What can my crab eat?
For a full list and very extensive collection of foods complete with photos visit Hermit Crab Cuisine
- shrimp
- sardines
- turkey
- chicken
- salmon
- fish flakes
- spirulina
- oatmeal
- granola
- nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, cashews)
- peanut butter
- wood
- leaves
- scrambled eggs
- organic baby food
- freeze dried shrimp
- naturally dried red seaweed algea
- chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans)
- kidney beans
- dulse (seaweed)
- alaria (seaweed)
- baby corn
- snowpeas
- hamburger
- coconut
- papaya
- strawberry
- banana
- apple sauce
- hot dogs (Beef)
- dried brine shrimp
- grapes
- pears
- apples
- tuna
- mango
- pineapple
- saltine crackers (With little or no salt)
- red cabbage
- celery
- carrots
- dried apricot
- pomegranate
- plantains
- cereal (low sugar and salt)
- raisins
- parsley sprouts
- clover sprouts
- blueberries
- watermelon
- whole wheat bread
- nectarines
- peaches
- popcorn (plain no salt or butter)
- dead drickets
- tropical fish
- pork
- cucumber
- kiwi
- unsalted potato chips
- rice (white, cooked)
- wakame (seaweed, reconstituted)
- nori
- calcisand
- dates
- boiled egg shells
- cantaloupe
- eggplant
- green beans
- corn on the cob
- crushed dog kibble
- oyster crackers
- algae wafers
- krill
Organic Foods
- Alfalfa
- Almonds, crushed
- Amaranth (Ancient grain - calcium)
- Apple and natural, unsweetened apple sauce
- Banana
- Barley(calcium)
- Bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, green or purple)
- Bilberries/Huckleberries
- Blackberry leaves
- Blackberry
- Blueberries
- Broccoli and leaves
- Brown rice, soy, wheat or 7 grain cereal
- Brown rice
- Canteloupe
- Carnation flowers
- Carrots (carotenoids)
- Carrot tops (vit. E)
- Cauliflower and leaves
- Chamomile flowers
- Chard
- Cherry
- Chicken bones
- Chicken, cooked and unseasoned
- Cholla wood (chitin)
- Cilantro
- Clover blossoms and leaves
- Coconut
- Cod liver oil
- Collards (calcium)
- Cooked eggs
- Cork bark
- Corn (on the cob, too)
- Cornmeal
- Cucumber
- Cuttlefish bone, powdered
- Dandelion flowers, leaves and roots
- Eggshells
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Fish flakes w/out chemical preservatives
- Flax seeds (crushed)
- Frozen fish food (esp. algae and brine shrimp)
- Garbanzos (calcium)
- Grape Leaf
- Grapevine (vines and root)
- Green and red leaf lettuce (not iceburg; dark green)
- Green Beans
- Hempseed Meal
- Hibiscus flowers
- Hikari products: brine shrimp, krill, crab cuisine, sea plankton (no
- preservatives)
- Honey (organic, or at least locally produced, for anti-microbials)
- Jasmine flowers
- Kelp (calcium)
- Lobster with crushed exoskeleton
- Mango
- Marigold flowers (though I have reservations, it’s used as pest
- repellent in organic gardening)
- Marion Berries
- Mint (but not peppermint!)
- Most organic baby foods
- Mushrooms
- Nasturtium flowers
- Oak Leaves
- Oysters (zinc)
- Pansy flowers and leaves
- Papaya
- Parsley (calcium & vit. C)
- Peanut butter (avoid sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated oils)
- Pears
- Pecans
- Pineapple
- Plain calcium carbonate powder
- Popcorn (unseasoned, unflavored, unbuttered)
- Quinoa (New World grain - calcium)
- Raspberry
- Red raspberry leaves (highest bioavailable calcium source + vit. C and
- trace minerals)
- Rooibus
- Rose petals
- Rose hips (high in Vit. C)
- Salmon
- Sand dollars
- Sardines (calcium)
- Sea salt
- Sea grasses
- Sea Sponges (chitin and calcium)
- Sea fan (red or black – chitin)
- Sea biscuits
- Sesame seeds (crushed)
- Shrimp and exoskeletons
- Spinach
- Spirulina (complete protein and chlorophyll source)
- Sprouts (flax, wheat, bean, alfalfa, etc.)
- Squash
- Strawberry
- Sunflower Seeds (crushed)
- Sweet potato
- Tuna (zinc)
- Turnip greens (calcium)
- Violet flowers
- Walnuts
- Watercress (vit. A)
- Watermelon
- Wheat grass (magnesium)
- Wheat (calcium)
- Wheat germ (B vitamins)
- Whitefish
- Zucchini
*Foods to AVOID
- Bindweed
- Catnip
- Cinnamon
- Garlic
- Geranium
- Hemlock
- Holly berries
- Juniper Berries
- Lavender
- Lemon Balm (Sweet Melissa)
- Lemon Grass
- Mistletoe
- Morning glory
- Ornamental tobacco (tobacco in general)
- Peppermint
- Pine or cedar wood and needles
- Rosemary
- Verbena
- Vinca Foods high in salt Dairy (currently being researched) Treated with chemicals Treated with preservatives
*this list is courtesy of The All-Natural Hermit Crab Sourcebook please pick up a copy for more details.
