# Healthy, fatty foods?



## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

Can anyone recommend a some what healthy fatty foods? Flower is turning into a runner and isn't growing as fast as I think she should and is kinda thin. She eats blue buffalo adult and chicken soup kitten. I'm also starting her on mealies again and using a bit of flax oil on her food.
I understand that runners are just naturally thin and some can never really be plumped up but I wish she would have waited until she was adult before thinning down.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Sounds like you're doing pretty good so far. I think you could either switch the Blue Buffalo to a kitten version instead of adult, or if you wanted, just add another food in, either an adult or kitten. That way you can adjust amounts between the two kitten foods and adult food to find the right balance. Sometimes they do need strictly kitten food though - one of my friends' boy is such a little guy that he gets Royal Canin Babycat only because he runs it all off.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

How old is she? I wouldn't switch entirely to kitten foods, especially if she's young right now. While it may help her put on some weight, the potential problem is that as an adult, her metabolism may be different - she may do fine on very high fat now, but only need moderately high fat later, and if all she has in her mix is high fat foods, you're going to have trouble getting her to eat something with a lower fat percentage when the time comes. I would keep the Blue Buffalo in the mix, and adjust the ratio of that to the CS kitten - more kitten now, and less later if/when she gets to a good weight.

Also keep in mind that some babies look scrawny while still being perfectly healthy. Some just don't fill out right away, until 6 months or so, sometimes a little later. Pretty much, if she's eating well and growing, I wouldn't worry about it, especially since you do have kitten food in her mix already. If you find that she's plateaued at a weight that's lower than average, and looks skinny along with it, that would require an adjusted diet. As long as she's growing, "not fast enough" isn't really an issue. Some babies/young hedgehogs will grow at the same rate up until they stop growing, and some will barely grow one week, then put on a lot of weight the next. I don't have photos or a weight chart to judge this particular case, but from what's been said, I don't see anything to worry about.


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## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

She is 4 months and already finicky about food. She doesn't like chicken soup at all and only eats a few pieces, I need to pick up some samples to see if she likes any other brands. The blue buffalo I'm feeding is 18% fat, I really wouldn't want to switch to kitten which is 20%.
Should I maybe add in a medium quality food? or should I just try more mealies for now? What about powdered nuts?

I'll get pictures and a weight today. I wish I had weighed her when I first got her so I would have something to compare to.


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## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

Got some pictures and her weight is 274


































and this one is really bad but you can see how her side curve in


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

She doesn't look bad at all - she'd probably be just about perfect at 300g or so. You mentioned that she's gaining, just not as fast or as much as you'd like? If she's still gaining at 4 months, I'd say leave her on her current diet and see where she plateaus. She'll likely continue gaining slowly until ~6 months or even after that, and she doesn't have much further to go, so most likely she'll end up right where she needs to be at this rate. Right now she doesn't even look skinny to me, she just looks like a young hedgehog that has some filling out to do.


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## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

I'm actually not sure if she is gaining or how fast, I never weighed her when I got her. I know she is growing, it just seems that her body mass isn't keeping up with her growth. She is my first baby though so I don't have anything to compare her with and my foster is really fat, everything looks skinny compared to her.

I'll start a weekly weight in and not worry unless she starts to loose weight. Thanks for the help, make me not worry as much


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## JJStefaniec (Nov 27, 2012)

I'm actually curious about this question a little too.

Tansy ( 6 months) is only 220-230 grams on average and a insane runner. She's been eating more but she is very scrawny. I do my best to give her lots of meals worms and also have started getting waxworms too I have her on a high fat diet mix as well. Though what I found made her eat more was grinding up her food.

Or I suppose she could just be a bit of a runt (though that's not a bad thing) She literally still looks like a baby (fits into the palm of one hand perfectly she's as big as a tennis ball curled up).

I think hedgehogs are a bit like people, all shapes and sizes, I think some people may agree with me.









This was taken a week ago


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## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

Oh, what a cute little sweetie. My aunt had a litter with a runt, he was half the size of the others. He grew well, right on track with the others but stayed considerably smaller.
I think body size is more important to look at then weight. A smaller hedgie is going to weigh less. Flower is gaining weight since I added mealies to her diet, I should try waxies too. I used to crush her food but then I switched to mostly blue buffalo, its a small kibble and seems softer then the chicken soup kitten.


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## jerseymike1126 (Jan 20, 2011)

Chicken nuggets and pizza


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## GailC (Aug 20, 2011)

I think you missed the healthy part, lol


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