QuestionWhat do hermit crabs eat?
AnswerAlexandra, I got this from hermit-crabs.com the site rocks!!!!!!!!! Its kinda long but very specific and detailed.
"Hermit crabs love try different foods. In fact a study found that they prefer to have a different food each time they eat. Of course, this isn't always possible, but you should offer your crab a variety of foods. Some other foods your crab should enjoy are:
# Fruit, especially tropical fruits such as the crabs would find in their native habitat: mangoes, coconuts and papayas.
# Vegetables of all kinds
# Meat. Make sure it is well-cooked and that there is no sauce or butter on the meat that could cause them problems. In particular, hermit crabs like to pick meat off of bones. They also enjoy steamed shrimp tails and any sort of dead crustacean.
# Nuts, applesauce, raisins, trail mix, peanut butter, honey, cooked egg, cereal, crackers, washed grass, and popcorn
# Dairy foods may be given to the crabs in small amounts and not too often.
Natural Treats From the Pet Store
There are a number of wholesome natural treats in your local pet store. Here are some of them:
# Frozen fruit and plant-based iguana food
# Escargot (especially good dusted w/spirulina)
# Freeze-dried and sun-dried shrimp and plankton (see example at left)
# Seaweed (normally sold to make sushi or in health-food stores)
# Brine shrimp (drained first of salt water)
# Fish food flakes
# Fish vegetable flakes with no "bad" preservatives added
The best diet for a land hermit crab is basically what you feed yourself (with the exclusion of highly-processed foods and sugary snacks, of course). Land hermit crabs are omnivorous and therefore eat just about anything. You can feed them meat, fish, vegetables and fruit (yes even citrus fruit!). Crabs also like tannin-rich foods, such as oak leaves and tree bark. Before giving your crabs these things as food, make sure they are thoroughly cleaned by washing in water (no soap) and allowed to dry -- crabs like their leaves crunchy.
The current wisdom is that commercial crab food is not necessary if you provide your hermit crab with a varied diet of "human grade" food. You can do almost all of your hermit crab food shopping in a regular grocery store. 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.
Your crabs will be happy and will flourish if fed a diet based on a good, preservative-free, human-grade food."
