# Snacks and Treats



## PoppisMum (Jun 5, 2019)

I've been attempting to give my hedgehog treats and snacks besides her staple of catfood.

She loves mealworms, I give her canned ones.

She eats nothing else. She has refused:
Cat treats (chicken) 
Wet cat food (chicken, turkey) 
Hard boiled egg
Raspberry
Strawberry

She doesn't seem to like those. I wanted to try and get something new for her to eat, she does like chicken. I did give her some oatmeal and pumpkin paste which she seemed to like.

I am planning to get some canned grasshoppers/crickets. I don't think live crickets make a very good option, though. She's very shy and I think it would scare her? And I believe canned megaworms are a thing that exist.

So I wanted to know about these:
Chippin Peanut Butter, Cricket & Pumpkin Dog Snacks - All Natural Cricket Protein Treats - 5oz Bag https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KX64HZX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_M3d-CbZAGA73A
There is a peanut butter one and an apple and flax seed, and crickets is a major ingredient which is cool. I have seen around that flax seed is supposed to be good for them.

The goal is to add enrichment. She likes to roam and explores wherever she can, but I hope to give her more diet options. Besides that, she is healthy, runs often on the wheel, and is a very precious grumpy girl!

But if you know of things that hedgehogs just really love to have for snack, I would love to know!


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## PoppisMum (Jun 5, 2019)

I thought I'd add some questions:

1.) What if I just take the jumping legs off the crickets? (Mainly because I don't want crickets getting lost in my house)
2.) Do live crickets have issues like live mealworms? (i.e. Eating their way out of the stomach?) 
3.) Are apples a good treat?
4.) Also, yogurt bits? Like the kind given to birds as treats.
Any and all suggestions welcome 😊


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

I'm not sure with the treats, you found but to answers your questions
1. if you u think you can take off the back legs go for it. Although you can always gut load them for 24 hours and freeze them for 24-48 hours so they are dead and then just thaw them for 10-15 mins before feeding (this works with all insects)
2. Live mealworms along with any insect wont eat the insides of the hedgehog. Once they go past the hedgehogs mouth they are generally chewed up and dead.
3. Apples are a good try, but shouldnt be used a lot because they contain a fairbit of natural sugars - Holly prefers her apples boiled, some prefer them normally and some hate them. There is this thing about the skin being unsafe and a choking hazard.
4. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and should have anything like yoghurt, milk, cheese ect.

You could try scrambled egg without the milk. They are like us and like their eggs different.
You could also try cooked chicken, lamb and duck - boiled, roasted, steamed doesnt matter as long as its plain cooked.
Or from a pet shop you can buy the pet grade frozen raw meat, get the ones that are like small cubes or along those lines depending what you can get. This should be thawed and give to the hog as it is.
Plain cooked vegetables can go down pretty well, carrots, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, green beans are all ones that seem popular.


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## Aj.t (Jan 29, 2019)

Christina loves freeze dried chicken; I get small bags from my local shop for cheap and they last forever! She’s also fond of honeydew melon, though melons do contain high amounts of natural sugars, so it’s best in rare moderation. Apples have a good amount of sugar as well, but they also have a decent amount of fiber, so it’s a nice treat here and there! Like Ria said, just be sure to cut the skin off as it could become problematic in their mouth. Live insects are a GREAT source of enrichment, as they stimulate hedgehog’s need to forage and catch food. The problem some owners run into is with freeze dried insects causing a blocked intestine. Otherwise, live are perfectly safe!


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## Aj.t (Jan 29, 2019)

After looking at the treat you linked, I don’t see a problem with it. They would be like a potato chip, however, so should be limited in how often you give them, as they don’t have any truly beneficial nutritional value!


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

You can make a forage tray to make them work for their food if you don't want to use live.
I just really remembered about it,
If you don't know already a forage tray is basically a tray of loose bits like fleece strips, or strips of paper, carefresh/kaytee clean and cozy, that type of thing then you just hid the dead insects around in the tray and they can dig around for them.
Its like the work of hunting for them but they can't get anywhere in your house !!!


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

Live insects are safe. I don't know where the myth regarding mealworms (and superworms) chewing their way out of an animals stomach originated, but as Ria mentioned once theyre in your hogs mouth theyre gone haha. If this is why you've been feeding canned mealworms, you have nothing to worry about - live are completely safe, and far more nutritious for your pet.

As far as treats go, you can just look into adding more insect variety - being insectivores, thats the key to (the majority of) hedgehogs hearts. Locusts, crickets, mealworms, morioworms, waxworms, silkworms, the list goes on. You can even offer woodlice & snails too. 

I feed live crickets in a (empty) storage bin; because my hedgehog has a barred cage, and they'd escape otherwise. If you have a vivarium you can toss a few in and let the hog hunt them herself. At first, they can sometimes be startled by the crickets - Coco hated them touching her, and was absolutely awful at catching them - but they usually get used to it and its a great form of enrichment.


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## tracey7me (May 4, 2019)

My hedgie Cosmo is the same. Besides his dry cat food and mealworms, so far he has only had wet cat food. I've tried apples, strawberries, green peppers, and egg. He just won't eat them. I checked with my breeder and he said it was perfectly fine. As long as he had his dry food and meal worms his nutrition was being met. He is only 4 months old, so figured I would stick with what he likes and maybe try again when he's older.


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## Brooke Lancelot (Jan 30, 2019)

tracey7me said:


> My hedgie Cosmo is the same. Besides his dry cat food and mealworms, so far he has only had wet cat food. I've tried apples, strawberries, green peppers, and egg. He just won't eat them. I checked with my breeder and he said it was perfectly fine. As long as he had his dry food and meal worms his nutrition was being met. He is only 4 months old, so figured I would stick with what he likes and maybe try again when he's older.


Omg I love that name! Beautiful hog you have!


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## Brooke Lancelot (Jan 30, 2019)

Oh and try giving Cosmo chicken or steak. My boy, Igor, gobbles up any meat, but refuses veggies and fruits, (excluding apples, he likes them).


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