Safe foods for hermit crabs?

Hermit crabs are incredibly sensitive to chemicals and preservatives, which can be harmful or even fatal to them. Many common household foods and products contain ingredients that can be toxic to these delicate creatures. Because of their unique biology, it’s crucial to offer them a diet that is free from harmful additives and carefully selected for their safety. This is why it’s so important to follow a safe food list when feeding your hermit crabs.

We recommend you get comfortable with the LHCOS database for hermit crab safe foods, rather than rely on this list

For the Database Click Here 

Scroll to the bottom and enter your ingredient in the applicable search bar

Alfalfa

Almonds, crushed

Amaranth (Ancient grain – calcium)

Anchovy oil

Apple and natural, unsweetened apple sauce

Apricot (fruit only)

Artichoke (all)

Ash wood

Asparagus

Aspen (wood,leaves,bark)

Banana

Barley (calcium)

Beans (all)

Bee pollen

Beetle Grubs

Beets

Bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, green or purple)

Bilberries/Huckleberries

Birch wood

Blackberry

Blackberry leaves

Bladderwrack

Bloodworms

Blueberries

Bone Meal (no additives, preservatives)

Bones - cooked or raw

Broccoli and leaves

Brown rice

Cantaloupe

Carnation flowers

Carrot tops (vit. E)

Carrots (carotenoids)

Cauliflower and leaves

Celery leaves

Chamomile flowers

Chard

Cherimoya

Cherry

Chestnuts (The kind for ppl. USA Horse Chestnuts are toxic but in the UK they call the regular Chestnuts Horse Chestnuts)

Cholla or Choya wood

Cholla wood

Cilantro

Clams

Clover blossoms and leaves

Coconut and coconut oil

Cod liver oil

Collards (calcium)

Cork bark

Cork bark wood

Corn (on the cob, too)

Cornflower

Cornmeal

Cranberries (dehydrated)

Cucumber

Currants

Cuttlefish bone, powdered

Cypress (swamp variety, taxodium species) **not a suitable substrate!

Dandelion flowers, leaves and roots

Dates

Dragon Fruit

Earthworms

Egg

Eggshells

Elm (hardwood varieties only)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Feeder cockroaches

Figs

Fish

Fish Oil

Flax seed oil (small amounts infrequently)

Flax seeds (crushed)

Frozen fish food (esp. algae, krill and brine shrimp)

Garbanzos (calcium)

Goji Berries

Grape Leaf

Grape vine wood

Grapes

Grapevine (vines and root)

Grasshoppers

Green Beans

Green and red leaf lettuce (not iceberg; dark green)

Greensand

Hempseed

Hibiscus flowers

Hikari products: brine shrimp, krill, crab cuisine, sea plankton (no preservatives, ethoxyquin, copper sulfate)

Hollyhock flowers

Honeydew Melon

Honeysuckle (flowers only, no leaves or stems)

Hornworms

Huckleberries/Bilberries

Impatiens flowers

Irish Moss

Isopods

Jasmine flowers

Kale

Kelp (calcium)

Kiwi

Lilac (flowers, leaves and wood)

Lobster with crushed exoskeleton

Locusts

Mango

Mangrove wood

Maple/Japanese Maple wood

Marigold flowers (calendula)

Marion Berries

Mealworms

Meat (poultry, beef, pork, lamb etc)

Millet

Most organic baby foods

Mushrooms

Mussels

Nasturtium flowers

Oak Leaves and bark

Oak wood

Olive and olive oil (extra virgin)

Oranges

Oysters (zinc) and shells (whole or crushed w/no sharp edges)

Pansy flowers and leaves

Papaya

Parsley (calcium & vit. C)

Passionfruit

Peaches

Peanut butter (avoid sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated oils)

Pear wood

Pears

Pecan bark

Pecan wood

Pecans

Petunias

Pineapple

Plain calcium carbonate powder

Pomegranate

Popcorn (unseasoned, unflavored, unbuttered)

Poplar (wood,leaves,bark)

Poplar wood

Potato (no green parts, including eyes)

Prickly Pear (nopals)

Pumpkin (seed, meat and guts)

Quinoa (New World grain – calcium)

Raisins (no sulphur dioxide)

Raspberry

Red raspberry leaves (highest bio available calcium source + vit. C and trace minerals)

Rolled Oats

Rose hips (high in Vit. C)

Rose petals

Royal Jelly

Salmon

Sand dollars

Sardines (calcium)

Scallops

Sea Sponges

Sea biscuits

Sea fan (red or black)

Sea grasses

Sea salt

Sesame seeds (crushed)

Shellfish (must be cooked)

Shrimp and exoskeletons

Spinach

Spirulina (complete protein and chlorophyll source; highest in beta carotene)

Sprouts (flax, wheat, bean, alfalfa, etc.)

Squash and blossoms

Strawberry and tops

Sunflower Seeds (crushed), flowers and leaves

Super worms

Swamp cypress wood (false cypress, taxodium sp.)

Sweet potato

Tangerine

Timothy Hay (molds easily)

Tomato

Turnip greens (calcium)

Violet flowers

Walnuts-meat only

Watercress (vit. A)

Watermelon

Waxworms

Wheat (calcium)

Wheat germ (B vitamins)

Wheat grass (magnesium)

Whitefish

Whole Wheat Couscous

Worm Castings

Zucchini