HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I got my crabs about 6 months ago. They have gotten MASSIVE since then. They were super small and would just hide in their shells. Now they are huge, my question is, am I feeding too much? I put way more in their bowl than they can finish but I just don’t want them to be hungry!

Rapid growth isn’t a bad thing, and it can happen relatively easily for small crabs. I’ve had crabs who’ve practically doubled in size after a single molt!


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I always thought I over fed my crabbies too! They will eat what they want. It's great that your crabs are growing! Make sure they have bigger shells! Sounds like they are going to need them!

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As of right now, free feeding and good growth is still considered a good thing for hermit crabs.

However, we don't really know if rapid growth in a hermit crab is something that we want to see. In arachnids, which are the other commonly kept arthropod, overfeeding and rapid development is discouraged, as it shortens their lifespan dramatically. Wild animals have challenges in finding enough to eat, and in captivity we provide them with more than they would ever experience and an environment that keeps them way less active. We don't even know if hermits can be overweight or experience health issues from being so, though scavengers do fair better than most at having built-in limiters.

I have wondered about that, though. It’s the reason I don’t like keeping my crabitat in the 80F range all the time, since greater heat would likely increase their metabolisms and in consequence age them more rapidly.

Realistically hermit crabs could probably make do with getting quality nutrition only a few times a week, with the rest of the time having low-quality nutrition like leaf litter and bark or even nothing at all, but I never got comfortable with sporadic feeding schedules.


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Last summer we adopted 6 of Mary's captive bred babies. They all eat the same things together. However, some have grown a lot and others are still small. They grow at different rates.

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Thank you everyone for your answers!! Gave me peace of mind! I will give them a bit less food though.