HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I scored this dehydrator on my neighborhood website for free! It's old, but in decent shape. I plugged it in and turned it on and it did start to heat up. I'm hoping to try and dehydrate some bananas with it tonight and see what happens.

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Wow great find. I would love to get a dehydrator it would be so much easier to make the crabs food.


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CrabbyLover77 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:44 pm

I scored this dehydrator on my neighborhood website for free! It's old, but in decent shape. I plugged it in and turned it on and it did start to heat up. I'm hoping to try and dehydrate some bananas with it tonight and see what happens.

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I are so lucky!!!!
I am asking for a dehydrator for Christmas

Hermielover121 wrote:Wow great find. I would love to get a dehydrator it would be so much easier to make the crabs food.


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The lady was originally charging $10 for it. But once she found out her friend was my cousin, she decided not to charge me at all.
It's been running for almost 3 hours now, so about 3 more hours to go. Keeping my fingers crossed it works well.
Don't forget you can also use your oven to dehydrate food as well. I think you and I talked about that before. I've only done leaves and leafy greens in the oven. But on the internet, it says you can do fruits and veggies too. It's just different temps and different times.

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HappyHermit0916 wrote: I are so lucky!!!!
I am asking for a dehydrator for Christmas

That's a great gift idea! And I'm sure your crabbies would love it!

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Ya I know you can do it I’m the oven but everyone else that lives in my house says that I already have dry food mixes from Etsy shops so there is know need. So I have stayed away from dehydrating for now but if I never see that good of a deal I will definitely try.


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Hermielover121 wrote:Ya I know you can do it I’m the oven but everyone else that lives in my house says that I already have dry food mixes from Etsy shops so there is know need. So I have stayed away from dehydrating for now but if I never see that good of a deal I will definitely try.


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I understand. Hopefully one will pop up in your area.

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Update: Tried dehydrating bananas last night, but it didn't work out so well. I think it was user error lol. The bananas were on their way to going bad, so they were super mushy. I pureed them, and spread them over wax paper. I let them sit in the dehydrator for 6 hrs. After that, they were still a little mushy and stuck to the parchment paper. I have some tomatoes and watermelon I'd like to try today. But this time I think I'll just slice them really thin instead of pureeing them.

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Awe sucks that it’s not working well. No wonder it was 10 dollars lol. Hope it works well enough to dehydrate something’s.


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Hermielover121 wrote:Awe sucks that it’s not working well. No wonder it was 10 dollars lol. Hope it works well enough to dehydrate something’s.


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Haha I know right? I looked up on the internet that fruit usually takes 6 hours in a dehydrator, but maybe I should have left them in longer. But it was 3am, and I'm too much of a worrier about leaving something hot like that plugged in all night lol. I'll try again today when it can sit longer.

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I used parchment paper because I read wax can possibly melt into the food

Edit to add: and some things never seem to get totally dry. I’ve done some things for much longer than recommend time. As a matter of fact I think I need to put the pineapple I made back in because it’s just too gummy.

Links wrote:I used parchment paper because I read wax can possibly melt into the food

Edit to add: and some things never seem to get totally dry. I’ve done some things for much longer than recommend time. As a matter of fact I think I need to put the pineapple I made back in because it’s just too gummy.

Oops! I meant to say parchment paper. Wax paper will def melt into the food.
Thanks for letting me know about your experience. I don't feel too bad now lol. I probably need to do 8-12 hours next time. I'll do it during the day so I don't have to worry about the dehydrator running while I'm asleep.

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Links wrote:I used parchment paper because I read wax can possibly melt into the food

Edit to add: and some things never seem to get totally dry. I’ve done some things for much longer than recommend time. As a matter of fact I think I need to put the pineapple I made back in because it’s just too gummy.

Forgot to ask, do you puree your fruit first and then dehydrate? Or do you just cut it in thin slices? And then do you just grind it up in a food processor after? Thanks!

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I’ve only had one experience with this so I’m not the pro but I cut fruit in small pieces and thin slices. Thin would dry faster. Then I used coffee grinder. Some things like broccoli became quite powdery. Not sure that’s good. I thinks slightly chunky would be better than powder. I also still feed fresh or at least fresh that I froze once in a while.

Edit to add: a food processor might work better.