Making crabby food (meal mix & oven dehydrating foods)

[fantasybookworm]

I thought I'd start a thread to detail my making a hermit crab meal mix, since that's my other big project this week (and it's going better than the tote crabitat so far), as well as using my oven to dehydrate other things for saving.

My planned proportions for the meal mix are 45% meat, 35% veg/fruit/seafood, 15% grains/seeds, and 5% pollen/calcium. I was thinking about putting in HCP's mineral supplement too, but I'm not sure yet. If I do, it'll be included with the 5% pollen/calcium.

These are the ingredients:
- freeze dried chicken, salmon, beef liver, powdered egg (12oz)
- freeze dried krill, shrimp, mealworms, crickets (10oz)
- dried veg (broccoli, peas, corn, carrots, squash, peppers) (1.25oz each)
- dried fruit (blueberries, raspberries, mango, coconut) (1.25oz each)
- hibiscus powder (1.25oz)
- dulse flakes (1.25oz)
- nori flakes (1.25oz)
- raw rice, quinoa, 8-grain cereal (1.25oz each)
- barley grass powder (1.25oz)
- beet root powder (1.25oz)
- hemp seed hulled (1.25oz)
- bee pollen, powdered bonemeal (1.25oz each)

It's going to end up being 22oz meat, 17oz veg/fruit/sf, 7.25oz grains/seeds, and 2.5oz P/C, for a total of ~49oz of the mix. I plan on bagging most of it to put in our deep freezer, and only keeping small amounts out at a time. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep some in the dry food bowl at all times, or just put it in once or twice a week or something.

As far as where I'm getting everything...The proteins all came from the pet store. The veggies & fruit I'm drying myself over this week (except for peas, I bought them already dried). Hibiscus powder, dulse flakes, barley grass & beet root powders, and hemp seed hulled are all coming from Mountain Rose Herbs at some point (just ordered a couple days ago). I'm going to have to place another order later for nori flakes and bee pollen - they were out of stock for nori & I didn't realize I don't have enough bee pollen on hand for the amount I want to put in. The rice & quinoa I already have on hand, and I just got 8-grain cereal from a local farm market type store.

I'm starting to get some stuff done for the mix! I measured out & powdered the proteins tonight. My food processor did a great job turning everything into powder, I was very pleased.



Here's a picture of the coconut and mango that I'll be chopping up to dry for the mix:



There's also jicama, papaya, and dragonfruit in the picture, which I plan on freezing half of each thing & drying the other half for single ingredient things. I have cucumber drying in the oven right now -



But if it ever finishes (it's been in for 4 hours so far), these are the next in line for drying:



The pineapple will again be half for drying & half for freezing as a single ingredient, and the squash will be mostly dried to go into the mix (if I don't need all of it, the rest will be frozen).

I'm also planning on doing a chopped/powdered dry bean mix and got the ingredients for that today:



The multicolored bag is a souper mix, and then I got garbanzo beans, black beans, and organic yellow corn to add in (some of the corn will be saved for popping, I think).

I'll post more pictures as I get more ingredients for the mix done & added in! And of course, pictures of the final mix will be posted once I have it all done. I'll probably post pictures of my dehydrating adventures on here too.

[klowns]

uhhhhhhmazing!!!!!!

So how do I get in on some of this? You're probably just dying to send me some! :p it looks great!

I think your crabs eat better than I do!!!

[fantasybookworm]

Thanks! I'll let you know if I decide to go into business or something! Or if I decide to do a random giveaway...I know I'm going to have SO much of this mix once it's all done. And all for only three crabs. :roll: And it's okay, they eat better than me too. I MUCH prefer making animal food over people food.

[Asheka]

I have been having so much fun oven dehydrating stuff, but am certainly not as "advanced" yet. All looks awesome!

[megmaholm]

And it's okay, they eat better than me too. I MUCH prefer making animal food over people food.

I hear ya! My crabs eat organic, with a huge variety of options, whereas I'm like, "Okay...I don't want to cook. Canned ravioli it is." I have a dehydrator but my first attempt with it was an epic failure and I've been too nervous to try again, lol.

[fantasybookworm]

Trust me, Asheka, I'm not advanced either! This is the first time I've tried dehydrating food for animals. I finally finished the cucumber after 4.5-5 hours & put the squash in. I was able to slice that much thinner, so it's going a lot faster. It's been in 2.5 hours so far, and I think the rest of it will be done or close to done in another half hour or so (or at least, I hope, so I can go to bed ).

I'm the same way, Megma. I really don't like cooking for myself & try to spend as little time on my food as I can. I really need to try and get better about that though. I'm sorry your first dehydration attempt didn't work! What happened?

[megmaholm]

I left the stuff in too long - the banana slices were rather frightening. I don't want to keep buying stuff and potentially ruining it, so once my garden starts producing stuff I'll give it another whirl. I feed a lot of dry mixes from places like The Hermit Crab Patch and wanted to make up my own mixes, and...nope. They'll keep getting my money for the time being, lol.

[fantasybookworm]

Oh jeeze, that sounds like a mess! Oops. I've been checking the oven every 30-60 minutes with these things in. I did make a mistake though - I thought wax paper would be fine, like parchment paper (the box said it would be!). And well...one of our nice cookie sheets might be ruined now. I told my dad if the wax paper doesn't come off, I'd buy new ones. And of course after that, I managed to find the stupid parchment paper! :roll: Good luck with your future attempts! You'll have to let us know how it goes once your garden gets going.

[megmaholm]

Haha oops! Sounds like you need a set of cookie sheets just for the crabs. Once I try again I'm sure I'll post about it..if nothing else, it'll give someone a good laugh at my expense.

[Asheka]

I only have a small food processor, and it's my fiance's, so I'd be afraid to ruin it with any hard foods. How are you doing up the beans and corn?
I was checking every 30min after the first hour with everything I've done so far.

[fantasybookworm]

I'm pretty sure these two cookie sheets I'm using are going to be crab-food-only after yesterday, heh. I'm at it again this morning, with more of the squash in the oven. I put all small slices for this morning in the hopes that they'll finish before I have to head out for work. I cut up some more of it into small cubes for freezing too. I still have half a squash left but it's the thicker portion, which took the longest to dry last night, so I'm going to wait to slice that up to dry tonight. I'm not sure what else is going to go in tonight yet. I'm thinking maybe I'll start the greens (red chard, kale, watercress, parsley, and basil) since those are likely to be the first thing to go bad out of what I have.

Honestly, I'm not sure yet, Asheka! I was thinking to use my food processor, but I had the same thought. They're so hard, I don't want to break my processor. At the very least, it'd be a huuuuge racket. I'm considering buying a coffee bean grinder to use with them, if I can find one that isn't too expensive. I'll let you know what I end up using!

[KellyCrabbieLove]

I hadn't thought of a coffee grinder. My husband would kill me if I used his fancy one so looks like I'll be looking around for cheaper options.

[CallaLily]

Coffee grinders work pretty well. Fair warning though, I've been through two. Not terrible for almost 7 years I guess and I do want to get another. I used one more in the beginning than I have in the last few years though.

[fantasybookworm]

Lol, good idea, Kelly! And thanks for the warning, Calla! If I can find a cheap-ish one that will last even a couple years, I'll be pretty content with that.

[Crabinski]

I'm considering buying a coffee bean grinder to use with them, if I can find one that isn't too expensive. I'll let you know what I end up using!

A coffee grinder!!! Duh! That would be perfect for dried beans. I'll have to keep an eye out in the Housewares section at Goodwill.