In this study, the differences in feeding behavior of juvenile crab, early stage of adult, sub-adult and adult Chinese mitten crabs (hereafter referred to as "river crabs") were firstly investigated by culture experiments and camera techniques. The feeding behavior, feeding response time, and feeding rate of Chinese mitten crabs with different genders at different developmental stages were then evaluated. The feeding selectivity of river crabs at different stages of development on trash fish, formula feed, corn, and snails was further compared. The results showed that:(1) The feeding behavior of Chinese mitten crabs included four stages:exploration, orientation, testing and feeding. Among them, exploration and feeding took a long time. (2) In terms of time consumed during exploration stages and feeding response, females consumed significantly more time than males in the juvenile crab and early stage of adult stage, while males consumed significantly than females in the sub-adult and adult stage. (3) In terms of feeding, females consumed more time than males at all developmental stages. (4) In terms of the feeding rate, the feeding rate of Chinese mitten crabs tended to decrease significantly with increasing developmental stages, but there was no significant difference between females and males. (5) In terms of the selective results of feeding on different feeds, the frequency of first feed of different feeds by Chinese mitten crabs at different stages of development was ranked from highest to lowest as follows:trash fish>formula feed>corn >snail. (6) There was no significant difference in the feeding response times of male and female crabs to trash fish and formula feed, but both were significantly lower than those to corn and snail. In summary, the feeding behaviors of Chinese mitten crabs were significantly different between developmental stages and genders, and the sub-adult stage was an important developmental stage in which the feeding behavior of female and male crabs changed. Additionality, Adult crabs preferred to feed on trash fish and formula feed.