe?

Nope. Not safe. All natural is the only way to go. That food contains preservatives.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2754127
Is this what you are talking about?

I looked at the ingredents, and it has a preservitive called ethoxyquin in it
This preservitive is harmful, and can cause crabs to lose limbs. I think it is an insectiside, and since hermit crabs are relitives of insects, that would be why.

Unfortuneatly, a lot of commercial hermit crab foods have this chemical in it. So i would say that the all natural is probably the best way. You can also buy foods from the hermit crab addiction store, and the hermit crab patch ( they can both be found in the " shopping" tab to your right )

Figures. Okay, thanks for the info. I actually found a site just after this post that put ALL HBH products in the "red", of course meaning bad. I have no idea why their salt is bad if all it is is sea salt and calcium but, whatever, guess I will just have to totally redo their diet and everything.

It is very frustrateing to learn that what you thought was safe, isnt. And if you chose to go all natrual, its a little hard to keep up with if you have a busy scedule, but it will get alot eaisier once you get thw hang of it and it's much better for your crabbies

Yes, and that's the imporant part. I want to have them around as long as or longer than possible.

I bought this food HBH Hermit Crab Variety Bites "Natural Crab Food" from pet smart about a week before we got our crabs. It looks exactly the same as mentioned above but at the bottom it says "natural crab food" and on the side of the container it has a seal that says "Natural Bio-Logic"

I had been feeding it to them along with some other fresh fruits, proteins & veggies but after reading this thread I took it away from them. My cat seems to like it though, I spilled some on the floor & he gobbled it up.

This is different food than what the op posted about and doesn't have ethoxyquin listed in the ingredients.

I cant seem to find this food online anywhere except for the HBH website but they do not have a list of ingredients for me to copy & paste over. I really don't want to type all the ingredients out but if someone really wants to know I will.

I decided to go ahead and post the ingredients anyway because I want someone to point out all the bad stuff for me since I'm a newb and don't know much about this stuff.



Shrimp Meal, coconut flakes, red wheat, oats, rye, barley, sunflower, fish meal, krill meal, wheat germ, wheat flour, soy flour, pea flour, dehydrated alfalfa meal, spirulina algae, squid meal, brine shrimp, Fish oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), zucchini, beet, carrot, spinach, salt, wheat starch, wheat gluten, brewers dried yeast,garlic powder, soy lecithin, citric acid (perservative), mixed tocopherols(perservative, rosemary extract, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C),Vitamin A Acetate, Choline Chloride, riboflavin, thiamine (source of vitamin E), niacin, inositol, d-Calcium pantothenate, sodium busulfate complex, d-Activated animal sterol (source ofvitamin D3), Vitamin B12 supplement, Zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, magnesium proteinate, iron proteinate.

Yeah, same here. I don't see that ingredient. Maybe it's in here under a different name? But that's the same stuff I have.

HCP sells the variety bites, that would tend to mean that are ok, since I believe they check all their food and make sure its safe for the hermies.

kinda weird though, when i click on the link i posted above, is says that there is ethoxiquin in it. Maybe one of them is a new formula or something.…… sorry for the mix up there Guys. LOL I think the best way to know, would be to check the container, just incase

But if you do chose to keep feeding it, you can still put some fresh fruits and veggies in there too

snickersnflip wrote:kinda weird though, when i click on the link i posted above, is says that there is ethoxiquin in it. Maybe one of them is a new formula or something.…… sorry for the mix up there Guys. LOL I think the best way to know, would be to check the container, just incase

But if you do chose to keep feeding it, you can still put some fresh fruits and veggies in there too

Actually it's 2 different kinds but they are in bottles that are almost identical.

The one labeled Natural Crab Food is the one without ethoxiquin which is also is the one we have. The link you posted is the one labeled "All Natural food variety crabs love". It's weird to me too.

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The container from the hermit crab patch is different still http://www.hermitcrabpatch.com/HBH-Herm ... /ft029.htm
But the one they sell does not have the ethoxiquin. I always trust the HCP. I would say at this point read the lable. It looks like maybe they have had it in the past but are now doing away with using that? Just my guess?

Variety bites used to contain ethoxiquin and many online listings still list it as an ingredient but it definitely no longer contains it. It's the only commerically made crab food I would consider buying. The only ingredient on there that I still find suspect is the rosemary but I doubt the small quantities of it do any significant damage for the small role it plays in my crabs' diet.

My crabs like it and I use it as one of their foods in the rotation of fresh foods that I feed them. I also like to use it if I know I'm going to be gone for a couple days because it's dry and won't mold (unless they spill water on it) and I know they'll have something they like while I'm gone.

rose mary is fine unless you are using the essential oil of rosemary. No essential oil is safe for any animals its to concentrated.It takes rows of rosemary plants to get a small bottle of rosemary essential oil. I think that the fact that rosemary is in the family of pine made some people think that it is not safe but you only have to see photos of hermits living among pine trees (0ne of the only type of trees that are tough enough to live along salt and brackish water and still get enough rain to thrive) climbing in them and molting in sand that has pine needles in it to know the crabs think that its safe. My crabs love pine nuts, they climb on and eat pine cones, and have pine wood items to climb on. Ive spoke to multi people who live in areas where they have seen the crabs among the pine trees. No one has to take my word for it..I think everyone should do what they think is safe. I do have crabs with me that next month will have been with me for 15 years now. I wouldnt do anything that i thought would hurt them, they are my crids.. (crab kids) my friends too.