# Adding calcium and vitamin D



## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

So I know some people believe that they should have calcium and vitamin D added into their diet, so I just kinda want to know if it is something I should have been doing..

I want the best but she's stopped eating the calci worms so now if course calcium is even lower in her diet. So i'm considering adding it now.


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

Vitamin D is fat soluble and *it is entirely possible to overdose* with. If you are feeding a quality cat (or even dog) kibble, there is no need to supplement vitamin D. I cringe when I see people add supplements to a diet that already contains an array of supplements - it may seem all well and fine, but it often does more harm than good.

The same also applies to Calcium; excess calcium can be fatal. A complete kibble (or wet food) has all the minerals and vitamins your hedgehog needs - and I would not advise additional supplementation.


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

I thought that, but I doubted myself for a minute because people were saying that Its needed and its wrong not to so I wanted to be sure which was right.

I didnt want to not give it to her if It was needed but didnt want to give it to her and give if its going to do more harm than good. If that makes sense.


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

Oh totally, I understand! I see a lot of hedgehog owners, who feed complete cat/dog foods to their hedgehogs, supplement with additional powdered supplements. It does seem (unfortunately) to be common practice and people who do it genuinely believe they're doing good and don't realise the dangers with overdosing on vitamins and minerals. 

So long as youre feeding a complete food, there is no need to tamper with additional powdered supplementation. Now using fresh foods as a supplement is totally fine; for calcium you could use a small amount of sardines, dark leafy greens like kale, and for D3 you could offer the occasional pinky mouse. But like I said; a complete kibble will contain everything they need (vitamin/mineral) speaking, and I'd avoid those very potent powders at all costs. 

I would imagine folk supplementing further with vitamin D3 in particular are playing in muddy waters. Being a nocturnal species, I cant see a hedgehog having a massive demand for large amounts of D3 as is; and supplementing D3 while feeding a food that already contains it (as dogs and cats rely mostly on diet for D3 too; so foods marketed for these species are already full of d3!), does have the very real potential of overdose.


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Yea exactly, I dont really believe Holly needs it, she has gut loaded insects that I make sure all have different nutrients, she gets 3 high quality cat biscuit now that I've changed some. Which one has 1.41% calcium, one has 1.3% calcium and the other has I cant find it but I think its around the same as the other two. And the rest the vitamins and minerals are good.

She slso gets her meat like chicken, duck, turkey, lamb. Her mouse I use the one up from pinkies because it has lower fat and holly likes the size better!
Plus she gets her egg weekly
And a bit of veg weekly.

So I don't see why she would need any supplements unless there was a real deficiency which I don't think there is and she seems healthy.

Just got paranoid from other people saying you have to use powdered supplements and its wrong not to and I was like but surely if your feeding right they don't need those supplements but I doubt myself easily on things like this! So like to double check on a forum that generally has more up to date better knowledge and won't move on from the old information because its been for x amount of years.


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