(05-23-2016, 01:25 PM)maxen57 Wrote: Hermit crabs were pretty much the rage when I was in grade school and high school. There are actually vendors outside our school who'd sell them depending on the size. Younger kids love them because they were unusual to us in a way, as they are not normally seen away from the beaches and the ocean. When we had the chance to go to the beach, my brothers and I hunted for some along the shore and took them home. We fed them rice but after almost a month, they all died. We never kept some ever again.
It is obvious that they died from malnutrition, and overall the lack of proper care.
Even humans whose body are optimized for using carbohydrate as an energy source will not be able to survive on rice only. Rice, especially the white rice is mostly carbohydrate, with very little nutritious value. It is why humans eat meat (protein) and veggie (fiber, vitamins and minerals) on the top of rice.
Many other animals are not optimized to use carbohydrate as energy source. They need protein and fat. By feeding them rice only, you are dooming them to death. There are actually many different species of hermit crabs. Some of them are land based, some of them are marine species. Without determine the exactly species, we do not know for sure what their normal diet is.
No pet animal should be sold to kids or clueless adults for that matter, who have no idea how to take care of them. No one should just buy a pet as a sudden idea when they see the animal. To get any pet, you should first research all the necessary information (before) getting them at all. ；）
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