Grow Fresh Food for your Hermit Crabs, easy and cheap!
Why grow fresh food for your hermit crabs?
- easy
- cheap
- healthy
- readily available food source
- ensures no toxins or chemicals
Choose easy, inexpensive and nutritious greens and you AND your hermit crabs won’t be disappointed!
The one food that isn’t included in commercially packaged hermit crab food is fresh greens! Yet in the wild, hermit crabs rely on green plants, leaves and different types of green seaweed and algae for their diet. Why not keep a small rotation of fresh greens growing for your hermit crab pets!
Grow FRESH GREENS on a countertop or windowsill!
Best location to grow fresh hermit crab food?
- sunny windowsills
- countertops
- patios
- backyards
Grow fresh food indoors or outdoors! Different greens need different types of sunlight, and different amounts of space. Find the space you have available, then match the fresh veggies, fruits, herbs or microgreens you want to grow. Pick the plants that match the size/space you have.
What's the QUICKEST, CHEAPEST, EASIEST FOOD TO GROW?
Example: THE EASIEST, CHEAPEST, QUICKEST and most fool-proof greens you can grow for hermit crabs? Microgreens! –>Why microgreens? <– this link shows that you can grow microgreens in a tiny little 2 oz plastic cup on a windowsill and in a week, have fresh greens your hermit crabs will love! There are lots of varieties you can choose from, or rotate with!
Sunny windowsills work great! Or find a countertop that’s not being used and add a small greenhouse! Yes, for under $35 you can create a fantastic-looking countertop greenhouse! Check out this countertop IKEA SOCKER GREENHOUSE HACK!
Sunny Windowsills
As long as there are 4-6 hours of sun shining on your windowsill each day, this will make a great spot for growing some fresh food.
Direct sunlight is best, or there may not be enough for the seeds to germinate and grow. But many microgreens will still grow in moderate windowsill light. If you aren’t sure, seeds are cheap… just try! Use small containers so it’s easy to move them around in search of the perfect sunny spot.
Countertops
Countertops can provide a great space for a mini-greenhouse! Look at your kitchen countertops. Do you have a space that isn’t being used? A dark corner that could use some brightening up? Do you have an empty shelf or side table in your home, that would fit a small greenhouse? Make sure it’s located near an electrical outlet, because you’ll want to add lighting to your mini countertop greenhouse.
We added our Ikea Socker Greenhouse Hack and Aerogarden on a dark corner kitchen countertop. And now we use this space for growing microgreens for our hermit crabitat, starting veggie seeds indoors and for growing some herbs like basil and thyme.
Patios
If there’s no sun (or not enough) in the patio or balcony space you’d like to grow food, that’s okay! Just add some grow lights and an inexpensive greenhouse!!! They come in lots of shapes and sizes, and are easy to buy from Amazon or other places that sell tech products for gardening. Make sure to buy growlights that come with automatic timers to make your life even easier! We use a 4 shelf greenhouse with a clear cover. It’s the most affordable shelving system for patios, regardless of whether it’s a greenhouse or not! So the fact that it comes with the clear cover is a bonus! We hang growlights to the top of each shelf and our plants are super happy!
We use grow light strips that are usually under $15, come with 2 connected grow light strips and an automatic timer, and we either hang them with cable ties OR we stick them (they usually come with a good adhesive strip) to the top if it’s a solid smooth material like metal or glass. We like to set the auto timer to go on around 8pm when it gets dark, so it brightens up the space and shines for 8 hours, feeding the microgreens or herbs or vegetable seeds as they grow.
Backyards
Backyards are the most challenging place to grow food for your hermit crab pets. Why? You HAVE to make sure it’s toxin and pest free! There ARE pests in any backyard. Insects and animals can hurt, eat and kill what you may be trying to grow. Add to that the issue of chemicals! Do you ever spray insect repellent, use weed killer or commercial fertilizers in your yard? Does your town spray mosquito killer from planes above? Do your neighbors use weed killer?
Any of these toxins can seep into your dirt, and into the food you are trying to grow for your hermit crab pets. Growing food for hermit crabs is much easier to control when it’s on a patio or indoors, and most especially when it’s in a greenhouse.
Make sure you purchase seeds from a reputable source. Most of our seeds are from SeedsNow.com, because they have a huge variety and they are high quality. AND their website lets you easily find which vegetables grow in your hardiness zone! (most seed websites don’t provide this important feature).
Seedsnow has lots of different microgreen varieties to choose from, so your hermit crabs won’t get bored! Arugula, barley, beans, broccoli, carrots, kale and more!
And when you’re ready to grow big people food (versus microgreens)? SeedsNow has some awesome varieties of vegetables and herbs. Grow YOUR own food in addition to growing some organic food for your hermit crab pets! Go organic! Stay away from toxins and chemicals and choose the colorful foods high in nutrition!
These seeds are ready in a week (and your hermies will love them)!
- broccoli microgreens
- arugula microgreens
- bean microgreens
- barley, alfalfa microgreens
And in just 30-100 days there are lots more veggies, greens and herbs to feed them!
- beans
- lettuce, kale
- cabbage, bok choy
- carrots
- chamomile
- thyme, basil
and so much more! Growing food from seeds is addicting, you'll see!
Add Live Microgreens!
What do you think happens when you add fresh, live microgreens to your hermit crab habitat?
Want to see what happened when we tried it?
IF you’re an experienced hermit crab pet owner, prepare to laugh! What happens is VERY PREDICTABLE!!
Hint: hermit crabs LOVE LOVE LOVE LIVE PLANTS!!!
