What is a hermit crabs main food?

Answer 1

In the wild, they are scavengers and eat dead fish, seaweed, and fruit. In captivity, sadly, they are fed commercial hermit crab diets which contain copper sulfate and causes early death. The best foods to feed captive hermit crabs are those as close to their wild diet as possible.

A favorite food of one of my hermies is apple, and I give him a slice of apple probably once a week.

Hermit crabs are biologically programmed not to eat the same foods meal after meal, so variety is key.

My hermit crabs are fed shrimp and lean meats microwaved for 30 seconds, coconut flakes, banana, apple, oats, bell pepper, and egg as staple foods.

If you do not have time to cut up bits of food daily, another option is making your own powdered hermit crab diet as I have just recently begun to do. Just make sure you don't give them that every day, and alternate between recipes. Here is a recipe that I made up for mine:

Staple Powdered Food: (just add de-chlorinated water and serve!)

Ingredients:

•Dried shrimp or crayfish (without salt)

•Dried seaweed (without salt or sugar)

•Oats

•Aquarium Salt (NOT table salt)

•Calcium powder (made for reptiles and found in a Pet Store)

Put equal parts shrimp and seaweed in a blender with a handful of oats, a tablespoon of Aquarium salt, and a tablespoon of calcium powder. Blend them into a thick powder. To serve, put two tablespoons of the powder you have made in the crab's bowl, and add three tablespoons of de-chlorinated water.