Beta Carotene Comparison (www.hermit-crabs.com) Diet and feeding is very important to crabs..as it is to any other creature including humans. Getting the balance is the hard part.. Thankfully FMR(and some other companies) have developed complete foods for hermies. These are designed with all the nutrients that are required by the crabs to grow and be healthy. It is recomended that you supplement their diet. Crabs love most fruits but stay away from citric ones that are quite acidy. They like veg. aswell. Because in the wild crabs are omnivorous they love eating meat too. Crabs adore fish as it is what they would be eating in the wild...smelly and dead, but I dont think you would have to go so far as to leave a fish out in the sun for a few days *ick* !!
Crabs feast on practically anything.. try a bit of dog/cat food, they will eagarly eat that up. They have a very acute sense of smell and can find food from quite a distance.
Dont however give them dairy foods. They can handle the lactose in them.
A discovery has been made that links the crabs colour to its diet. A diet that is rich in beta-carotene will leave the crab a healthy orange, however crabs that have been deprived this nutrient turn out almost grayish in comparison. You can view the pic(at the bottom) to see exactly what Im talking about. Marigold petals are good sources of beta carotene and you can grow your own.. That way you know that no pesticides have been used on them. Obviously carrots are a good alternative.
Crabs need calcium in their diets to build up a strong exo. Calcium can be given to them in a number of ways. You can powder it over their food so they eat little bits. You can feed them from shell dishes where small bits of the shell will mix with the food. You can place whole cuttlefish bone in the tank, so they can break bits off as they need it. You can offer crushed oystershell which they will eat. The cheapest and easiest alternative to all of these is crushed eggshell. Just make sure its fresh and its cleaned right. Like anything else you can get too much of a good thing and you know when your feeding hermies too much calcium when their droppings are coming out white. It shows that its not being digested and is doing no good in just passing right through them. Crab dropping should be a healthy dark brown colour however it will vary depending on what they eat so dont panick if their dirt isnt always dark :)
In the wild alot of hermites spend their time in forests..where naturally they will find lots of leaves. You can give your hermit leaves but make sure that there are no bugs on them, they are pesticide free, they dont come from a busy roadside and they are healthy, also make sure that they are not poisonous to the crab. LIST OF SAFE LEAVES COMING SOON.
Bark is also loved by crabbies. Try Oak bark but try and make sure its bug free and clean..same applies for the bark as it did for the leaves. Dont feed the crab pine bark as that is bad bad bad for them . If you can buy choya wood with a bit of bark on it they will munch away at that.
If you wanna treat your hermies then visit the recipes page here! Note thought these are treats and are not to be given every day.
Recipes |
