The Healthy Hermit Crab Diet

When it comes to the eating habits of the hermit crab, it is an enjoyable experience for sure. If you love eating variety of foods then it is even easier for you to feed the crabs. Most people think that the hermit crabs have limited choices as far as feeding is concerned.

This is not at all difficult if you put some brain effort into it. If you straight away go inside a pet store you get to choose from a variety of food options available for the hermit crabs.

Provide Your Crab with Variety

If you consider your eating habits, then repetition of foods every single day would take away your eating mood. The same is the case with the hermit crabs. Feed the crabs with two to three food types each day.

The containers saying they are best for your hermit crab may not be the best. The best is what is liked by your crab. Sometimes the ingredients of the food can even be dangerous for your hermit crab. In this list comes ethoxyguin and copper sulphate, so avoid food with these ingredients for the hermit crab.

These are more commonly used as pesticides and one must feel uncomfortable having this information. It’s your choice for this, but staying away from such food stuff is better.

If you are really keen on feeding your crab suitably, then give it what you eat. This would be a special treat for it. The commercial food can serve the purpose of the supplements. There are other ways also you can choose for supplementing the crabs’ food. You can go for meal worms, cricket from the local pet store. This type of food change would certainly be loved by the hermit crabs. Other frozen food items for the hermit crabs can be krill, blood worms and planktons.

The bird section in the local pet store is also there to provide more feeding options for the hermit crabs. There is not much relation between the birds and the hermit crabs but crushed bones of cuttlefish are liked by the hermit crabs just like the birds.

You can possibly find packages of fruits, dried nuts etc in the bird section. Do seek the same for you little hermit crabs as they will be happy to see a food change of this form. Another option for a supplement is the bird seed.

Apart from these items, the hermit crab would like to eat:

  • Grapes without skin
  • Cereals in dried form, bread
  • Apples, banana, coconut, diced pears
  • Shredded spinach
  • Shredded lettuce
  • Cooked and cool potatoes

Put the food in sizes suitable for them to grab so that they can easily consume it. If you do not get a good grip on what you like the most to eat, you can understand how it feels.

Your hermit crab has sweet tooth too. They love to munch food which  is sweeter and less savory. Do not deny the hermit of this pleasure as it really enjoys this stuff. This fact brings in the option of the baby food which is sweet and has good nutrient content also.

You can also try these flavors:

  • Bananas and Apples
  • Apple sauce
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Pears and Apples
  • Fruit medley
  • Papaya Fruit Dessert
  • Mango Fruit Dessert
  • Sweet Corn Casserole
  • Chiquita Bananas

You can feed your hermit crab with anything that is fruity and need not limit yourself to the mentioned list.

You can feed them in little amounts in their dish with spoon or your hands. These are things the crab would love to have and also stay healthy having these. Another important part is water. The hermit crabs can live without water for months but you don’t want to keep them in captivity. Try to keep two bowls of water- one of fresh water and the other one salty like that of ocean. This is something which would keep it healthy.

Some other content you might like to look at:

  1. What do Hermit Crabs eat?
  2. What are the Foods that a Hermit Crab can Eat?
  3. Feeding Your Hermit Crabs
  4. Beginner Hermit Crab Care
  5. hermit crab just after his molting