Are these products safe?

[Katastrawphique]

I've been wondering about this for a long time; are Magnaturals mushroom ledges safe for use with hermit crabs? They're just made of foam right? My concern is that they will either get moldy quickly from the humidity in the tank and/or the hermit crabs will pick little bits off of it and possibly try to eat it.

I've also been wondering about using bird and hamster toys for my hermies. I know some people use plastic hamster balls and exercise wheels for their crabs but my interest lies in the more natural items like the coconut hideaway toys used for bird nests, the little wooden ladders and the log bridges sold for hamsters. I think these items would look great in the tank and they'd love to climb on them but I don't know if they're safe. I don't know what kind of wood these things are made out of, it doesn't say on the packaging and I know hermit crabs are sensitive to coniferous wood, like pine, so I'm hesitant to buy any of these. Anyone have any thoughts?

[hermitcrabdc]

Magnaturals are safe. I've never used them but heard great things about them.
As long as there's no paint or strong smells they should be safe. Be cautious with the wood. If you think it isn't safe don't use it. I feel like I've read here somewhere that the little wood decorations like this,http://goo.gl/iRlY07 were made from previously considered "unsafe" woods. However people had used them with no harm done to their crabs. I don't remember if that's true or not (I'll look for the thread) Crabs also seem to be pretty good about staying away from things that will harm them, so if there's no strong smell you could try it and see what happens. I hope this helps you some

[Crabinski]

As @hermitcrabdc said, Magnaturals are perfectly fine to use in the crabitat -- in fact, just type in "magnaturals" in the HCA search box and you'll find a wide number of members who have used them with great success!

Wood items can be tricky as well as subject to mold and mildew. Unless you can find small branches from safe-list trees untreated with pesticides, stick with grapevine wood and mopani woods, both available in the Reptile section in pet stores and on ebay/Amazon. Cholla wood is also safe and can be found at craft stores such as Hobby Lobby and some Michael's stores. If you're going to use any safe wood products, give them a soak in the same salt water you use in the crabitat and let them dry out: the salt water helps reduce the mold and mildew that can form on wooden objects (mopani wood is, to me, magical as it never forms mold/mildew).

To be on the safe side, I use plastic, resin or ceramic items in the crabitat. The moss pit is a plastic basket, the fake coconut hide is made of resin, the "antique" column I use as a plant holder is ceramic and the plants/vines are plastic and cloth. A good source for fun resin and ceramic items and fake plants is your local thrift store...all kinds of cool stuff you can repurpose on the cheap!

[Katastrawphique]

Thank you guys for your advice. I'm glad the magnaturals are safe, I've used them for my crested geckos in the past and I'm going to get some more for my crabs now too. As for the wood I think I'll stick with what I know is safe. I really want some cholla wood as it is a hermit crab favorite but I can't seem to find it anywhere where I live. I guess I'll need to get a paypal and order it online from the hermit crab patch or something (I should anyway because I need shells). I've also used mopani wood before and it got mold pretty quickly but I never tried the saltwater trick. I wonder if I can just scrape the mold off the wood and try again using the saltwater soak?

[Crabinski]

I've also used mopani wood before and it got mold pretty quickly but I never tried the saltwater trick. I wonder if I can just scrape the mold off the wood and try again using the saltwater soak?

Yes, you can. I've never had mopani mold (grapevine wood, yes, a lot) but the salt water soak should help tremendously.

[wodesorel]

I've had mopani mold. White stuff, but it's a known fungus that can happen with new wood in vivariums.