Pet koyukkuri swarming food from their owner.
The diet of yukkuris varies by artist and story. The generally-agreed-upon fanon is that:
Near-universal favourites[]
Koyukkuri enjoying man-made yukkuri food.
- Taiyaki and other sweets with red bean paste are their favorite, possibly because of their similarity to the Reimu-type Yukkuri's own bodies.
- Other traditional Japanese snacks such as mochi, dango, and tea candies are also a favorite, especially for Reimu. However, it is sometimes implied that "western" yukkuri such as Marisa do not like them.
- Snacks and sweets (except sour ones) of all kinds rate highly with yukkuri. They have very childish tastes.
Wild Yukkuri[]
Wild koyukkuri (with parent in the background) observe and hunt a snail, one of their favorite foods.
A wild Tewi with a carrot.
The above are obviously available mostly to domesticated yukkuris. Wild yukkuris do prefer human snacks to wild food, but they usually cannot obtain them without either asking humans or stealing it. Wild yukkuri often subsist on the following:
- Caterpillars and butterflies appear to be a favorite.
- Sweet berries and honey
- Snails and other animals that "take it easy" are also preferred.
- Flowers appear to be a favorite from among the plant matter, if only to make them more annoying.
- Vegetables and fruits which are often taken from farmer's fields.
- Mushrooms
- Grass can be adequate if nothing else is available.
- Nearly any form of plant or animal matter can be yukkuri food, as long as it is not poisonous, excessively bitter, spicy, foul-smelling, or too hard to chew easily.
Predation And Cannibalism[]
Several species of yukkuris, such as Remiriyas and Flanderes, live mostly or completely on a diet of other yukkuris. Most other species do not actively hunt others. However, almost all yukkuris appear to find the taste of other yukkuris pleasant, showing displeasure at eating them only if they had an emotional attachment to the individual being eaten. In many stories, dead, accessory-less, or other disliked yukkuris are eaten by others. In other cases, abusive anons feed yukkuris their kind whether said yukkuri wants to or not.
Acceptance of foods[]
The acceptance of a certain type of food depends on what the yukkuri has been raised on. For example, in one story, a pair of yukkuris give birth to their young in fall, instead of spring. This meant that they were raised on a diet of sweet berries and flowers from the fall harvest, meaning they became accustomed to only sweet foods. In turn, they rejected the winter stockpile of "harsher" foods such as seeds and mushrooms. In another example, a "gutter trash" family readily eat and enjoy eating garbage and waste food. As they never knew proper food, the garbage seemed normal to them.
A komarisa enjoying a cream-filled cake. This koyukkuri was raised in captivity, so has only known human foods.
Waste Disposal Diet/Other food[]
It is said in quite a few stories and comics that yukkuri can ingest nearly anything, and it will be turned to the yukkuri type’s appropriate filling. There are cases of yukkuris being fed raw garbage, human fecal matter, and dirt, apparently with no health effects although the yukkuri find it very unpleasant and eating a yukkuri who has devoured such substances isn't generally advised. In one story, yukkuris were used to dispose of radioactive waste by digesting it into bean paste. Consequently, radioactive waste seemed to cripple their health heavily, leading them to death over time. Another instance involved the world using yukkuri in place of waste incinerators, helping to stop pollution. Owners looking to use a yukkuri in this matter should be advised of the proper types to obtain; a Reimu or Marisa would likely join the trash stack before long, whereas a Yoshika can and will eat just about anything, food or otherwise.
Yukkuri about to dine on peppers. Spicy foods do not work well with yukkuri, and owners must be careful to not let their pets eat such food.
Blind and mad yukkuri eating a garbage diet.
Yukkuri do not like sour, spicy or bitter foods. For example, sour lemon candy will make even a fully grown yukkuri sick and vomit up much of its filling. Of course, this varies from author and artist. In one story, it is said that anything that contains sugar will negate the effects and heal them instead.
Also, it's not uncommon for certain types to enjoy types of food that Reimus and Marisas find poisonous. For example, Meiling-types have a particular preference to spicy foods, and Kimeemarus are known to eat coffee candies (and occasionally drink black coffee). Furthermore, lemonade and lemonade-flavored foods, being a combination of the energizing sweet and the poisonous sour, act as an anesthetic.