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The amount of food sea otters consume each day means there are a lot of opportunities for food-born pathogens to contaminate the otter’s diet. Proper short and long term storage of food is key for avoiding contaminated or unsafe food.

Sea otters require a lot of food even in rehabilitation! Just like wild sea otters, otters in rehabilitation may be fed a diet that includes many different food items.  Otters that are permanent residents in facilities such as U.C. Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory are fed a diet that includes shrimp, surf clam, and squid.

Sea otters are ravenous eaters because they have to get enough calories to help them stay warm in their cold environment.  In fact sea otters may eat up to 25% of their body weight in food a day!  But what types of food do wild otters like best?