# Hedgie Not Gaining Weight?



## MLHollywood (Apr 22, 2012)

So I don't know if I'm being worried or not, but it seems like Pompey isn't gaining weight like he should be.

He was about 250 grams when I brought him home, and he was around 9 weeks old. He's about 16 weeks now, and he's stalled out around 300 or so. It's varied just a little for about four weeks. He's starting to look a little thin in my opinion, but it's hard to take a picture cause he wants to move too much. In any case, I expected he might weigh more than that by now. His parents were both around 500 grams.

I'm thinking that he is running a lot more than I think he is. I intend to get an odometer for his wheel, but I just haven't gotten to the store.  

His food it at 15% fat right now. He finally figured out that mealworms are, in fact, food! I've been giving him anywhere from 5-9 per night, but I think I might need to up the fat in his food? If so, can anyone suggest a brand or two? Blue Buffalo and Royal Canin are both readily available at my store, but some of the other popular brands are nowhere in sight.

Also: when do hedgies get fully grown?


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

It's possible he may just be on the smaller side. Try to take some pictures of him. Best would be from the sides and directly from above, looking down at him. Then we can get a good look at his shape. 

It really depends on what your store has available. Is it a small town store? Smaller town stores tend to have brands like Performatrin, Natural Balance, Kats n Flocken, etc etc. The best you can do is go to the store and actually look at every single food they have and look at both the nutritional analysis and the ingredients. You're probably going to want something in the 18%+ fat range. You may actually need to add in a kitten food as well. Also, if you are feeding a lower fat diet, look for the normal adult ones. Those tend to be in the 16-18% range. 

If in doubt(and the store is easy to get to for you), go to the store with a camera(most phones have cameras nowadays) and take pictures of the foods that look promising to you. Just take a pic of their analysis and ingredients(so you don't have to write them down by hand), and post here again asking for advice.


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## MLHollywood (Apr 22, 2012)

Oh no it's not that small of a store. It's a PetSmart, lol. They just have a weird selection of foods for a chain store. They have Royal Canin and Blue Buffalo which I see suggested a lot, but I'm just not sure if I should go for a kitten or adult food. I hear kitten food is hard to wean them off of sometimes. 

The reason I mentioned his parents were 500 grams is just because I figure he'll be close to that weight. The breeder doesn't particularly like smaller hedgehogs for breeding.


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

The size of the parents doesn't always translate to the offspring, my smallest male's babies were always about twice the size of him, no matter what female I bred him too. Another male I had that was fairly big, his babies always were smaller as adults...it was weird. Does your hedgies side seem sunk in? looking down from above does he look like | | or ( ) or ) ( . The first two shapes are good the last one would be underweight.


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## MLHollywood (Apr 22, 2012)

To me, they look a little sunk in, but I might just be worrying. :roll: 

It's really obvious when he's stretching out a little. Like he's leaning up to smell something or trying to climb up. It seems like it makes sense for him to look thinner, but he definitely gets the ) ( shape. It's always harder to tell when he's crouching up next to my shirt or something. I'll try to get a pic or two.

Should he be fully grown already? I thought he was still a baby! :shock:


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

He may or may not grow some more. Tylda had a final growing spurt at 6 months. She came to me at 4 months in the mid 400s (440 I think, would have to look at her chart though), and at 7 months was 650 and has been at 650 since.

If he were mine, I would offer him some adult formula cat food and would continue to do so until I felt that he either wasn't growing anymore, or until his sides fill out and his weight steadies.


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