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[Greetings, and welcome to the Epicurean Hermit! The ORIGINAL land hermit crab food site. You must have joined us because you're interested in the best and widest diet to feed your crabs. To get you started, there is a comprehensive food list of hermit safe human-grade foods on this site. I recommend you buy organic, for your crabs' health. The food list is long, but there are always new foods being added, so check back in the Articles section frequently.This site is for diet and nutrition. If you wish to email me to answer any questions for you, please keep this in mind. I do not answer general crabbing questions. If you have a question about your crabs not related to diet or nutrition please visit EH's General board or http://www.hermitcrabaddiction.net/forum]

Greetings, and welcome to the Epicurean Hermit! The ORIGINAL land hermit crab food site.
You must have joined us because you're interested in the best and widest diet to feed your crabs. To get you started, there is a comprehensive food list of hermit safe human-grade foods on this site. I recommend you buy organic, for your crabs' health.

The food list is long, but there are always new foods being added, so check back in the Articles section frequently.
This site is for diet and nutrition. If you wish to email me to answer any questions for you, please keep this in mind. I do not answer general crabbing questions. If you have a question about your crabs not related to diet or nutrition please visit EH's General board
 or http://www.hermitcrabaddiction.net/forum

The information on this site is copyrighted and not to be used in whole or in part without express written permission of the site owner. Any infringement of this policy will result in legal action.
Thank you for your cooperation.


Bon appetit!
Julia Crab

[Admin]

 28 Dec 2004, 03:30 pm

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of several research papers I recently acquired. Basically, I’ve been taking a crash course in crustacean biology. One of the recurring themes of all the papers that address molting is that crabs require copper, zinc and calcium in their diets in order to perform molting successfully, and to remain healthy.

Commercial foods do add these minerals, but one of the minerals used most often to boost copper content of a food, copper sulfate, is part of an extremely powerful organic gardening fungicide/insecticide, Bordeaux mixture (see http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/coppersu.htm for the data sheet on this substance). Copper sulfate is a particularly poisonous form of the required metal, so I avoid foods that add that form of copper. My feeling on the addition of any laboratory produced or mined minerals is that they are inferior in all ways to minerals acquired through diet.

What is a crabber then to do? I prefer to offer my crabs organic, human-grade foods. I looked around a bit to find a list of crab-friendly foods that can be offered to boost calcium, zinc, and copper, respectively.

Copper-Rich Foods:

Cereals, especially wheat and rye
Chickpeas and other legumes such as beans
Fish
Liver
Meat
Most nuts (especially brazil and cashew nuts, pecans and peanuts)
Oysters
Peaches
Raisins
Seeds (especially poppy and sunflower)

Zinc Rich Foods:

Corn
Cucumber
Egg yolk
Haddock
Lamb
Legumes
Lentils
Lettuce
Nuts
Olive Oil
Peas
Pork chops
Sardines
Spinach
Tuna
Whole grains


Calcium-Rich Foods

Broccoli
Canned salmon with bones
Dried beans and peas
Greens
Sardines

However, many of the leafy green vegetables contain enzymes called oxalates which can bind with calcium, preventing its absorption. To inactivate these enzymes, the greens must be cooked before serving. Be sure to use dechlorinated water!

And, the top food to feed one’s crabs for these minerals and other absolutely necessary nutrients, is sea vegetable, the macroalgaes (seaweed) and the microalgaes (spirulina, etc.).