# Cat Food??



## 177572 (Sep 3, 2018)

So im a new hedgie owner. But when i was looking for what to feed hedgehogs there is soooo many mixed opinions its confusing. One thing most(not all) people did agree on was that the food should have protein between 30%-35% and fat should be 15% or less. HOWEVER. I am a dog groomer and as a dog groomer i am familiar with a lot of pet brands. So many people have been recommending brands like blue buffalo, chicken soup, purina pro plan, science diet etc. Brands i would never feed my own dogs let alone feed to an animal they were unintended for. Not to mention on every Do Not Feed list there is potatos. And a lot of these brands include potatos. So im just confused. It seems like most people read the first two or three ingredients make sure its meat based and then check the protein/fat levels and thats it. But what about the other ingredients? They matter too dont they?? One brand I like because I feed it to my dog is Zignature. Zignature is a relatively new brand and they are great for dogs with food allergies, sensitive stomachs, and they offer limited ingredients while still being meat based. So naturally I looked at their line of cat food. Its called fussy cat. All the same benefits of the dog food. And the best part? On the back of the package its got a sticker that says Potato Free! The kibble size is about the same as blue buffalo. Now the one thing Im unsure of is the protein is 36% and the fat is 16% this is one percent more then most people recommend. Is that ok? I figure I either stumbled on a new wonderful feeding option or there is a reason why the crappier brands of cat food or recommend. So im just asking do you think this food is better or worse? 


Little tidbit of info: The breeder I got her from was feeding her Blue Buffalo Indoor Health Chicken and Brown Rice. I bought a small bag of Fussy Cat Chicken and Turkey Recipe to maybe switch her over too.


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## LuckFupus458 (Jul 30, 2018)

I am by no means an expert but I checked out the food, Fussie Cat Chicken and Turkey and it looks great. 36% protein _is_ on the high side and 16% fat _is _also on the high side. Those are the same percentages in the food I feed my girl. It will really depend on the activity level of your hedgie. An active runner will handle the higher levels where a not so active runner will not. You can always balance it out by doing a combo. Mix a food with lower percentages in with the higher one. Have you checked out the stickies under Diet and Nutrition yet? There is some really great info there on ingredients and such.

For any other reader: Here are the ingredients (in order), percentages and a link to the food:

Chicken, chicken meal, peas, turkey meal, pea flour, chickpeas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), natural flavors, flax seeds, dicalcium phosphate, alfalfa meal, fructooligosaccharide, minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, cobalt proteinate), potassium chloride, choline chloride, DL methionine, vitamins (vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), taurine, blueberries, cranberries, lactic acid, kelp meal, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, rosemary extract.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein(min)	
36%
Crude Fat(min)	
16%
Crude Fiber(max)	
5%
Moisture(max)	
10%
Carbohydrates	
27%
Ash (max)	
7.5%
Calcium (min)	
1%
Magnesium (max)	
0.1%
Phosphorus (min)	
0.8%
Omega 6 Fatty Acids* (min)	
1.8%
Omega 3 Fatty Acids* (min)	
0.4%
Calories per Cup	
415

https://www.cherrybrook.com/fussie-cat-market-fresh-chicken-and-turkey-formula-2-lbs/


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Purina Pro Plan and Science Diet are not foods recommended by knowledgeable hedgehog owners. I've never heard of potatoes being an issue and I know of a few people that have fed a small amount of plain mashed potatoes as treats with no issues.


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## Yukidama's mama (Apr 4, 2017)

I am by no means an expert either but have looked into a lot of foods and ingredients.

It seems this brand instead of using potatoes or grains uses peas and pea flour which in my opinion isn't much better. Peas are high in phosphorus and sugar so i try to avoid cat foods that use peas as one of the main ingredients now (I was previously using natural balance limited ingredients duck & pea formula, however I'm still using now fresh grain free Turkey forumla and this also has peas in it >< so I thought best to stop using one! I've recently added blue buffalo as it has more chicken and grains than peas at least and the fat is really low at 9% to even out my boys food). 
Anyways, if feeding insects (which should form part of their main diet), some are already high in phosphorus, so if using a cat food also with a high concentration of phosphorous from peas, it can put hedgies into hyperphoshatemia. This inhibits calcium absorption in bones, kidney damage, heart disease and can be fatal.

It also has chickpeas in it which I'm sure I also read were hard on the digestion. Dicalcium phosphate is high up on the list too, this may irrate the skin and upset the gastro intestinal system. 

No cat food brand is perfect. As luckfupus458 suggestion, you could use it with another food with different ingredients to balance everything out. Just be careful if feeding mealworms and especially superworms as they have a very bad CA ratio.


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## 177572 (Sep 3, 2018)

the reason the natural balance probably didnt work is because natural balance is a plant based food. if you look peas are the first ingredient. In fussy cat peas are 3rd so still a major player but there are two meat based ingredients before that. Do you think thats ok? What food do you guys use?


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## 177572 (Sep 3, 2018)

Also just a warning on blue buffalo. Its very harsh on most cats and dogs stomachs. And it was recently moved into Targets so the quality is expected to get even worse. I can tell you a lot of pet stores are trying to move people away from blue buffalo now. Just recently walmart began carrying nulo and the first thing nulo did was add chicken in their lamb formula for cheaper ingredients. Thats the kind of thing that's expected to happen with blue.


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## LuckFupus458 (Jul 30, 2018)

strawbearymacarons said:


> the reason the natural balance probably didnt work is because natural balance is a plant based food. if you look peas are the first ingredient. In fussy cat peas are 3rd so still a major player but there are two meat based ingredients before that. Do you think thats ok? What food do you guys use?


I feed a mix of Halo Holistic Chicken and Chicken Liver and Iams ProActive Health for Weight and Hairball Control

https://halopets.com/products/halo-holistic-chicken-and-chicken-liver-recipe-adult-cats

https://www.iams.com/cat-food/proactive-health-indoor-cat-food-chicken-turkey-vegetables

I give her a 50/50 mix. Sometimes she picks out the Halo more and some nights she picks out the Iams more.

I equate it to sometimes I have a salad for dinner and sometimes I have cereal :grin:


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## 177572 (Sep 3, 2018)

I just found I and Love and You on chewy. Their naked essentials chicken and duck has meat as the first 3 ingredients. Peas are still there but they are 4th as opposed to 3rd and the protein is 34% and fat is 14%. This seems like it would be better right? Also a vet recommended mazuri insectivore diet because thats what he gives his hedgehogs but I was under the impression that the mazuri diet was very very bad. Should i mix them?


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## 177572 (Sep 3, 2018)

I emailed them to find the calcium and phosphorus numbers. And its 3.67% calcium and 2.28% phosphorus. I am really bad at math and idk what the proper ratio is but is that good or bad?


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## Yukidama's mama (Apr 4, 2017)

I heard others use the I and Love and You brand and that is much better having meat as the first 3 ingredients, nutritional values are fine too.

Re mazzuri, don't feed the insectivore diet to your hedgehog. It is full of crap. My boy was on it for the first 6 months or so of his life. He was tiny, underweight and had bad flakey skin and bald patches. It was really hard to get him off mazzuri and switched onto cat food but I eventually managed it and now he is a big plump thing ^^, verging overweight but he looks so much healthier now than he did before and his skin is perfectly normal and no more bald patches. 

The first ingredient of mazzuri is unnamed poultry byproduct meal. There are so many things wrong just with that. It is unnamed which isn't good but even worse it is byproduct so means it is any part of the animal/s mashed into a meal. The cellulose comes from wood chips too and these are really clear to see in the food sometimes. 

If you're really interested in hedgehog nutrition and feeding a good/varied diet, it might be worth looking into a commercially raw diet, ie barf etc. this is what I'm planning to do as I just can't find great cat kibbles (especially where I am, I am limited to most the recommended brands or even formulas are different). There is a hedgehog nutrition and raw food diet group on Facebook I recommend if you are interested to learn more and there are also stickies on here with previous members posting about it, that are worth a read.

In terms of kibbles I currently use, I use Now Fresh senlor grain free Turkey forumla (peas are the 3rd and 4th ingredient though so I'm going to switch this out, it also has canola oil in it as the 10th ingredient which I learnt from you actually isn't a good thing!), Blue Buffalo weight management (non grain free forumula so 3rd and 4th ingredients are grains). I was sceptical about this company but the only reason I'm using it was because he needed to be put on a low fat 9% kibble asap as was continuously gaining weight, and was the only one I could find available to me which didn't have peas as a main ingredient since his two other main kibbles had peas as main ingredients (I was using the natural balance before too ~ when I first started out I was just avoiding grains so that's how I ended up with so many peas in formulas instead! ><). So far he hasn't been having issues on blue buffalo but I will monitor. He was on Halo Chicken but this was 16% fat and was the culprit of him gaining weight so I had to gradually phase it out. I also use the Halo salmon forumula but phased this out too as he was having lip issues and the vet thought it might be an allergic reaction to his food, so salmon was the first one to go, it also made his poops stinkier! 

But as I mentioned, I'm looking to switch to a more raw diet, using BARF (meat, organs and bones mixed which comes already mixed with some vegetables and fruits) and upping his insect intake, then just supplementing with kibble. You can also use eggs and whole prey on other days too.


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