What Do Hermit Crabs Eat?

What do hermit crabs eat?  It is a common question among those pet owners who are first learning the joys of having a hermit crab.  Hermit crabs are wild animals that have been caught and learn to live in captivity easily since they are very versatile eaters with healthy appetites.  The good news is that they do not have a tendency to be picky eaters.  Still, you have to bear in mind a number of things when feeding them.  For instance, did you know that they locate food by either seeing that other crabs are eating something or smelling the food themselves?

In fact, to stay healthy, hermit crabs need to eat just like we do if we are maintaining a nutritional diet.  Simply put, hermit crabs are omnivores, just like we are.  They can eat meats, they can have fish, they can certainly have vegetables, and you can even give them fresh fruit for dessert.  Whenever possible, these foods should be organic, or at least unprocessed.  Everything needs to be washed thoroughly before being served.  After that, especially with vegetables and fruits, let the food dry.  Hermit crabs also eat foods rich in tannin.  This includes oak tree leaves and even bark.  These too need to be washed and left to dry.

The hermit crab diet you can buy at the pet store sometimes has extra supplements in it like calcium, antioxidants and carotene. If their diet does not contain enough of these then, after they have gone through the molting process, their color will be faded and they may have problems molting.

Hermit crabs love to try different foods. Hermit crabs will eat a wide variety of foods and it can be fun to experiment to see which your pet crabs like the best. Try fruits and vegetables, tuna fish, peanut butter, crackers or potato chips. Grapes, raisins and popcorn are crab favorites.