More Natural Protein Options

As gross as it may be to us in the wild land hermit crabs don't get our neatly processed and packaged meat. They are scavengers, part of nature's cleanup crew, and most certainly will feed on whatever remains they come across. This means a much wider range of nutrition from each meal including extra iron from the liver, calcium from the bones and everything else "gooey"!

Since even supermarket liver is washed and treated one way to provide for this is visiting the local butchers and explain what you want it for. Skin, bones, eyes, ears, hooves, ligaments, feathers, all of this gets thrown away on a regular basis so they should be happy to help you out for a little or even free. Another option which is especially easy for snake keepers is to use the frozen/thawed rats, mice, chicks, quails and other food items sold for reptile and raptor feeding. Smaller options like quail, younger mice and whole sprats could be used in colonies with less individuals or smaller crabs.

 Day old chicks in particular have proven popular in my own tanks, the violas in particular adore them and my 9 strong colony will strip one back to almost nothing in two days. Even the fluffy feathers will go. Looking past the squeamish side this is an absolutely fascinating process to watch and the use of whole food is much more reminiscent of the natural diet they would have had.