Lots of questions, kelp, mushrooms, herbs and seaweed

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:01 pm

ok so I also have hermit crabs and one of the women on the hermitcrab association I belong to makes these fabulous organic hermit crab foods. They're made from dehydrated veggies, fruits, seaweeds, herbs and even bugs! I'm ordering for my crabs but I'm wondering if I should order larger bags so I can feed to the birds too. The link to her store is http://stores.ebay.com/The-Happy-Hermit-Crab if you all want to check out her full list of foods and ingredients, but the things I'm concerned about are as follows:
Mushrooms, raisins, kelp powder, bladderwrack, spirulina, calendula, jasmine, flax seed, hibiscus, cilantro, chorella powder
her bug'n'nuts food isn't listed on the site right now so she must be out, but it has a variety of dried bugs (meal worms, crickets and I think wax worms) and different ground nuts like walnuts, almonds, peanuts etc. What do you guys think? I was thinking that since it's all natural stuff and it's ground so crabs can eat it then the birds might enjoy some, obviously it would be offered as a treat, and seed mix would still be their main diet.

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:09 pm

The kelp, spirulina, flax, etc are all fine, but unfortunately mushrooms are on some "bad" lists for finches. I think nuts are fine, and some species certainly like the bugs!

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:18 pm

ok I'll steer clear of her formulas with mushrooms for the birds then, what about the bladderwrack? I'll let you all know what the birds think of the food, I'll be ordering maybe at the end of this week

My crabs are getting spoiled this week, friends of ours are vacationing in Florida so I'm getting a bunch of special shells shipped to them (that way I pay more for the shells than shipping, unlike when I need shipping to Canada), and they're getting a new batch of crab food! In a few more weeks it'll be the birds turn with their new aviary, I'm going material shopping tomorrow if I have time before work and after sleeping in

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:32 pm

what about rooibos and red clover??

Post by **Hilary** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:26 pm

I'm not familiar with rooibos, but red clover is supposed to be fine - I've given the dried stuff to my finches.

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:34 pm

ok it was the red clover that concerned me the most b/c of the phytoestrogens, but if it's fine I'm sure the rooibos will be too. I won't give them much anyways. I guess bladderwrack is a type of kelp so that should be ok too.