Hermit crabs need a healthy diet, like all animals, but theirs is not as simple as buying commercially made food and then giving it to them. In fact almost all commercially made, or pellet hermit crab foods have Ethoxyquin in them, which is an antioxident that is believed to cause deformities when crabs molt. (here you can read more about it: http://www.crabbytalk.com/?p=95 ) I wouldn’t trust any sort of pelleted food when feeding hermit crabs, and just would make my own food mix or buy them off the internet as there are several websites that make their own hermit crab food. Hermit crabs need a rounded diet, they need fruits, vegetables, proteins, calcium, and chitin (now these are just the necessities).

I always feed a fruit and nut mix, unsalted and no sugar added, along with a variety a fresh fruits and vegetables. Then I have their dried greens. Calcium can be found from cuttlebones or boiled eggshells. Chitin is important for stopping cannibalism as hermit crabs need it to help with their exoskeleton production. It can be found in shrimp, insects, and other things. I feed my hermit crabs fresh steamed shrimp with the exoskeleton attached once a week, along with krill every day, and freeze-dried grasshoppers. DO NOT feed them crickets as there is a virus spreading through crickets that supposedly only affects them but since hermit crab are arthropods too you can’t be too careful. Instead I feed my hermies grasshoppers (here is a thread on it: http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2386&forum=6&post_id=20567#forumpost20567 ). They seem to enjoy the grasshoppers immensely and drag them about. I also feed a lot of fresh seafood (of course it is steamed in case of shell fish disease, thank you Marie from Crab Street Journal for bringing that to my attention) and some hamburger and chicken. Of course when feeding meats and cooked veggies DO NOT use any seasoning besides olive oil ESPECIALLY NOT table salt as it is deadly to hermit crabs.

I do feed a lot of color enhancing foods, like freeze dried blood worms, papaya, mango, peaches, persimmon, orange bell pepper. Lots of these contain beta carotene or something similar that enhances a certain color in a hermit crab.

They perfect way to build trust is to find something that your hermit crab will absolutely love and give it to them by hand. Of course they might not take it right away. But slowly as you take them out more and more they will get used to you and possibly take it from you. Honey is always a big favorite of a hermit crabs, though its a little sticky its probably the safest bet when trying to gain their trust. Either that or something good and smelly.