Dehydrated Pumpkin for Hermit Crabs

I have had hermit crabs for two years now. When I acquired them, a lot of time went into researching what they eat, need, etc. I quickly discovered that most commercial hermit crab foods are not good for them. Then I went on the hunt to find what they can eat. I found a comprehensive list at the Hermit Crab Association. This is an extremely helpful website for anyone who owns hermit crabs.

Using this list as my compass, I began feeding my hermit crabs natural foods, which they went bonkers over. They loved it. They both had different tastes and likes when it came to food - one might love rose leaves but the other did not.

However, they can be picky eaters. At first, I thought I would freeze food so that I could always have a supply of vegetables and fruits on hand to feed them. I thought it would be easy. My hermit crabs had other ideas. They didn't really like frozen food that much, even after it had thawed. They just had to make it hard for me.....

I found, though, that they seem to like dehydrated foods alright. So then I went on a hunt to find and dehydrate food for them as winter is coming and fresh vegetables and fruits from my garden won't be available.

This brings us to pumpkins. I grew pumpkins and now I decided to dehydrate some pumpkin treats for my hermit crabs. Let's make a colorful meal for our hermit crabs.

1. Pumpkin. Hermit crabs can eat pumpkin and the entire pumpkin plant.
2. Knife for cutting pumpkin
3. Cutting surface and paper towels/newspaper to protect from mess
4. A dehydrator. Mine is a simple one by "Kitchen Living". You will need to follow its instructions on how to dehydrate things in your specific dehydrator.
5. A plastic bag or glass jar with lid for storage. You will also need to label it somehow.

VERY IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE THAT THE PUMPKIN HAS NOT BEEN AROUND PESTICIDES. THESE ARE VERY HARMFUL TO CRABS.

I don't use pesticides with my pumpkins, so I know that I am good on that score. It is probably best to wash the pumpkin anyway. Use natural spring or distilled water when washing the pumpkin, not the water out of your tap. Tap water contains chemicals that are harmful to crabs!

Cut the pumpkin however you wish and then remove the seeds. This is a mini pumpkin, so I found it easiest to just slice it in half. Then I scraped out the seeds.

P.S: you could also roast the seeds for your hermit crabs, but I chose not to as I already had some pumpkin seeds for them. If you do roast seeds for them, DO NOT season them. Plain, plain, plain.

In whatever way is easiest, slice the pumpkin into thin slices. I don't recommend making the slicing any smaller than an apple slice because they will shrink when dehydrated and can be kind of hard to pick up. My photos illustrate how thinly I sliced mine. You want thin, but not too thin.

Make sure to cut out any bad spots. If a slice looks questionable, toss it out. You don't want one bad apple ruining the whole barrel.

Follow your dehydrator's specific instructions, but the basics are arrange the slices where they are not touching or overlapping on the dehydrator's shelf. Do as many shelves as you have to to use all the pumpkin slices. Put the shelves back in the dehydrator and turn the dehydrator on according to it's instructions.

How long this takes will depend on your dehydrator, the weather, where you have your dehydrator set up, and the pumpkin itself. Mine took a few hours. When the slices are done dehydrating, turn the dehydrator off and leave the slices in it for a few hours to finish crisping.

When the pumpkin slices are done dehydrating, they should be a bit flexible, but break if bent too far. They should kind of resemble kettle cooked potato chips. My photos show a slice, then the slice after I broke it a couple times.

Gather all the pumpkin slices and put them in a ziplock bag or a glass jar with a lid. I have read that you can add a small bit of powdered milk tied up in a cloth to be a desiccant, but I wouldn't put silica bags in them, just in case it somehow harmed to hermit crabs (they are tough, but sensitive critters).

Make sure to label them and store them in a dry place. Now your hermit crabs can enjoy pumpkin treats just like you!