Feeding Your Isopods
On top of the fundamentals - leaf litter and rotting wood - there are a variety of supplemental foods you can give your isopods.
A key thing to remember is to remove any foods that have gone clearly mouldy. Although if you get the white fluffy mould, we jokingly call Old Man's Beard, watch out for mancae or springtails being in it. If that happens it's best to wet down the mould and wait a day or so for them to leave it before removal.
We strongly recommend you don't feed your isopods anything grain based - while they might eat some they are far more prone to mould and increase the risk of mites.
We also recommend against cooked foods, they also come with increased risk of mould and these are pet enclosures not bins.
You can feed dried pulses, however they're generally pretty hard so often won't get particularly eaten before they go mouldy. Freeze dried peas are well liked but too expensive for us to use.
Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
With the exception of citrus fruits and alliums (garlic, leeks, and the various onions), they can pretty much eat anything we can.
We tend to stick to more vegetables than fruit - the latter can easily attract fruit flies in the warmer months.
We've found over time that different species seem to have definite preferences, however others have found the same species to clearly like other things. This makes it fun to explore what your isopods do and don't like.
For example many find that sweet potato is a firm favourite, but none of our colonies have ever taken to it. Meanwhile butternut squash is always appreciated by our isopods, as is courgette (zucchini).
Although we know they'll eat them, we tend to steer away from broccoli, cabbage and other leafy greens. Mainly because Antony can't stand them smell of them in the enclosures. The same goes for green and runner beans.
You can also feed your isopods nori sheets (be careful of other dried seaweeds due to potential salt content), algae wafers for fish food, spirulina, and Chlorella.
Some typical options are:
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All squashes and pumpkin
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Courgette/zucchini
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Marrow
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Carrot
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Parsnip
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Swede
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Turnip
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Beetroot
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Apple
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Pear
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Quartered grapes
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Sweet Potato
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Aubergine/eggplant
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Bell pepper
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Mushrooms
Protein sources
Additional protein sources will help your isopod colony truly thrive. Some like the various Porcellio laevis morphs are incredibly protein driven but all of our species definitely appreciate it and it seems to promote breeding in our colonies.
Many of these can be even more prone to mould than fruit and vegetables so keep a carefully eye out for that.
Some people will apparently use wet pet food and both raw and cooked meats, however we recommend against it due to the risk of rotting, flies, and bacteria.
Fish Flakes
These are a firm favourite, there are many different varieties and they're easy to use. If you have a major P laevis colony such as Dairy Cows you can even just sprinkle some into the enclosure to keep them topped up.
Dried fish
Avoid anything salted, but dried sprats, anchovies, herring, cod skin, and similar pet treats are all good options. Unless you're feeding a large colony it's generally best to break them up and only feed bits at a time.
Freeze dried shrimp and daphnia
All our isopods love these, the shrimps come in different sizes and it can be fun to watch the isopods try to drag off shrimp bigger than themselves.
Dried crickets, grasshoppers, and mealworms
These tend to be larger so again, unless you have a large colony don't put too much in at a time.
Silkworm pupae
These smell worryingly good so it's not surprising they're a good protein option, we sell them here but don't worry no matter how good they smell Antony hasn't been truly tempted to eat them.
Freeze dried bloodworm
We often use these for smaller colonies as an initial protein source alongside fish flakes, they're less tough so young mancae find them easier to eat. You can find the ones we have for sale here.
Decapsulated shrimp eggs
We've recently trialled these with our colonies and they disappeared incredibly fast, a couple of isopods were caught literally shoving their face into the pile in their food bowl.
Dried chicken necks
Sold as pet treats, these come with bonus bones for calcium.
Dedicated isopod foods
There are a number of these available, from commercially produced pellets to various mixes, and we have found they vary greatly in quality and how much our isopods are prepared to eat them.
This led to us developing our own protein mixes and our special Podkrak. A lot of trial and error in terms of what goes into them has led to recipes that we know all our colonies enjoy. They provide the advantage of convenience if you're limited for space for storing dried foods or just don't want the hassle of a bunch of different bags or packets.
