In general, hermit crabs can consume some dairy products, but very rarely. When buying and choosing food for your hermit crabs, always try to choose the best quality products. Hermit crabs are very sensitive to various pesticides, preservatives, insecticides, fertilizers, and some food additives.
Try to choose natural, preferably organic options when you can. Remove uneaten fresh food from the tank every day, and uneaten dry foods — maximum every 2 days. If you have more than 4 hermit crabs, place food in two separate dishes, so they can eat comfortably. What is more, you will need to have 2 water dishes in a hermit crab tank. One water dish should have normal water treat with some water conditioner for drinking. The second water dish needs to have saltwater and it will be for soaking you can get a saltwater solution like this one to make it.
Sea sponges are great for hermit crabs to drink from, consume minerals and exit their water dish safely. However, sea sponges will harbor lots of bacteria and can create an unpleasant smell if left in a dish for too long. If you wish to use a sea sponge, make sure to change it every days.
Otherwise, make sure the drinking dish is quite shallow for your hermit crabs to exit safely without drowning. Thanks for reading this post on hermit crab diet. To discover more posts on hermit crab care, see this page.
What to feed hermit crabs? Feeding schedule While hermit crabs are omnivores, you need to feed them healthy foods and avoid any junk or sugary foods. This list is not exhaustive as other similar foods can be fed as well. Pretty much any fruit fresh or dried can be offered, although some experts recommend avoiding highly acidic or citrus foods e. Try a variety of vegetables but avoid starchy vegetables such as potatoes and stay away from iceberg lettuce as it is of very low nutritional value.
Crabs may really like salty, fatty, or sugary snacks such as pretzels, chips, and sweetened cereal but these should be avoided. Also, avoid feeding dairy products. Hermit crabs need a lot of calcium to support the health of their exoskeleton, and this is especially true during molting.
Ways to provide ample calcium to your crabs include the following:. All species of hermit crabs should have access to both fresh and salt water. Fresh water is needed for drinking, and most hermit crabs will also drink salt water some also like to bathe in the salt water so providing a dish of salt water big enough for the crab to get into is a good idea.
All tap water must be treated with a dechlorinator drops available at pet stores to remove harmful chlorine and chloramines. For preparing the salt water, use a product such as Instant Ocean which is designed to imitate natural salt water.
The salt designed for fresh water fish for treating illness etc. Never use table salt. The desired salinity of the water is somewhat debated among owners. For most crabs, mixing the proportion of salt and water indicated to produce the concentration for a saltwater marine fish tank is probably fine, and the crabs will adjust their intake of salt and fresh water to regulate their salt needs.
For food dishes, you will want something shallow, sturdy, and easy to clean. Flattened heavy plastic dishes made to look like rocks can be found in the reptile section, or you can use shallow ceramic dishes made for small animals. Some people also use natural sea shells the flatter half shells for feeding. Since all species of hermit crabs should have access to both fresh and salt water, you will need two water dishes. Specialty items you buy from a pet store should be free of unfamiliar ingredients except for tocopherols, which are natural preservatives.
Be sure to examine all labels very carefully and do not purchase any products that contain ethoxyquin or copper sulfate. In the past couple years, a number of hermit crab food specialty sites have sprung up online.
They offer a wide assortment of organic staple food, treats and supplements. Check out the Links page for some great sites featuring a wide variety of hermit crab food.
There has been a lot of interest by hermit crab and their owners in Organic Worm Castings and with good reason. The worm castings are chock-full of nutrients and are also very well-liked by hermit crabs. Here is a good recipe for regular crab food which satisfies the crabs' taste preference and need for calcium to build a strong exoskeleton. NO table salt! Break up the cuttlebones with your hands into nickel-or-dime-size chunks. Using an electric coffee grinder, powder them. Sometimes they get stuck in the blades -- if so, stop grinding and poke them out of the blades and continue grinding.
Take all remaining ingredients except the salt and grind them into a sort of lumpy powder fine powder. The krill won't completely grind so just get it to where you can stand it. Add in the salt and any other things you think your crabs will enjoy, such as whole grain cereals, wheat germ, ground nuts, seeds, etc. Mine especially like a dose of ground flax seed now and then. Since this is VERY high in calcium two whole large cuttlebones are a double-whammy , it is an excellent food for your crabs who are exhibiting molting signs or those who have recently molted.
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