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Hermit crabs need a basic commercial hermit crab food; these are designed specifically with our little friends and mind, and therefore contain the ideal balance of nutrients for them. I recommend FMR Hermit Crab Cakes-- just crush them up and moisten a little bit and you have a staple food perfect for your hermit crabs.
I have another staple food: Tetra BabyShrimp (to be found in the fish food section at your local pet store) to be a much appreciated hermit crab treat. TetraBabyShrimp is nothing more than sun-dried shrimp. Right after hermit crabs molt, they seem to be calcium-deficient. Kali IV, my frequent molter, ate BabyShrimp like crazy just after her molts, and enjoyed it as a snack the rest of the time. The dried shrimp have exoskeletons very much like hermit crabs, who will acquire extra nutrition by having this wonderful calcium and nutrient source available to them at all times.
The final "staple" is actually a treat: FMR Hermit Crab Treat. This product combines various fruits that can be found in the crabs' natural environment with yet more nutrients! They love to eat this more than anything else commercially produced, even more than the Tetra BabyShrimp.
Like people and other animals, hermit crabs love snacks. Their main diets in captivity can come to seem like any institutional food--like hospital food, limited choices, repeated again and again. It is therefore necessary to add snacks and treats to their diets. It's the difference between institutional life and something as close to their natural lives as we can provide.
When trying out a new food, watch your crab's behavior--this will indicate how much something new is liked. First, your crab will inspect the food item with the central antennae, the "bent" ones. These contain taste receptors; you will see the crab bend the antenna back and touch it to the mouthparts at the central underside of the body. The mouthparts will "lick" the antenna, tasting the food. Then the crab will walk forward, feeling for the food with its claws. Then your crab will sample a small bite with its little claw. If the food is too big, or tough, your crab will hold onto it with its big claw, securing it so that it can take bites to its mouth with its little claw. If the treat is a big hit, your crab may even wrap its legs around the food, holding onto it protectively. When done, your crab will simply let go and walk away. Just after their baths is a good time for treats, when they are most active; if putting a fresh treat in the food dish, nighttime is good as they are most active at night and early in the morning.
Hermit crabs will eat anything from dry dog food to Tender Vittles (a semi-moist cat food)--which is actually popular. Peanut butter and plain popcorn and dry cereal can also be added every now and then, though my own crabs have never seemed remotely interested in these things. Dry marigold petals are tasty and enhance the color of the exoskeleton at the same time. They will also eat dried fruits, such as the kind found in trail mix or other "health food" organic mixes.
Hermit crabs love sweets, which is why they enjoy the sweet FMR Treat so much. Instead of a dry fruit supplement, give them fresh fruit. Cut some grapes in half and put them in the food dish. Eat an apple and give them the core. Buy a coconut and feed them the meat (freeze the rest and thaw it out when needed). They also enjoy fresh melons--watermelon, honeydew, canteloupe, etc. As a treat for you--and a way to tame new crabs--feed them while they are in the palm of your hand. You can watch them eat, and get them to associate the smell of your warm, comfortable hand with treats! Share holiday meals with your crabs--ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatos, mashed potatos, etc., are all god snacks. I have a tradition of giving my crabs cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter. They also seem fond of chicken; when I eat a drumstick, I leave a little meat on the bone and put it in the food dish overnight.
Don't be tempted to feed your crabs cookies or cakes or other sweets that are high in sugar and fat. These are just as low in actual nutrition for your hermit crab as they are for you. Don't waste their valuable appetites on foods that offer no nutritional value. Crabs are also supposedly allergic to dairy products, something not found in their natural environments. Mine have eaten cake, cookie, and even ice cream (accidentally, warm, off of a lid) and survived just fine, in the time before I learned of this "allergy." These foods can become addicting so that your crab will stop wanting to eat its "staple" foods and just want to eat cookies. I allow my crabs a bit of cake on special holidays, about three times a year. Eggs are usually called dairy products but Carol of Crabworks (with the crabs Jon and Kate, who are well over 20 years old) serves them scrambled eggs as a snack, and they not only survive, but enjoy the treat.
Another treat Carol gives her crabs is actually what I would consider a "staple" food. They love dry brown oak leaves, oak bark, and fresh leaves in the spring. The leaves act as an antioxidant, and also clean out crabs' systems, like prunes do in humans. In short, they will provide you with a healthy supply of crab poop to clean up. Hermit crab feces should be dark brown and slightly moist--this is a sign of a very healthy digestive system. Oak leaves serve to increase their appetities by making everything go through their digestive systems more quickly--they will then eat more nutritious "staples" and healthy treats. The more they eat, the more they grow; the more they grow, the more they molt, and the longer they will live. Many a night, I've fallen asleep to the gentle sounds of my hermit crabs tearing apart oak leaves--I'm always happy to know that they are enjoying their healthy "midnight snack." They will strip a leaf bare; they will also strip bark off of thin branches. I'm not sure if fresh spring leaves have the same nutritional values, but they seem to enjoy them as a treat.
My crabs, especially the jumbos, seem to love noodles of any kind. They especially love pierogi, a Polish form of ravioli that involves flour and egg noodles wrapped around mashed potato and mashed onion. I have actually seen every crab in the tank converge around a food dish with fresh pierogi in it-- there were literally crabs waiting in line for a turn. (Pierogi is sold as Mrs. T's Pierogi and can be found in the frozen food section at larger grocery stores, or made by hand at home). People have been alarmed when I tell them that there is butter on the noodles--but it's in a very small amount, mostly acting as an attractive scent more than anything else. I make sure that what the crabs are eating is the noodle and filling itself. They also like plain spaghetti noodles, egg noodles, and rice (rice with Soy Sauce is another favorite). I have no idea why they like pierogi so much; I've posted questions to forums about the possibility of jumbos lacking something in their diets in captivity that makes them want high-carbohydrate foods . . . but so far no one has an answer. It's the jumbos who go for the noodles the most, and the smaller crabs that I've had longer. That's why I wonder if it's something to do with their diet in captivity--the newer crabs aren't nearly as interested.