Seven Do’s When Feeding a Hermit Crab
Feeding is the most important thing when grooming hermit crabs. What your crab really wants is commercial high quality food. The ingredients of quality food are listed on the label to help people understand what they are feeding to their pet. Crab food is mostly dry and consists of worms like cricket, planktons and blood worms. These are the treats that your crab will love to have.
Feeding can be done both with your hand or you can also leave it to eat by itself. The choice is always yours. Again, feeding has several do’s which one need to take care of. These are listed below:
- Give your hermit crab a healthy diet. This is the diet that consists of all the essential nutrients. You will start to see changes in your pet as soon as you adopt this trick.
- Supplements for your crab. Supplements fill the gaps which commercial food does not always provide. Commercial food tastes better than any ordinary food and has more nutritional facts.
- Give your crab bird seed. Bird seed and clutterfish bones are the treat for your crab and he will love it.
- Water for all metabolic purposes. Water is the medium required for all chemical activities in the body to take place. It should not be normal tap water. Tap water is a killer for your crab because tap water destroys the shell of the crab. This happens initially with the start of an infection and then causes the protective layer to rot. A fungus known as chitin build up on the crab’s skin which acts as a parasite and destroys the keratinized layer. To serve the purpose of washing, use de-chlorinated warm water but feeding water must be the one which we drink.
- Boil everything that you use to feed and groom your crab. This is the most important step which most of the people tend to skip due to their laziness. Boiling helps to disinfect the germs on equipments and helps to keep mites away. Boiling for about 15 minutes will sterilize everything and prevent build up of microbes.
- Feeding during molting period. During molting, the outer exoskeleton sheds, so extra care is needed during this time. Giving calcium rich diet is an essential process. The outer layer is composed of calcium so calcium rich food is a must during molting.
- Feed your crab a lot of green leafy vegetables. Green vegetables contain a lot of active enzymes. These enzymes are essential for the crabs at all times. Also zinc and copper are other nutrients that are required by the crabs all year round. Lastly, don’t forget to wash the vegetables in de-chlorinated water before feeding.
What you feed your crab determines how healthy your crab is. Keeping your hermit crab in the tropical warm environment will increase the activeness of your crab. This does not mean you have to struggle to find a tropical forest or woodland. With a very little effort, you can make a tropical environment at home. Though this might require you to make a little investment, but this is not much to raise a favorite pet.
Preston Blackmore is a hermit crab enthusiast. For more great tips and advice on feeding a hermit crab, visit www.hermitcrabclub.com. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/seven-dos-when-feeding-a-hermit-crab-1785292.html
