Mako Finishes His Molt

Mako recently came up from what I believe to be his 11th molt with me! When I first got him, he could fit on a fifty cent piece. He is about the size of a tennis ball overall now!

He definitely grew a bit from his last molt, and his coloration remains outstanding. He was moving all about and managed to pig out in the food dish and both water pools!

I was missing seeing his cute crabby face, so I am ecstatic that he is out and about now.

Mako is my oldest crab. I've had him for a little over 5 years now.

"Taste of Autumn" Collection Released!

Check out the new "Taste of Autumn" collection at Kilimanjaro's Kibbles!

http://www.kilimanjaroskibbles.com/store.php?seller=kilimanjaro&navt1=84677

Available for a limited time only, especially while supplies last.

Working on "Taste of Autumn" Collection

Hey, everyone!

A little update from the store! I'm planning to release an exclusive autumn collection of foods and kibbles for the month of October. This limited edition line is called "Taste of Autumn" and will be available in October, or as long as supplies last.

Today, I bought a beautiful organic pumpkin and managed to slice it all up! It's currently in the dehydrator and should be done drying in a day or two. I'm really excited to get all of the kibbles mixed up, and I know you'll love them!

To check out the autumn collection, click here.

"Taste of Autumn" will be available at Kilimanjaro's Kibbles starting October 1st.

3 New Clan Members!

Three new Purple Pinchers were introduced into the clan today! They were purchased from my local Petco.

The one male is named Judas. He's a medium, almost large sized hermie.

The larger female is named The Fame. She's about the same size as Judas.

Finally, the smaller female is named Yüyi.

Welcome, Little Monsters to Kilimanjaro's clan! :)

On the Menu: Mussel!

Tonight the hermies are having a mussel boiled in saltwater, mashed papaya, blackberry, rose petals, and a sprinkling of kelp powder. Delicious and nutritious!

Photo Shoot & Young Coconut Trial Results

The young coconut was enjoyed by many of the hermit crabs! I think they really liked the gelatinous texture of the coconut because it was easy for them to scrape the meat off.

You can see that Indi really enjoyed the coconut! She was scraping away with her little pincher. She is always the first to try new foods, and loves eating.

Young Coconut

Normally when I offer coconut for my land hermit crabs, I give them mature coconut. This is the kind with the very hard, dark brown shell that is very difficult to break. The flesh inside is much tougher than that of young coconut as well, and there is less coconut water inside.

Tonight, I found young coconut at my grocery store, and I decided to give this a try with my land hermit crabs! The husk was soft, but very difficult to get through. I first drilled holes into the nut in order to get to the water. There was a lot of coconut water inside; it was very plentiful. I drank all of it and didn't save any for my crabs! If you do not like coconut water, you can use it in your crabitat. You can offer it in a small dish by itself, or you can mix dried foods in it and make a paste or smoothie!

You'll find that the outer husk is very fibrous and tough, and inside there is a whiter, but otherwise normal coconut shell. Once you've managed to remove the tough outer husk (I had to hit it outside multiple times to crack it, and the pull it apart), you'll find the inside, which is full with gelatinous coconut meat! Very tasty if you ask me. To the right is a picture of the high yield of sweet coconut water.

Tonight, I offered part of the husk with some of the coconut still attached to it. My crabs normally go crazy for regular coconut, so I'm eager to report the results of tonight's food trial.

Nutritionally speaking, young coconuts are higher in sugars, whereas mature coconuts are higher in protein. However, young coconuts may offer more health benefits, and are known to be very high in minerals and electrolytes, making it great for the blood.

My Land Hermit Crabs

It's taken me a while to figure out who is who among my land hermit crabs. In particular, the Violas were confusing me. However, I managed to determine the gender of a few crabs, and I'm not quite positive that I know who each crab is! This post is an introduction to my current colony.

Mako (Purple Pincher, male, 5 years with me!)


Shinto (Purple Pincher, male, 3 years with me!)


Santino (Ecuadorian, male, 1 year with me!)


Manhattan (Viola, female, 2 years with me!)


Vida (Viola, female, 2 years with me!)


Indi (Indo, female, 2 years with me!)


Takéo (Ruggie, male, 1 year with me!)


Verdi (Ruggie, female, 1 year with me!)


Lady Gaga (Viola, gender unknown, 1 year with me!)



Monster (Viola, gender unknown, 1 year with me!)

Food Trials: Dragonfruit Results!

Two days ago, I trialed fresh dragonfruit for the first time with my hermies. I put in a slice and let it sit in the crabitat for two days.

The results: the hermies definitely liked it! I saw quite a few crabs come up the food dish and nibble the white part of the fruit. It seemed like they liked it on day two better than the first day, which makes sense because land hermit crabs normally like fruit a little riper than we as humans do.

Overall, I think it was a success! This fruit was a little expensive for me, but if you can find it cheap, I would definitely try it with your crabs!

The Tale of the Grasshopper

Disclaimer: If you do not like feeding live foods or have issues with killing insects, please do not read this story!

Today, while outside in my yard, I found a grasshopper hopping about. I decided to capture him and feed him to the hermit crabs due to some members of the HCA feeding different live insects and having good results.

I have an entire jar of freeze-dried grasshoppers. Unfortunately, my hermit crabs don't always go crazy for these. They may nibble at a leg here or there, but they never devour them... like they did tonight with the live grasshopper I put in!

To subdue the grasshopper, I captured him in a jar and froze him for ten minutes or so. This slows down his metabolize severely, but doesn't kill him. After he's been out of the freezer for a little, I put him into the crabitat, and he slowly started regaining his mobility. He didn't even have time to start walking before the crabs started munching.

The grasshopper was completely torn apart! There are legs everywhere, the body is severed in half... these hermies really went to town on this bug! That said, my hermies really seemed to enjoy Mr. Grasshopper!