good, simple snacks

[llmercll]

I've been doing so much reading I'm burnt out, lol. Can anyone give me a small list of a few easily obtainable, safe, foods to feed hermie?

I read things about romaine lettuce, peanut butter, etc. I hear pellets aren't ideal.

[ladybug15057]

Try your own cupboard and refrigerator, usually the best places for food... what you eat yourself usually. (minus seasonings) Just try to make sure they get something from all the food groups:

http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... storyid=25
(scroll down at the below link)
http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... storyid=44

http://hermitcrabcuisine.com/index.php/ ... age?blog=3

(main page) http://hermitcrabcuisine.com/

Hermies need a wide variety of food supplements such as copper, lipids, foods high in zeaxanthin many of which have bete carotene in them, high protein source, a high calcium source, chitin, cellulose, spirulina, seaweed, etc.

[emmac350]

Those links Marie gave you are some of the best sources out there. The lists can get a little long, though, so here's a pared-down safe foods list from http://www.epicurean-hermit.com that contains the more common grocery store/refrigerator finds. The list at the EH site is very long and I haven't heard of half of it, so I'll take out some of the stranger stuff since you asked for a short list (I am leaving in some of the pet store finds as well).

Almonds, crushed
Apple and natural, unsweetened apple sauce
Apricot
Artichokes
Asparagus
Avocado
Banana
Beans, yellow wax
Bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, green or purple)
Beets
Blackberry
Bloodworms (alive or dead)
Blueberries
Broccoli and leaves
Brown rice
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage (all varieties)
Calcium carbonate powder, plain
Canteloupe
Carrots
Carrot tops
Cauliflower and leaves
Celery leaves
Cereal; Brown rice, soy, wheat or 7 grain, muesli
Cheese (be sure to get all natural varieties, serve as occasional treat)
Cherry
Chestnuts
Chicken bones
Chicken, cooked and unseasoned (smash the bone for marrow access)
Cilantro
Citrus (all fruits)
Clams
Coconut and coconut oil
Cod liver oil
Collards
Corn (on the cob, too)
Cornmeal
Cranberries (dehydrated)
Crickets
Crustaceans (any and all crustacea including crayfish, lobster, shrimp and other crabs)
Cucumber
Cuttlefish bone, powdered
Dairy products (milk, cheese, live-culture yogurt) **
Egg, scrambled or soft boiled
Eggplant
Eggshells
Elderberries
Extra-virgin olive oil
Fig (ripe fruit only)
Fish flakes w/out chemical preservatives
Fish Oil
Flax seeds/Linseeds (crushed)
Flax seed oil (small amounts infrequently)
Frozen fish food (esp. algae, krill and brine shrimp)
Garbanzos
Grapes
Grapevine (vines and root)
Green and red leaf lettuce (not iceburg; dark green)
Green Beans
Honey (organic, or at least locally produced, for anti-microbials)
Honeybush
Honeydew Melon
Kelp
Kiwi
Lentils
Lima Beans
Lobster with crushed exoskeleton
Locusts (dead)
Lychee fruit (fresh; no kernel)
Macadamia nuts
Mango
Maple syrup
Mint (but not peppermint!)
Most organic baby foods
Muscadine (grapes)
Mushrooms
Mussels
Nectarine
Octopus
Okra
Olive and olive oil (extra virgin)
Oranges
Oysters
Papaya
Parsley
Parsnip
Passionfruit
Peaches
Peanut butter (avoid sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated oils)
Peanuts
Pears
Peas
Pecans
Persimmon
Pineapple
Pistachio nuts
Plum
Pomegranate
Popcorn (unseasoned, unflavored, unbuttered)
Potato (no green parts, including eyes)
Pumpkin
Raisins (no sulphur dioxide)
Raspberry
Rolled Oats
Salmon
Sardines
Scallops
Sesame seeds (crushed)
Sesame oil (in tiny amounts as appetite stimulant)
Shrimp and exoskeletons
Snails (use human food grade only; not wild snails)
Soy and soy products (human grade; miso, tofu, etc.)
Spinach
Spirulina (complete protein and chlorophyll source; highest in beta carotene)
Squid
Squash (and squash blossom)
Star fruit (carambola)
Strawberry and tops
Sunflower Seeds (crushed), flowers and leaves (Helianthus)
Sweet potato
Tangerine
Tomato
Tuna
Turnip greens
Walnuts
Watermelon
Wheat
Wheat germ
Whitefish
Whole Wheat Couscous
Wild rice
Zucchini (and zucchini flowers)

[llmercll]

wow, can the rice be dry??

[ladybug15057]

I have yet to cook the rice for our hermies here. (but it would need to be dechlor water if one did) But I do grind the rice into a powder type form just in case there are any larvae on it. Don't want them hatching once the rice is in my tank!

[emmac350]

I've cooked rice for my crabs, but have never given it uncooked. I put it in a bowl in the microwave with crab-safe water. It took forever (I don't think Minute rice is safe, but I'm not sure; I used the organic brown basmati rice we had) to cook, but the crabs loved it. It's been a hit every time I offer it.

[CrabbyJo]

I imagine the basmati rice would be a big hit, with all the nutrients that are probably in it. Much better than white rice!

I like to make sure I hit the natural section in our grocery store, and in the bulk aisle I find things like kelp granules (which I moisten with dechlor water, or olive oil, or even fish oil from fish oil capsules) and spirulina, which I also sprinkle over their food from time to time. It doesn't moisten well, it dries into a hard mass.

I get one or two shrimp from the meat dept., and steam it and chop it up small (tails, exoskeleton, legs and all!) and freeze it for quick seafood snacks. I also like to pick up the little bay scallops and steam those and pop one or two in at a time every week or so.

I'll also get a teeny bit of the organic peanut butter (unsalted) and put a dab in every week or two as well.

They really seem to love the cilantro when I give that to them, and a surefire hit is flax meal, and popcorn (organic, popped in olive oil, no microwave corn!).

I also slip in bits of veggies and fruits I have on hand, alternating as much as possible. I pop a few frozen corn kernels and peas and lima beans too, as well as frozen (organic) blueberries and raspberries. I will also give them egg yolks (cooked) with some crushed eggshell for toppings.

I also do like Emma and cut off bits of meat before I season it for dinner for us, and give the unseasoned, cooked bits to my crabs. They seem to almost always go for it, though it's hard to tell for sure!

I also just feel better supplementing it all with some things I purchase off line, like seafood mixes and mixes that contain other arthropods, like mealworms. I also regularly supplement their diet with organic worm castings (earthworm poo, looks exactly like nice black dirt) and keep things like cork bark, cholla wood, coconut fiber, and cuttlebone in the tank.

[llmercll]

OK, I got them some natural unsalted crushed almonds and a little bag of natural dried tropical fruit. last night I mashed up some shaved coconut and crushed almonds for them. I saw at least one of them eating it =p

[emmac350]

You really need to try to get meat into their diets at least every other day, if not daily. Crabs are not vegetarian and need their protein to help them have healthy molts. It will also keep down the tank aggression and the possibility of cannibalism.