Monday, June 18, 2007

Vegetable Garden

Hermit crabs love when their owners are gardeners! Fresh vegetables are very nutritious. Much research has already been done regarding which vegetables are safe or unsafe, so I will just mention some of the bits that we usually discard.
Blossoms (of zucchini, pumpkin, summer squash, cucumber, etc.).
Tuber tops (of carrot, turnip, radish).
Stems (of cilantro, parsley, broccoli, and cauliflower--leaves too, etc.).
Skins/peels (of many safe vegetables like eggplant, etc.)
Leaves of many plants might be hermit crab edible. We want to try leaves of melons and squashes, peppers, okra. Corn leaves are edible as well as celery leaves.
I know many of our readers will be testing many of the items found in their vegetable gardens this year, so please comment about your results here!
If you're not a gardener yourself, why not create a little garden in your window box or sow seed directly into your crabitat! Yes, bird seed, alfalfa seeds, mung beans, barley, etc. can be sprouted in a shallow container in the crab tank. Once I grew a carpet of sprouts right in the substrate and the crabs ate it and treated it like a soft grassy place in which to lie around).

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