Can they eat this?

[emmac350]

I bought some cashews and mixed nuts today that are salted with sea salt for trail mix. The only ingredients are the nuts and sea salt. Can I give that to them?

[vckums]

Sea salt is fine for them, so I don't see why you can't feed them that. I have put some sea salt onto air popped popcorn and the crabs liked it.

[emmac350]

Thanks!

Question number two: what about onions? I have put them in the food bowl a few times without thinking about it but looked them up on Epicurean Hermit and Hermit Crab Cuisine and they aren't on either. I've offered fresh and cooked, and the fresh one I put in last night was actually dragged onto the sand along with the spinach.

[Jedi_Sena]

Onions have been on the unsafe list for a very long time. I don't know the particular reason why they made the list, but it is generally accepted that onion and garlic are not safe for hermit crabs. We live and die by the list.

Did they eat the nuts? Sometimes those salted nuts are roasted, but my crabs like the raw nuts--even peanuts.

[emmac350]

I actually haven't tried them - we had mixed some other stuff into the trail mix that was salted with non sea salt, so I decided not to try it out of the chances that they could have a toxic salt on them.

[CrabbyJo]

Reviving this one because first, I did put onion in the tat this morning (fresh) and within 15 minutes, Marvin was all over it.
I too am wondering why they are on the unsafe list, if it was due to specific research, or if someone just felt their strong qualities may not be safe. I'll do some searching to see what I can find.
But in reading this thread, I have to stop and say, just because something says it is Sea Salt does not make it safe for hermit crabs (I just discovered this recently).

unless it is specifically unprocessed sea salt, then it likely has the same de-clumping agents added to it that table salt has, which is what makes it unsafe for them (not the iodine, iodine is a good nutrient).

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[CrabbyJo]

Okay after thinking about it for a bit and worrying it over in my head, I decided to remove the onion from the food dish as soon as I got home, even though the crabs seemed to enjoy it, for a couple of reasons:

I don't think onions would be so discouraged if there weren't absolutely some proof somewhere, even though I can't seem to find it. It is mentioned too often to be ignored, or to just be something someone "thought" might be bad.

And number two, the main reason: Even though my dog loves onions, and loves grapes, and chocolate, they are all poisonous for her and two of them would kill her in small amounts, and the chocolate in larger amounts.

So just because they eat it, does not mean it is safe for them.

That's what I've determined and I'm sticking to it!

[emmac350]

I did a bit of research on the onion/garlic thing, and what I found is that garlic is actually prescribed for people with internal parasites (worms) to kill them. So that could be why it isn't safe. Onion is very closely related to garlic, so perhaps that is why it is also blacklisted?