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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 19, 2010 20:18:25 GMT -5
Its a long shot but I figured I would ask on here anyway maybe someone has or had hedgehogs. I wouldn't even be having one for a few years but researching things as much as you can before you get them is always best. I know people reccomend low fat high quaility high protein cat food and only a few actual hedgehog foods are good. But I'm wondering if I could feed them something like primal raw canine formulas. It seems like it might have a decent meat to produce ratio for them. Then I could supplement with crickects, mealworms, fruits vegetables.
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 19, 2010 21:21:59 GMT -5
I have to admit to feeding my hedgies cat food. It's not at all ideal, but they are incectivores (watch the fruit and veggies!). I've yet to come up with a good way to provide them with all the nutrients they'd get in a natural diet. I supplement the diet with crickets and the like, as well as the occassional egg or bit of cooked chicken. Watchout for too much fat (including to many mealworms)--they get fatty liver disease very easily.
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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 19, 2010 21:25:03 GMT -5
I might have to use the cat food from what I'm reading. There are lots of places that say avoid raw meats and some say its ok. Also realized if they are insectivores they wouldn't really have much need for fruits and vegetables.
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Post by lnsybean44 on Jan 20, 2010 18:42:30 GMT -5
I worked at the zoo and we have two hedgehogs that people had dumped there. We fed them mealworms and crickets in the mornings. Evenings they got some sort of wet food mix with egg and grapes cut up in it. I cant remember what species the wet food was designed for. Sorry . But mealworms are easy to raise. When we feed them, we would put the insects in a plastic terrarium and then add the hedgies. They had fun hunting down the bugs and were usually done fairly quickly and then were put back in their enclosures.
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Post by katt on Apr 22, 2010 22:32:11 GMT -5
Hmm insectivores? So they probably can't eat pinkies? I might be hedgehog sitting this summer! I want to learn more about them.
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Post by zoologist on Apr 23, 2010 8:24:24 GMT -5
stay away from fruits and veggies completely. I had a hedgehog for a while- poor guy was sick when I got him and despite taking him to the vet on almost a weekly basis due to new ailments popping up he only lasted in my care about 9 months anyway! i would feed Cloud a mix of blue spa and wellness kitty food. wellness is the best kitty food you can feed them but it is super super rich. so mixing it with the blue spa and a bit of the left over sunseed hedgehog food i had worked really well. the kitten formulas of food have more protein and fat than the adult varieties, since i was constantly needing to put weight on Cloud he got kitten stuff. every night i would make up his food bowl and it would consist of: kibble mixture of blue spa, wellness, sunseed (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) either Wellness or Blue Spa kitten wet food (i cant remember which, but the gravy helped soften the kibble and was easy on cloud's rotted teeth) a sprinkling of canned (dead) meal worms and dead crickets. crickets are more of a treat since they dont have too much protein and are very fatty. i dunno dude, having a hedghog was fun but not something i'd ever do again. They are super smelly, super poopy, their personalities are hit and miss and they really dont like being bothered. nothing like ferrets. although i have to say i got SUPER lucky with Cloud, all of the vets i took him to say he was the nicest hedgehog they've ever met. one even compared his personality to a cat. i used to let him freerange around my room at night and all night long i would hear the pitterpatter of little feet booking it around my room, and every once in a while the scrape of quills against the wall. in the morning i would always find him splayed out under a pillow i left on the floor for him. he would look just like a bear skin rug!! ok picture time splayed under the pillow like a pancake: every day i would clean his cage and put down fresh paper towels. cloud was always battling sarcoptic mange and this was the easiest way to manage it. such a mess in the morning though (food dishes from left to right: meal worms, dry kibble, water, wet food): also, the wheel would have to be cleaned on a daily basis as well as his little feets. you can see why:
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Post by katt on Apr 23, 2010 14:38:18 GMT -5
Oh. My. Goodness. What a massive amount of poop for such a little animal! That is absolutely disgusting!!!! It is not 100% sure that I will be hedgehog sitting, but if I do it will just be fore the summer. Thanks for the heads up on the poop! And the pics!
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