# Stopped eating & changing food



## Angietan (Dec 2, 2013)

For the past few days my hedgehog has lost her appetite and stopped eating her cat food (IAMS Proactive Health) but still eating her roasted mealworms when I place it right in front of her nose. Her activity is still normal, still running around normally, runs in her wheel and drinking. Stool is definitely very very little and tiny as she stopped eating. I don't know whether is it because the food has became stale and not as crunchy as before? Or maybe she's bored with the same food everyday. She normally eats around 50 kibbles per day and still asks for more.

So I went and bought a new cat food - Royal Cain Fit 32, is it okay for hedgehogs? She's now 4 months old. It looks kinda hard for her to bite or maybe its because her mouth muscles has weaken since she stopped eating her kibbles for the past few days. Also I've tried damping the RC32 kibble but she refuses to touch it. She's kinda improving now eating 3-8 kibbles so far. 

Surprisingly her weight haven't dropped a bit even after 4 days of not eating.

Any suggestions on the food and her diet? Thanks in advance.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

If she's not eating on her own and it's been four days, it's time to start syringe-feeding. If you can get to the store today, get either pate/minced-style canned cat food (not Friskies, Fancy Feast, etc., get a decent brand; most of these have canned food - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html ), or baby food (chicken or turkey, and sweet potato, peas, & carrots are all popular). Canned cat food is better since it's balanced, but if you can't get that, baby food works well too. You can get syringes either at the vet or at a pharmacy - you should be able to find needle-less syringes (or ones with removeable needles) with diabetic supplies, or ask the pharmacist. If you tell them why you need them, you might even get them for free. Vet should give them to you for free, I would think, my vet never charged me for them.

Here's the syringe-feeding sticky for more tips/advice - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...yringing-tutorial-syringe-feeding-sticky.html

Iams and Royal Canin are both around the same level, which I'd put around medium quality. Royal Canin's apparently been getting worse though, changing out ingredients for worse ones, and they're more expensive than they're worth. Personally I'd return that if you can and get a new bag of the Iams for now, to see if she stopped eating the old bag due to staleness. If you want, I'd also find something else to eventually switch her too, but that's not a huge concern right now. It's most important to get her eating on her own again right now, and figure out why she stopped eating.

If she continues to refuse to eat on her own even with some other food options to rule out stale/not liking it, it may be time for a vet trip. Keep offering food while you syringe though - once you've gotten something in her stomach, she might start eating again. You can try leaving out a few different options - new Iams kibble dry, new Iams kibble dampened, wet food or baby food (whichever you get), etc. to see if she'll try anything. Take notice if she goes for one of the soft options over dry food, since that could indicate mouth issues that require a vet visit.

Good luck, and keep us updated!


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## sacase_15 (Oct 25, 2013)

I lost my hedgehog last year because she got sick and wouldn't eat or poop. Please monitor her carefully, and take her to the vet if you don't see improvement. If she does start eating again and still poops very little you can give them the powder laxatives in their water; that's what my vet recomended.


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## Angietan (Dec 2, 2013)

Lilysmommy said:


> If she's not eating on her own and it's been four days, it's time to start syringe-feeding. If you can get to the store today, get either pate/minced-style canned cat food (not Friskies, Fancy Feast, etc., get a decent brand; most of these have canned food - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html ), or baby food (chicken or turkey, and sweet potato, peas, & carrots are all popular). Canned cat food is better since it's balanced, but if you can't get that, baby food works well too. You can get syringes either at the vet or at a pharmacy - you should be able to find needle-less syringes (or ones with removeable needles) with diabetic supplies, or ask the pharmacist. If you tell them why you need them, you might even get them for free. Vet should give them to you for free, I would think, my vet never charged me for them.
> 
> Here's the syringe-feeding sticky for more tips/advice - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...yringing-tutorial-syringe-feeding-sticky.html
> 
> ...


Thanks! Can i know roughly how many mm/ml of blended wet cat food should i feed?


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## Altearithe (Jan 13, 2014)

The syringe-feeding tutorial lilysmommy linked says 24ml of food a day. 1ml an hour is the rule of thumb. If you can get say 4ml in one feeding, you can wait 4 hours to try feeding again. 
There's a lot more advice and directions in that link, so be sure to read it. X3


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## Angietan (Dec 2, 2013)

Altearithe said:


> The syringe-feeding tutorial lilysmommy linked says 24ml of food a day. 1ml an hour is the rule of thumb. If you can get say 4ml in one feeding, you can wait 4 hours to try feeding again.
> There's a lot more advice and directions in that link, so be sure to read it. X3


oh wow that's alot. It's gonna be a torture for me and my hog since she's struggling so much when i force feed her. I went straight to the video instead of reading the others. :x


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Just do what you can. Try different positions and different syringe sizes. Some hedgies do better with larger syringes because you don't have to keep taking it away. I was horrible at not pushing too hard with those and would shoot too much food into Lily's mouth, so we stuck with 1-ml syringes. I would fill a few up, then see how many I could get through before she got annoyed with me.

Is she still not touching any food on her own? How much have you been able to feed her in a day in the past week? 

Honestly, if it's been this long and she's still not wanting to eat on her own, and you still have no reason for why she quit eating in the first place, I'd schedule a vet visit to have her mouth checked out & get some other ideas for possible causes from the vet. You can also get some Hills A/D or Carnivore Care from the vet, both of which are diets meant for syringing to sick pets.


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## Angietan (Dec 2, 2013)

To my surprise when i first introduced the syringe (Clean, no food inside) to my hedgie she starts biting the tip of it. After a few tries of forcing it with food she realized its food and starts avoiding it.

Just started to syringe feed her yesterday as for the past few days there's some improvement with normal dry cat food but all went down hill again. 4 cc/ml yesterday and later on before i went to sleep i tried feeding dry catfood and manage to gobble up a few pieces like how she used to.  And also i realized her stool is kinda like.. diarrhea? this morning. No idea why though. Her food bowl is still untouched this morning.

Anyway vet is a problem for me as my country doesn't really have any exotic vets


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## phoenix1964 (Jan 23, 2014)

Try the A/D food. It is easy to suck up into the syringe and my girl really liked it a lot. Once you get some food into her she should start to perk up. One of the owners told me that at around 16 mls per day is when her appetite will start to kick in. She was absolutely correct. Bundle her up in the fleece, and aim for the side of the mouth. Squirming is good! Shows energy!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Unfortunately, in my opinion, it sounds like you need to find a vet who'd be willing to see her and willing to do some research or referencing with other vets in order to help you and her. What country are you in? Perhaps we have someone else on here who's in the same location and has a recommendation for someone they've worked with. You might as well look for a vet now - it's not safe or responsible to not have access to a vet for an animal in your care, you can pretty much guarantee you'll need a vet or medical care at some point in that animal's life, and hedgehogs are no different. I know things are different in other countries, but it's still something to consider before getting a pet. 

While you work on finding a vet who's interested and willing to work with her, try offering her several different variations on food - keep out the regular dry food, but try offering some kibble soaked in water, some crushed kibble, and some of the wet food you've been syringing to her. Make sure you know how much you've put out of each thing so you can see how much she eats in total. Sometimes they'll eat more when they have more options. And take special notice if she goes for the soft foods over the dry food - that's even more indication that she could have mouth or teeth issues that need to be checked out. Mouth/teeth problems are pretty common for hedgehogs.

The poop could be from stress, she could be sick, or it could be from the change in food & digestive upset from the food issues going on. Is there any change in color or odor? Or is it just much looser or liquidier than usual?


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## Angietan (Dec 2, 2013)

What's A/D food? I'm from malaysia btw, exotic vets are kinda though to find but i'm trying to find one now. Anyways, her appetite is approving as what I see  Now she eats both wet food and dry kibbles when i feed her without forcing but the amount she eat is still much lesser than before. 

Stool is alright, everything is back to normal except for amount of food she takes.

Also I realize something... She never feeds herself on her own? I have to hold or place it IN FRONT of her then she'll start eating. Suggestions?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Hm...Is her cage warm enough? I would guess Malaysia's pretty warm, but just to check. She should be kept between 22.5*-25.5*C (73-78*F), so if you guys have a cooler temperature right now and you don't have a heating set up, that could be making things more difficult for her too.

Try making sure the food is as close to her sleeping area as you can get it. Try sprinkling some dry kibble in bed with her, maybe she'll be willing to eat it if she doesn't have to leave bed. Make sure you count what you put in there so you know if she nibbled on any of it.

I think I'm about out of ideas for what could be going on at this point.  I can message a couple of the other mods & see if they have any input on the situation. Good luck with finding a vet, it does sound like it'll be difficult.


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