# My hedgehog doesn't eat very much, getting very skinny.



## Ogle08 (Dec 16, 2014)

My hedgehog Charlotte has been getting very skinny lately. She was in a shared cage with her daughter. I have divided the cage now to see if maybe the other one was eating her food or bullying her, but she is in fact just not eating very much kibble at all. Like maybe 1/2 a teaspoon. 

I'm extremely worried about her weight. I feed her lots of mealworms everyday and I'm going to give her eggs and chicken. But what can I do to get her to start eating more kibble? I don't want her to die.


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

Stop feeding her meal worms. She might be holding out for the mealworms. I would stop all over treats until she is eating kibble again. There are a few things you can try to entice her to eat. Crushing the kibble, wetting the kibble and changing the kibble to higher fat content might help. I like Fromm Gold Kitten for the fat content and the pieces are small and easy to chew. 

With that being said, I would take her into the vet to make sure that nothing in wrong with her mouth. My girl River wouldn't eat for two months because she had an infected tooth. Pain meds and some antibiotics helped her a lot but she still needs higher fat content food but at least she will eat on her own now.


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## Ogle08 (Dec 16, 2014)

I don't want to stop feeding her treats because then she might just die. I've tried wetting the kibble and now she has major runny poop all over the place. I can't get into a vet right now because I just had to put down one of my other hedgehogs. Im in the process of switching to the kitten food, but It won't do any good if she doesn't eat it. 

How did you feed your hog when she wouldn't eat? I will syringe feed her if I can, but I don't know how.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

She really sounds like she needs a vet. If she hasn't been eating for a while, she's probably in rough shape. I know it's hard when multiple animals have issues at the same time, but frankly, you might lose another hedgehog if you can't get her checked out and find out why she's not eating on her own. Check with your vet and see if they would be willing to work with you, especially if you've been going to them for a while. They may be willing to do a payment plan or let you sign up for pet insurance & apply it to her situation or something like that. Worth a try, at least. Or if you have someone who would be willing to let you borrow money in order to get her taken care of, or a credit card, etc.

Are you certain that wetting the kibble is what caused the runny poop? How long has she been having that? Have you been wetting the kibble each night since the runny poop started, or have you stopped that & had the runny poop continue? That's another major issue since diarrhea can cause dehydration very quickly, which will make her overall condition worse.

I think what I would do in this situation...Give her several choices of food tonight, like Desiree explained. Soaked/soft kibble, crushed kibble, normal, and maybe one other choice - maybe chicken or eggs like you mentioned. Make sure you weigh or measure (and record) the amount of each kind of food so you can check again in the morning.

Syringe feed her today, either her kibble crushed into dust & mixed with water, or baby food (chicken or turkey + sweet potato). That will give her something in her stomach, then you can see if she tries anything tonight. There are instructions in this thread, as well as a video (for giving meds, but same general idea) - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...yringing-tutorial-syringe-feeding-sticky.html You'll need to syringe-feed her every day until you can get her eating well on her own again. Aim for 24-30mls a day if she's not eating at all on her own, you can go a bit less if she's eating some.

Make sure you check her for dehydration too. You can do so by pinching the skin between her shoulders, on her back. If it takes longer than 1 second to flatten, she's dehydrated. If she is, again, your best bet is to get her to the vet ASAP so they can do subcutaneous fluids (inject fluids under the skin). It can be hard sometimes to get sick animals rehydrated solely by giving them water orally. But you can start with syringing her water as well as food, and see how much that helps.

Less important side notes that might help with figuring out what's going on, if it's not a mouth issue - how old is the food you've been giving her? What brand/type is it? What brand/type of kitten food are you trying to mix in? Does her daughter (and any other hedgehogs you have) get the same food as what you've been giving her? & is anyone else refusing the food or eating less? Sometimes a hedgie will be picky about a slight change to the food's formula, or if the food is getting old & stale, and will eat less. But if everyone else is perfectly normal with the same food, I would lean towards a mouth issue.


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## Ogle08 (Dec 16, 2014)

The runny poop only started when I soaked her food in water. Same with the other hedgehog she was with. She now has runny poop too. 

She's not completely not eating. She ate like 5-7 soaked kibbles last night and she has no problem eating eggs and mealworms. Her food is a brand new bag of blue Buffalo. Just got a new bag of the kitten version as well to start giving her more fat.


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I had to feed River for two months before she would eat on her own. I was told the first time I took her in that it was stress and to continue syringe feeding her until she ate on her own. Syringe feeding only works for so long, she still lost weight while I was syringing her 20 ml of food a day (recommended is 24ml-30ml but she was supplementing some of her eating, just not enough to maintain her weight.) In any case, once she lost over 100 grams I went for a second opinion and found out about her tooth. It cost me just over a 100 bucks to get her looked at and her medication, that included some anesthesia to look at her teeth, the office visit and the meds.

She needs a complete diet so syringe feeding is the best method with wet cat food or carnivore care. I use Hill's A/D which is a prescription food but any wet cat food can be placed in a blender or processor to go through a syringe. Nature's Variety wet cat food or Natural Balance's new line of wet food are both really blended up and might work for you. 

I really really think a vet is needed though. We can help you out as far or syringe feeding goes but she isn't going to eat on her own unless you figure out what is wrong with her.


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