# Weight gaining too quickly with proper food and exercises



## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Hi,

I'm writing with concern about my hedgie's weight.

He's 4 months old, and obese - last week he weighed 840 gram, I weighed him today - 861.

He has his wheel where he runs nightly, he also runs around the room for about an hour a day. His food has low fat percentage, here is its receipe:

http://www.nativia-pet.cz/en/for-cats-gb/products-for-cats/308-nativia-castrated-gb

We are giving him 1 table spoon (15 grams) of it a day.

And he received threats like one cricket and boiled chicken few times a week only.

We have no idea what can be causing this problem. I know obesity is unhealthy for those little creatures, and I really want to help him lose his belly, but I have no idea how 

Please help, I don't want want anything bad happen to him out of my lack of knowledge what's causing the weight problem.

Thank you


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

Do you have a picture of your hedgehog? Some are just bigger than others. With him wheeling nightly and the low fat food you'd think he wouldn't get overweight. It does contain stuff like sugar beets though which are high in sugar and might contribute to his weight gain, but it doesn't say how much of these products is used in the food. 

Signs of obesity are: fat "hanging" behind the front legs, a bump between the shoulder blades and the hedgehog being a very round ( ) shape when looking from above. It should be slightly rounded, teardrop shape or more straight.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Here are some photos (freshly taken), I hope they'll be useful to judge. If not, please just say so, and I'll make more.


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

He does look a bit chubby. He doesn't have any other problems? Odd behaviour?
You could try to switch him over to a different kind of low fat food to see if it helps...


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

I will try to find another brand, so far we've been practicing swimming/stomping happily around in the bath. 

Vet said he is big, but healthy hedgie. And for what I know, he's very experienced with exotic animals (working at the zoo) 
As for odd behaviours - please give some examples. Only thing I've noticed is weird hiccup-like thing that happens once in a while (noiseless little "jumping" several times), but it's hard for me to tell whether it's normal acting or not. I'm still fresh in judging his behaviours, so help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance and sorry for noobish questions, but I want the best for the little one.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Hello again after some time.

The problem still lasts with new brand of food, with even less fat percentage.

Last one (the one I linked earlier) gave Robb overproteining for some reason, so we've changed it to wild hedgehogs food for some time (knowing it's not designed for pygmys, but another vet experienced with hedgehogs suggested it to cure overproteining), it helped with this one problem, but he didn't digest it too well, so we've changed it to another cat food's brand with less percentage of fat in it.

Robb still gains weight and we have no idea what's the problem. 

We started to let him run all night around safe room, he runs in his wheel every night he's not let out, he swims - basically he's very active, and for some reason he doesn't lose his belly...

I'm worried it's caused by some sickness, but every vet suggested to let him eat wild hedgehogs food and see if he loses any grams. I won't give it to him for reason mentioned earlier. 

I'm lost here


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Do you know what the vet has already checked for, if anything? Mostly I'm wondering if hypothyroidism or a related disorder has been checked for yet. That can cause animals (and humans) to gain weight even if a small amount of low-fat food, etc. is being given. I believe there are other side-effects from the disorder, I don't know too much about it - it just usually pops to mind with overweight animals when it's not caused by food or lack of activity.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

I've been to better vet than the previous one, here's what he said:

We should give Robb a month on very low fat cat food (Royal Canin for weight loss), note everyday his weight and if he will start to gain fat despite that, the vet will intervene with blood tests before the month's end and search for the health issues (like the thyroid problems you've mentioned)

If the fat level will go down (so far slowly, but it does) - we have a solution

If it keep staying at the same level for the longer amount of time (for some days it might and it would be normal, he says), the vet will intervene as well.

We'll keep observing the little one, wish us luck!


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

Keep in mind most RC food with low fat is too high in protein. I haven't found one with the correct protein percentages and fat below 15% yet.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

He's been some time on this diet, yet the results are not satisfying - his weight jumps back and forth, even to the level where he started at. 

Vet visit is a must, which we'll do in next few days.


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## liam1 (Feb 15, 2015)

keep us updated!


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Hi, sorry for so late response.
We've lost around 100 grams since the last time!  Little one now eats mostly homemade food with addition of biscuits, and is slowly losing weight. He likes it, is active nonetheless, and what's most important - losing his belly. 
I'm glad it's not health related.
Keep fingers crossed for losing the rest to proper posture


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## honeywhistle (Mar 29, 2014)

Terefercia said:


> Hi, sorry for so late response.
> We've lost around 100 grams since the last time!  Little one now eats mostly homemade food with addition of biscuits, and is slowly losing weight. He likes it, is active nonetheless, and what's most important - losing his belly.
> I'm glad it's not health related.
> Keep fingers crossed for losing the rest to proper posture


Hi, just wondering what the 'homemade food' is made from? I've got a couple of overweight hedgehogs too, and realizing that they probably need a change in diet.

All these optimal-sounding foods that people buy in the States are not available here, so sometimes we do with less than ideal protein/fat ratios.

I'm glad Robb is active regardless. The real issue for us is that they've stopped running lately, and I believe it's due to increased heaviness. If it took making homemade food to help them lose weight, I would do that.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

here's our little one after nearly 150 grams loss, isn't he handsome? 
he still has loose skin around his legs, but we're working on that with brand new cake bucket enormous wheel that he started to love and runs in it with passion

as for what he's eating:

mixture of vegetables (mostly carrot and broccoli) with boiled chicken and cricket to add fat to that food.

so far he's been taking badly addition of biscuits, as if he couldn't digest it properly... I think that is the reason of his problems. But now we're fine and either slowly losing weight or staying at the same level


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

I'm glad he's losing weight but that's not an appropriate diet for a hedgehog. He'll be at risk of various defiencies if you keep feeding him this. Not feeding kibble can be an option but only if done well (nearly impossible given we don't know much about their dietary needs). A diet of mostly vegetables and some boiled chicken and crickets isn't a balanced, suitable diet for an animal which is mainly insectivorous and lacks the cecum (the part of the intestines which digest plant matter)


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Agreed with Draenog. I'm all for cooked & raw diets, but they need to be balanced. What you're feeding isn't - the biggest & most noticeable issue is you have no good source of calcium, which can cause major issues.

If you still want to provide him with a home-cooked diet, you need to start doing research so you can change the diet & make it balanced. I have some information & such here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23066-raw-home-cooked-diets.html I need to change it to be more comprehensive, but it should give you some ideas of things to research and possibly some useful links. Unfortunately most of the links for buying things are just in the United States, which I apologize for.

If you don't have the time to research & make sure the diet is balanced, I would really recommend trying another method of feeding him. Either canned food, or find some way to get him to eat kibble. A balanced, complete raw or cooked diet is better than kibble, but an unbalanced one is worse than any diet option.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Hello, sorry for the late response - notification e-mail didn't reach me somehow

I kind of knew I'm not giving him the best option possible to eat, but his weigth was getting out of control. Right now he's at 700 grams, and that's where I want to end the diet, also from the reason you've written above. 

I'm giving another chance to kibbles - I've ordered new brands and will be checking how things work out. 

If the situation would repeat itself, I'm going to have a good read about proper, balanced homemade food. @Lilysmommy - may I ask for your help if the situation will be bad with kibbles ?

Thanks very much for your concern - I was feeling really bad putting little one on a diet , but that was a must. Now we can seek for other options, since the weight is under control.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I hope the kibble works out for you guys!  And yes, if you end up wanting to give home-made food a try again, I can help provide sources & advice to an extent.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

@Lilysmommy I am thinking about coming back to homemade food, could you send some links to read before I do that? I want to give our hedgie best possible food, and we didn't have luck with new brand of kibbles as well


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Definitely! I'm about to head out for a day of moving furniture (new apartment) and bringing some adopted hermit crabs home, but I'll try to get back on here tonight or tomorrow & send you some info.


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## Terefercia (Dec 3, 2014)

Thank you  I look forward to your message!


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