What Do Hermit Crabs Eat?

In order to keep your hermit crab healthy your crabs will need a balanced diet. Just like we need our meat and vegetables, so do hermit crabs. The commercial diets such as FMR Food, Aussie Hermit Crabs Pellets, HBH's Hermit Crab Bites etc are the 'meat and vegetables' of your hermit crab's diet, balanced with some fresh foods such as fruit, nuts, seeds; and then rare treats offered now and then, such as peanut butter, FMR Treat, Aussie Hermit Crabs Tropical Banquet, Aussie Hermit Crabs Shrimp Mix and other 'treats' that should be offered after the meat and vegetable type 'staples'.

Hermit crabs are omnivores, which means they will eat almost anything when they need to, but that does not mean that you should feed them anything. Keep in mind what they would eat in the wild like fruits, fish, seaweed, wood and even leaves.Remember, each crab has different preferences. With fresh fruit treats inside the tank, remember to clean out daily. The hermies get all messy and the tank will stink etc. Remember to remove fresh treats as soon as they show signs of spoiling, and refresh the dry treat daily. As a special treat, you can offer popcorn, Nori strip (seaweed), steamed fish or a slice of meat

What Food Are Vital For Hermies To Eat?

It is important to feed them a varied diet which includes Commercial, Fresh and Dry. Commercial foods are specially formulated for land hermit crabs and provide the nutrients they would receive in the wild. Think of them as ’greens’.

Commercial Foods

'Meat and Vegetables' Type Foods

FMR - Florida Marine Research

Florida Marine Research started off as a Marine Research company and later became a hermit crab supplier that supplies pet stores with foods, shells, choya wood, display cages, bowls, dishes and more.FMR Land Hermit Crab Food is a wonderful staple diet for Land Hermit Crab owners in the United States, which has been specially formulated for the Carribean or 'Purple Pincer' land hermit crab, Coenobita clypeatus. It contains: Soyabean meal, corn meal, meat meal, bone meal, Soyabean oil, Coconut oil and trace elements.

For more information on Florida Marine Research’s website at www.fmrpets.com

 

ZooMed Land Hermit Crab Food

Hermit Crab Pelleted Food

A vitamin enriched food for all land-type Hermit Crabs. Zoo Med's Hermit Crab Food is a perfect food for all land-type hermit crabs. Hermit crabs are scavengers in nature, and eat a variety of foods. Zoo Med's moist canned Hermit Crab Food (below) and RepCal Cricket Food are also excellent foods to supplement your hermit crab's diet.

The only "moist" type canned hermit crab food on the market. The addition of fresh fish makes this food palatable to even the finickest of crabs. Watch your crabs 'chow down' with this food! Smells like apples and fish, a strange combination!

 

 

RepCal Cricket Food

If your amphibian or reptile is insect-eating, such as frogs, monitors and the like, it is important that the insect is well fed. RepCal Cricket Food helps to 'gut load' the crickets with extra nutrients that will benefit your herp. RepCal Cricket food is a quality invertebrate formula that should be fed to your crickets and other invertebrates twenty four hours prior to feeding time. It has been shown that land hermit crabs will also enjoy the nutrients found in RepCal Cricket Food, but it is adviseable to grind it up prior to serving. RepCal Cricket Food. The perfect invertebrate food.

 

 

 

Remember -- not all commercial foods are developed with the dietary needs of land hermit crabs in mind. Read the label and compare with the popular brands such as Florida Marine Research’s Land Hermit Crab Food, HBH Crab Bites and Aussie Hermit Crabs. Many pet stores will often throw together leftover small animal food and charge ten times the price for it.

Dried Food Mix

"Every Day Nibbles of
cereals, fruit and fibre"

Tropical Banquet

The Aussie Hermit Crabs Tropical Banquet contains honey-roasted oats, pinch of fish food flakes, dried fruit mix (apple, banana chips, mango, raisin, pawpaw, etc.), mixed nuts and other dry foods that hermies love. Make sure not to offer your hermit crabs prepared muesli or nibble mixes high in chemicals such as sulphur and preservatives so that they keep. Organic is best and remember to check for stale food as it may perish faster.

The Aussie Hermit Crabs Shrimp Treat is a favourite with land hermit crabs in Australia and the USA. Because we cannot buy Tetra Baby Shrimp Dried Treat in Australia, I created a treat which includes dried shrimp to supplement their diet of items such as shrimp/prawns, crab shells and other items they would find washed up on the beach that are a source of calcium and chitin. As well as the tiny shrimp we have added coconut, nuts, honey-roasted oats and other tasty ingredients. A gentle shrimp smell that is very pleasant compared to other shrimp-based foods. Watch it disappear before your eyes.

The Aussie Hermit Crabs Treat Mix is a basic treat mix that contians fibre, fruit, nuts and seeds. It is a cheaper than the other Aussie Hermit Crabs Dried Foods because it does not contain as much tropical fruits as the Tropical Banquets, nor does it contain Shrimp. It is a good idea to rotate between the foods you offer your hermit crabs on a regular basis, as it has been proven that hermit crabs will spurn leftovers. If they smell the same foods over and over, they may not eat the foods because they desire something new. Variety really is the spice of a land hermit crab's life.

 

Florida Marine Research's (FMR)
World Famous
Land Hermit Crab Treat

There are a number of dried foods available, including the ever-popular FMR Treat mix of: tropical fruits, Sea Salt, Rolled Oats, Sunflower Seeds and Wheat Germ. Florida Marine Research is the best smelling land hermit crab treat on the market. Some smell the coconut first, others say it smells like vanilla, or the tropical fruits get a mention You will not find this on the shelves of pet stores in Australia, however it has been imported under permit and is available from hermiesnherps.com

Fresh Treat

Apple (Slices/Cubes/Cores) Banana (mushy is good, even the bruised parts are eaten) Carrots (slices or peelings) Cereals (Rice Bubbles, Corn Flakes, Logan Farms MultiFlakes etc) Fruits (others that are not mentioned, including tropical fruits and even fruit salad) Grapes (halved and squeezed between your fingers to release the juice - in moderation, tannine content) Jello (a teaspoon to try)

Kashi Mango (Fresh or dried strips moistened) Nori (roasted seaweed) Orange PawPaw Peanut Butter Pineapple Chunks Prawn (heads crushed or the meat) Spinach Strawberries Water Cress

 

Weekly Banquet

In a heavy-based bowl within the tank or within a clean plastic tub, place some (or all) of the following: lettuce leaf, spinach or bok choy leaf; broccoli florette; carrot slice or other non-starch vegetable; fresh fruit sliced or chopped; 1/4 of a Nori (Roasted Seaweed Sheets) Sheet; 1 tsp. peanut butter; sprinkling of shredded or other fresh foods that are land hermit crab-friendly or anythng from the list above.

How Do I Hand Feed My Hermit Crab?

Place the food in one hand, and the crab in other. It is best to start with a piece of fruit that is larger than your fingers, such as a slice of banana or apple ring, then move onto grapes and other fruits or smaller items.

Brush the food against the larger of its two big claws. If it is hungry, it will rip a little bit off and start eating. If it is not hungry, it will grab the food but not bring it to its mouth. You will soon know if a hermit crab likes the food or not, because when they do like the food they can often eat large amounts at a time.

Sometimes they might try to flick your fingers away, as if ‘It’s ok, Mum/Dad, I can do it on my own!’. The food might fall now and then, but once your hermit crab has learnt to feed themselves you will be able to watch the two little ‘feeding hands’ at work moving the food from claw to mouth. Hand feeding is one way to know that they eat.

 

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