HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Along with various other foods, I've been feeding my hermit crabs a staple of "hermit crab cuisine" from the Island Crab Company. The company is based out of Fenwick Island, DE, and appears to be a small local company, so I wouldn't think it would necessarily contain the preservatives and other harmful chemicals found in hermit crab food made by big companies.

Still, I'd like to check that this food is alright. I'm not sure where to get fancy food like flax seed, spirulina, worm castings, coconut oil, seaweed, etc, etc, and I'm not sure a wide enough variety of that sort of stuff would be in my budget anyway, so I may have to stick with this food for a while and I want to make sure it isn't hurting my crabs.

The contents are listed as: cornmeal, alfalfa meal, whole millet, sunflower seed, corn, wheat, milo, soybean meal, salt and vitamin supplements. Crude protein (min) 12%, crude fat (min) 4%, crude fiber (max) 10%, moisture (max) 12%.

It seems okay and I don't think a small company would be stuffing their food full of preservatives and not listing them, but I was hoping someone with more experience could weigh in on the issue.

Nothing better then spoiling crabbies with a variety of goodies! I can't decide if shopping or preparing the goodies is my favorite part though.

At any rate, I don't see any preservatives listed in your ingredients there so that's good. The salt would be my biggest concern, table salt is not good... sea salt is though. Do you happen to know which style of salt is in the food? And then I'm kinda partial to not liking foods that start out with cornmeal. Heheh.. Seems like such a filler to me. But I don't know how that affacts crabs as much as dogs or cats.

Some awesome places to shop for crab goodies that expands your feeding without killing the budget would be The Happy Hermit, The Crabbage Patch and Hermit Crab Addiction. (Click the store titles to go there.)

Thanks for the links!

I do feed them other food also (today was banana with honey, some turkey, and a blend of blueberries, grapes, red pepper, crushed boiled egg shells, and peanut butter), but as I mentioned I don't have much access to the really good stuff so I like to be sure they have a staple food to get basic nutrients until I've worked out a good, varied diet.

Sounds to me they are very well maintained on a varied diet with what you listed there. Yes, more greens sound like something you might need but don't beat yourself up on it all. You're doing great!

Happy Crabbing!

My crabs love baby food especially squash and green beans. If you get a jar of baby food you can freeze little dollops of baby food on wax paper and store them in a freezer bag or container in the freezer and then pop one in the food bowl every couple of days for variety. I would try different varieties, and the baby food has no preservatives in it and there are even organic varieties to pick from.

that food is pretty low in protein. I think its safe, just make sure to feed some meat as well as other treats every day. If you were to go on vacation I would not see a problem with feeding only that for a week or two, just not long term.