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What should hermit crabs eat?

Updated: 10/6/2023
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15y ago

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In the wild hermit crabs are scavengers, so whenever they can! In captivity mine eat every night as soon as I cut the lights. Hermit crabs, like most other sea creatures, spend most of their day constantly foraging for food. They don't have set mealtimes.

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7y ago
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13y ago

It depends what you're feeding them; you should be feeding them fresh fruits and vegetables along with their commercial food. Put a cupfull of fresh and washed fruits and veggies out at night (or whenever they're most active) and take it out and observe how much they' ve eaten. The next time, put the amount they had eaten plus a little extra. Make sure to throw it away after a day. For commercial pet food, about a teaspoon of crushed pellets should be good for a day or 2

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15y ago

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. 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. Just be careful they don't get ahold of any fruit "pits."

• 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. Yes, they are cannibals, it is a studied and proven fact. It is recommended that meat be put into the crabitat at night and removed in the morning to discourage flies and other, unwanted scavengers from visiting the crabitat.

• Nuts, applesauce, raisins, trail mix, peanut butter, honey, cooked egg, cereal, crackers, washed grass, and popcorn are some of the miscellaneous favorites people have reported their crabs enjoying.

• Dairy foods may be given to the crabs in small amounts and not too often. Some people notice their crabs are partial to 'junk food' such a corn chips, sugary cereals and pretzels. Though they may like these foods, they should of course be limited to occasional treats.

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16y ago

I think hermit crabs eat 12 sand fleas and other small sea insects a week

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11y ago

depending on how many hermits you have, feed one hermit one teaspoon of food, two hermits two teaspoons of food, and so on.

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11y ago

ALOT

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