essential crab nutrients

[Dakiato]

Ok, i think i have these mostly covered.Calcium= In food + in sand + Cuttlebone offered in tankKrill = In main foodCarrot = In main and treat foodCellulose = No idea where its from... carrot?Well thats all i can think of. Did i miss any?

[Crabby Abby]

Carrots are a good source of beta carotene and a popular one among crabs. Zeaxanthin is a carotenoid itself and for people it's essential to good eye health. I would assume it's beneficial to hermits in the same way, can't say for certain but I belive it's also important for pre and post molt health. Maybe someone can fill in a bit more detail for us here.Try not to choose just one or two foods from each category and offer them all the time as it can deprive them of essential vitamins. Also a food offered too regularly not only leads to boredom but will often be completely ignored by a crab. Keep it interesting. There's lots of foods on the Epicurean List, mix it up and have some fun by adding a few new foods every once in a while. I find in addition to increasing the variety of fruits and veggies they get, I benefit as well as I've been known to sample while I'm slicing and dicing.

[NewCrabber]

To provide essential nutrients the diet should consist of protein, calcium, fruits & veggies, cellulose, from a variety of sources. Some of the nutrients gained from these categories cross over. Too offering foods such as salmon for protein also provide omega 3, another important element in the diet. Also important are carotenoids and zeaxanthin (an antioxidant of the carotenoid family which is what I assume you are asking about in your second post.) Think color -- carrots, greens, red/yellow bell peppers, berries, mangos,etc.Some ideas for each category include -- Protein: crushed nuts, fish, unseasoned chicken, seaweed, (for example, Spirulina). Calcium: cuttle bone, egg shells, sun dried baby shrimp, krill, oyster shells, etc. Fruits & veggies, bananas, apples, papaya, coconut, raisins, greens, carrots, squash, corn, let your imagination be your guide. Cellulose: dried oak leaves, bark, mushrooms, corn cobs, flowers, etc. You can find a safe foods list on Epicurean Hermit as well as one listing barks, leaves and flowers which can be offered.

[KittyCaller]

Red Raspberry leaves, if you can find them, are extremely good. They contain a lot of vitamin C, but also, an easily used form of calcium. Plus, vitamin c helps with calcium absorbtion. It's a very good food for the crabbies. Also good? Dried rosehips. Crab Island and Kaytee both package small amounts of them. If you can't find 'em for crabbies, then look over with the rodent treats. I like to crush 'em up, but be careful, because the seeds inside are pretty fine and sharp. They easily become lodged in the skin and can irritate. Good food for the crabbies, though, since they contain a lot of vitamin C, and a decent amount of vitamins A, D and E.

[Willow]

I've found my hermies are a lot healthier if I provide a lot of greens, such as baby romaine, red leaf, and green leaf lettuces. I buy an organic spring mix that I feed to the tortoises and rabbit, and I throw a handful in the crabitat frequently. Dark leafy greens contain a lot of lutein and zeaxanthins, and I've noticed my crabbies come up from a moult darker than they were before. As for protein, I've found meat-based baby foods to be good, because I hate to handle meat, and since I live alone, I mainly eat vegetarian while at home. I'll only eat meat if someone else prepares it, so it's hard to appropriate unseasoned meat for the hermies.

[Crabby Abby]

That's a very important area to address and I'm glad you'd like to improve on it. You want to provide regular offerings of protein, fruit, veggies, calcium and cellulose. It might seem difficult at first but I cut snips of foods that I'm about to prepare for myself and set them aside for them.Sea related proteins are best of course because that's what they would get in the wild scavenging on beaches so krill, silversides, bloodworms, sun dried baby shrimp, human grade shrimp with or without the exo/tail but you could also offer unseasoned chicken from near the bone, scrambled or soft boiled egg, unseasoned beef or crushed unsalted nuts.You know what fruits and vegetables are of course so I won't list them for you; you can pick them out from the food list. Try to buy organic or use frozen and thawed because pesticides can hurt them.Calcium can be clean eggshells from boiled eggs, shrimp tails, calcisand, crushed sanddollars, whole or crumbled cuttlebone.And cellulose can be found in air popped popcorn, corn cob, corn husks, krill, shrimp exo, all natural sea sponges (should be steralized whether used in a water dish or offered for cellulose), bark and woods, bran, beans, peas, organic hummus made only with Epicurean approved foods, root vegetables, peas, cabbage, plants and plant roots (I believe), and the hulls of oats, rice and soybeans. You'll also find some good articles on the Epicurean site if you click the FAQ link.