# Why cooked?



## zoologist (Sep 2, 2008)

So I was reading more into suppliments like cooked chicken, cooked veggies, etc. I'm just wondering why it has to be cooked first (other than choking hazzard).
I've read a lot into raw diets for cats, dogs, ferrets and all say cooking is bad for meat/veggies and gets rid of vital nutrients you can only get while raw.

So what's the problem with feeding your hedgie a raw piece of chicken if she'll take it from you?


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## pink-ster (Mar 3, 2012)

raw chicken? I would be scared of salmonella poisoning.


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## alyssinreality (Jan 18, 2012)

That was my first thought too. ^

I dunno, I always just thought raw meats had bad things in them.


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## zoologist (Sep 2, 2008)

They would be eating raw stuff in the wild....

lol, that's my only argument against the salmonella thing


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## sublunary (Jan 21, 2012)

if they were eating it in the wild, it would be killed right before they dug in. Bacteria wouldn't have enough time to colonize and cause problems. They way we eat meat - killed and then butchered and then packaged and shipped to the supermarket, then bought by use who knows how many days later - there's a lot of time for bacteria to take hold.

So if you're killing your own chickens and want to feed hedgie some of that right away, it would be fine. Anything else should definitely be cooked.


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## zoologist (Sep 2, 2008)

Hmmm.... then why is it fine to feed raw, packaged meat to ferrets but not to hedgehogs? Are their digestive systems vastly different? are they more susceptible to disease? I'm not trying to be rude and argue, I'm just trying to figure out a decent reason as to why every one feeds cooked. 

The salmonella thing doesn't hold true for veggies, so why do they have to be cooked?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

zoologist said:


> Hmmm.... then why is it fine to feed raw, packaged meat to ferrets but not to hedgehogs? Are their digestive systems vastly different? are they more susceptible to disease? I'm not trying to be rude and argue, I'm just trying to figure out a decent reason as to why every one feeds cooked.
> 
> The salmonella thing doesn't hold true for veggies, so why do they have to be cooked?


I have no explanation on the meat thing, really, and am very interested to hear more information on that part of it. Just wanted to mention that not all veggies are suggested to be cooked really - just hard ones like carrots. And those should be cooked just because it makes them softer and easier for hedgies to eat without possibly choking on. A good alternative to cooking any veggies is just chopping them up into mush or pureeing them into baby food (or buying in baby food form if you don't have the necessary kitchen equipment for either of those things, or if you're lazy, like me. :lol: )


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2012)

as for the in the wild versus now. The reason some meat carry diesease that needs to be cooked out is the processing and travel. 

i think more then anything the meat is just a precaution. do you really want to accidentally give your hedgie salmonella or ecoli? ecoli for one can kil a full grown human i wouldnt be risking it with my hedgehog.


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## Maeg8 (Apr 28, 2011)

About the ferrets and cats thing, I'm looking into feeding raw, myself for my cats and may try a different mix with my hedgie. E coli is carried in meats like beef or pork, which I wouldn't attempt doing raw, anyway. Salmonella is a bacteria that grows on improperly prepared meat. If you prepare your food and then keep it frozen, at proper temperatures, it should kill a good amount of the bacteria, but not enough to keep it from being potentially infectious. Also, hedgehogs eat carrion in the wild, which is crawling in bacteria. If you got your meat from a good butcher, you should be just fine. The people cooking their veggies are definitely defeating the purpose of feeding the veggies, though. Most nutrients are cooked out when you do that.


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