HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have some tangarines that are just beyond human eating ( too soft) I was gonna blen em up with some apple and Oatmeal for my crabs. Do i need to PEEL them? I looked at the food list it didnt say anything for or against peel.

Fresh peel has a repellent in it, but it breaks down with time. If it was past the point of human consumption, the crabs oughta love it.

And the white stuff inside the peel has something important in it (sorry, I'm too lazy today to look it up!). And my hermies love oranges and tangerines, especially the peels.

This is from FAQ on EpicureanHermit regarding citrus:"Citrus: The Truth is SweetSomehow, somewhere, someone heard that citrus peel contains volatile oils that act as insect repellents and insecticides, added two and two together, and came up with seven; namely, that crabs, being arthropods (and related to insects), cannot tolerate citrus in their diet.Phooey. Citrus fruits are tropical and sub-tropical. Coenobita, coincidentally, are tropical and sub-tropical. Hermit crabs are constantly exposed to citrus in their native environment. They can, and will eat citrus fruit.It is not bad for them. On the contrary, the addition of citrus to your crabs' diet can be extremely beneficial. The trick is in knowing which kind of citrus, and how to offer it.Crabs prefer sweet citrus to sour; tangerines over grapefruit. They will pick at the flesh of the fruit, but actually prefer to eat the pulp and membranes between the fruit sections and the fruit and skin. This substance collectively is known as hesperidin, and is full of dozens of phytonutrients. These phytonutrients are compounds, such as beta carotene, that have nutritional value, but it is uncertain how much. They have not had much study. Some are said to be good for arterial disease, others for other things. I am doing research on hesperidin currently. I will be writing an article on its value in the future.Because of the scavenging nature of crabs, it is entirely possible that these phytonutrients are very important to their health in ways we can't even imagine. So the addition of citrus fruits to the diet of a crab is to their benefit.The best method I have found for preparing citrus is as follows:Put the fruit on the counter and leave it until it starts to wrinkle up a bit, and the skin pulls off the flesh. The limonene and other possibly irritating compounds in the skin will have begun to break down at this point and will no longer be an issue (if, in fact, they ever were). When it is just getting to the point where you would't eat it yourself, cut off a section, skin and all, and put it in the food dish. Pull up a corner of the fruit so the crabs can get to the pith inside the skin. For good measure, pull out all the fiber from the center section and add it to the dish as well.I have found that my crabs will eat the hesperidin and pick at the fruit. They ignore the peel completely."