Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus)

aka winged spindle

My husband planted a burning bush in our yard when I learned about color-enhancing components of leaves, so I became fascinated with this amazing shrub. It has very dark green leaves in spring and summer. In the fall it turns a bright, nearly-florescent red that is stunning! If it proved to be safe after a sufficient food trial, then I felt confident that it would have color-enhancing properties. So my food trial began. The results were very positive:
Leaves: The crabs ate these with much enthusiasm immediately heading for them on the first feeding. Dried or fresh makes no difference to the crabs. I fed green summer leaves and red fall leaves and got same good response.
Branches: The thin bark had been stripped off of the woody stem.
Fruit: The seed was ignored, but the bright red flesh of this grain-sized fruit was eaten off of the pit. (Flowers are insignificant and I did not test them.)
Burning bushes is a very common ornamental shrub sold for landscaping. Do not feed the leaves from the manicured yard of a neighbor or commercial building because these are almost certain to be laced with chemical fertilizers and treated with pesticides. They are native to NE Asia, N China, Japan & Korea, but have “escaped” from urban areas into the wild woodlands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Illinois and other Northeastern states as well as areas of the Midwest. It is considered invasive by many states, but may still be available at your local garden center if you want to plant your own.

Brightly Colored Crabs

Plants with high beta-carotene and zeaxanthin help enhance a hermit crabs color. I became fascinated with the burning bush that my husband planted one year. The green leaves that you see in spring and summer contain chlorophyll. In the fall, when the chlorophyll breaks down (green pigment fades away) a brilliant, almost florescent red emerges. Leaves that turn yellow contain xanthophyll. Orange indicates carotene. Red and purple indicate anthocyanin. In the world of hermit crab enthusiasts, carotene equals bright crabs. The effects of the other two substances are unknown to me, but it seems that they should have related properties. Several of my food trials will focus on plants with brilliant fall colors.

Astaxanthin and tannin are also color enhancing.

To boost your hermit crabs color, try adding these to their diet:
Dandelion leaves
Spirulina (a sort of seaweed)
Cilantro (aka coriander) Parsley

My Methods for Conducting Food Trials

First I find a safe area for harvesting. This might be my backyard because I do not live near any industrial polluters and I do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. My grandparents own a ranch that is off the beaten path bordered by a river, which is teaming with plantlife of all sorts. So I spend a lot of time gathering there. I only test plants that I can positively identify (if you plan on doing this, I suggest you purchase a book on your local flora complete with pictures. I started with a book called Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains by H.D. Harrington that contains detailed drawings illustrated by Y. Matsumura).

I pre-screen the plant I am interested in testing by entering the common or scientific name "+ toxicity" in any search engine. Hopefully, this will give preliminary results about the likeliness of success. Usually you will get information related to livestock or human consumption, which doesn’t exactly translate into hermit crabs. The information you can gather about the specific plant’s relation to bugs will be much more useful (not conclusive, but will still give you some idea) as to whether you should proceed with the trial or not.

I have, on occasion, tested plants even though the pre-screen results indicated a high poison risk. So far, the result has always been that the crabs showed no interest in it and made no attempt to eat it. I would give this an UNKNOWN rating. If they ate it and died or had some serious adverse reaction, I would rate it UNSAFE. Thankfully, I have never had to give an UNSAFE rating. Hermit crabs have very good instincts about what they cannot safely consume. In the wild, they certainly encounter safe and unsafe plants and seem to know the difference.

I put a single whole leaf in the tank and leave it overnight. Then I remove it and look for evidence of eating (torn edges). (Sometimes they immediately go to it and start eating). I then remove it for a day or two and put in a new leaf or two (a branch if using very small leaves or petals) and leave it for a week. If in another week goes by with no adverse reactions, then the item gets a SAFE rating.

The next step is to share your findings with the group. If you do trials of your own, I want to know about it! Link to me, comment, anything! I regularly post to several of the hermit crab forums and keep The Epicurean Hermit site owner abreast of my discoveries so she can update her master lists for safe and unsafe foods.

TIPS: Never mix an unknown food with known foods for a trial. Never drizzle an experimental food with an irresistible substance like honey. Always provide a separate dish of safe food while conducting the trial. You are not trying to force or entice them into eating the new item you are offering as you would when introducing a new safe food. Test each component of the plant separately because they each have different make-up. Just because the flower is safe, does NOT mean that the leaf, stem, seeds, and root will be too. Use whole pieces like a full, pristine leaf, a whole petal or a whole blossom so that you can easily determine whether any portion was eaten or not.

Russian Olive Trees

Russian Olive Tree (Elaeagnus angustifolia) was my first subject, since I have one in my backyard. They grow in virtually all parts of the USA and Canada, so many of you may have access to these beautiful, fragrant trees.
Leaves: These were a big hit with my crabs! They ate dried leaves, fresh leaves, frozen leaves equally well.
Bark: I could not tell whether the bark had been eaten or not, but the crabs did not avoid the piece I put in the aquarium. They used it as a climbing toy.
Blossoms: The small yellow blossoms, though fragrant, did not impress my crabs and I do not think that any of them were eaten whatsoever.
"Olives": The foamy flesh was stripped off and eaten, but the seeds were left alone. This could be because my crabs are too small to open the seed itself.

This plant is very invasive and many states control or prevent its presence. Deer eat the new, green branches and birds eat the seeds and "olives."

CAUTION: These have 2"-long thorns so harvest with care!

The Beginning

I have been keeping land hermit crabs since 2005. What I have learned about dietary needs of these amazing creatures has prompted me to conduct food trials of local flora in an attempt to help fellow crab-keepers expand the variety with items from their own backyards!

Someday I want to open an on-line hermit crab food store featuring hand-harvested and organic ingredients to help city-dwellers access non-human grade food sources free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

To that end, I have been collecting leaves, bark, roots, flowers and other items in rural areas of Colorado and conducting controlled food trials on these items. My cousin from Washington State has been collecting items from her locale to further my research.