# The Honest Kitchen



## AnimalFreak (Feb 23, 2014)

Hi! So I've known about this company called "The Honest Kitchen" for a while that sells dog/cat food online. They are all natural and a mix between raw and kibble in my opinion. They do something like dehydrate the food and grind it up into a powdery like substance which then ships to your house. You mix it with warm water and it is ready in minutes. I was thinking about mixing 2 of their formulas http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/dog-food/zeal and http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/dog-food/embark

The ingredients look good, they have a good reputation and they guaranteed analysis matches what HedgehogCentral recommends. They also have samples that you can purchase for $1 to see if your hedgehog likes it. The downside is that it is quite expensive (it might not be though depending on how much the Hedgehog needs to be fed daily)

I have two questions though. Does it look good to you guys? And how much do you think a hedgehog would need daily? They say a toy dog (1-10lbs) would need 1/4-1/2 cup a day and a toy puppy/active toy dog would need 1/2-1 cup a day (plus the water which it tells you the amount under feeding guidelines)


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

The Honest Kitchen is something I was considering giving my dog until I decided to just go full raw diet with her. I'm definitely keeping it in mind as an option for future hedgehogs though. If you do decide to give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think and what your hedgie thinks!

As far as amounts...that's a pretty good question. I hadn't checked that out yet, since I'm a while away from being able to feed it to a hedgie. Going by both amount & by calories compared to Natural Balance Green Pea & Duck (410 per cup), most hedgies would eat 2-4 tablespoons of a kibble like Natural Balance. I think most hedgies eat less than 15 grams? But I'm not positive...maybe someone else who has weighed their hedgie's food consumption might have more input on that. I counted Lily's food instead of weighing. Going by the amounts they have on there (1 cup = 1lb), 1/8 cup = 1/8 a pound or 2 ounces. That equals 2 tablespoons. I think I would start with that amount & just see how much hedgie eats of it. Free feeding is generally recommended anyway and the fish food is low enough in fat to balance out the turkey, I think.

As far as making sure it doesn't dry up too much (I'm not sure if you've already considered that & thought of what to do), but you could do two "meals", feeding one tablespoon earlier in the evening, then feeding another tablespoon before you go to sleep, if you go to bed late. If you don't, you could do one tablespoon normally, then have already rehydrated another tablespoon earlier & freeze it into a cube, then put the cube in the cage as well, so it can thaw more slowly & be available in an hour or two. I'm not sure how well it'd work in practice, but might be an option to explore!


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## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

The only figure I've seen on how much to offer, and the one that I use personally, is 6% of your hedgie's weight, which would include everything...protein, vegetables, fruit, insects/worms. I offer more, just in case, and always keep a kibble available as well. However, we don't have a problem with over-eating so this might not work with hedgies that tend to gain weight easily.


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## AnimalFreak (Feb 23, 2014)

Thanks for the reply! Based on the 1/8 a day feeding it seems like a 10 pound box will last you about 240 days! If you buy two 10 pound boxes (Embark $90, Zeal $110) it will last you a bout a year and 3-4 months. Which is about $16.7 dollars a month. Which honestly is not bad  Of course if you had one hedgehog you would probably want to buy in smaller amounts so it stays fresher. That brings in one last question, how long is their shelf life/ or maybe they would last longer in the fridge...?


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## AnimalFreak (Feb 23, 2014)

^^^
Mistake, the cost is actually only $13.3 dollars a month.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

That one I have no clue about! I would suggest emailing the company and asking them what the best method of long-term storage would be to keep it fresh, and how long might be too long. I would definitely go with the smaller amounts, personally, especially if you're getting two or more boxes to alternate or mix together. Hedgies tend to get picky once food gets stale (though I'm not sure if it's due to loss of flavor or nutrients or if it's because, as Grace said at one point, kibble gets harder when stale), so it'd be safest to go with small amounts in case you get halfway through a box & hedgie refuses to eat the rest and it goes to waste.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

I tried a few flavors of Honest Kitchen and never found one that even my hedgehog who would eat anything I gave her, would eat consistently. I never quite understood why, because the food has a wonderful aroma. 

Thankfully I had contacted THK's customer service and asked about sample sizes for the varieties I was interested in, for which they sent to me. The sample sizes were more than adequate to gauge the interest in the 4 hedgehogs I had at the time and saved us from wasting a lot of food.


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## gracefulchaos01 (Mar 19, 2014)

I was considering emailing them about sample sizes for my hedgies also. I'm glad to hear they are responsive to those requests.


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

The honest kitchen has samples for a dollar, I don't no how much shipping is but Momlady posted this promo code "TRYTHKFB" two or three weeks ago that you can use. It might still be good.

I haven't tried them yet so I can't comment on the food.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

According to their website, shipping is only $2.50 for orders under $14.00. 

When I inquired, I mostly did so to ask what the size of the pieces of food in their mix was as I was looking for foods that a small toothless hedgehog who weighed 300 grams could possibly eat. They offered free samples to me. The pieces of the food were of a fine size for a hedgehog and any that were big I could easily break up. 

We also tried SOJO's, another food that I swear I would eat because it smells so good. We had similar results. First night the hedgehogs ate a reasonable amount, not all, but it was a promising try. And after a couple of attempts, they would mostly leave it and eat their kibble. It was almost like the first night the scent was enough to perk their interest, but after that, they couldn't be bothered.

Anyway, I'm not saying don't try it, but if you can get a few samples, they are worth it so you aren't stuck with a large box of food that your hedgehog won't touch.


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## MomLady (Aug 14, 2010)

I have used the first sample of the turkey with vegetables. (Grace, it's called--turkey, eggs, pumpkin, chard and parsley) It's a fine powder you mix with water. I have been keeping it in the refrigerator. 

It's about the consistency of pate. No chunks or pieces--at least in the turkey.

Mixed results, I mixed it with some of her kibble and she's been eating it in addition to her food. She doesn't eat enough to live on. 

She must anoint with it, she smells like it now! 

I still have the chicken flavor to try.

They also have dog food, which would be OK to try because you won't have "pieces". 

I may try using some of the chicken in her meatballs. 

ML


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## AnimalFreak (Feb 23, 2014)

I will probably mix kibble with it/use it as a topper as a way to get my (future) hedgehog to have more variety and eat some veggies.


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