# Wet food!



## Lexis6011 (Mar 1, 2013)

I want to start feeding me Hedgie wet food once every other week just one day. I have read lots of things saying feeding them wet food can be bad for them, but I've also heard a lot of good things about doing it every now and then! 
What do y'all think?

If anyone does feed their Hedgie wet food, what brand? or if you make their wet food from scratch what do you make it from?


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Just something to think about - you just started another thread about your hedgie being chubbier & wanting him to lose weight. The vast majority of wet cat foods are higher in fat, 15% or above. So keep that in mind, and be prepared to watch his weight & see how it responds if you try this idea out.

If you do decide you want to give it a try with a commercial canned cat food, make sure you calculate protein & fat percentages based on the Dry Matter Basis. Explanation & how to do so is here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/19-soft-food-recommendations.html


----------



## Lexis6011 (Mar 1, 2013)

what do you think the healthiest dry food is? 
I was unaware that wet food would make him gain weight!


----------



## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

You can always soak dry cat food in watermelon juice or other hedgie-safe fruit juice or just plain water til it starts to plump up and soften a bit. Keeps your hedgie well-hydrated as well. You can even mix it with some chopped mealworms and boiled egg yolks. Works for me all the time in addition to giving them just water. Older hedgies feel the need for more dried food though


----------



## Erizo (Jul 25, 2012)

Good catch by Lilysmommy about the other thread. It is really one question in this case because that makes a big difference in strategy.



> I want to start feeding me Hedgie wet food once every other week just one day.


Major changes are to be avoided if possible, but I would start stronger than this. That testing level isn't going to provide much information about the acceptance of a diet change or provide measurable results. I would serve small rations daily and see if you can establish acceptance. If that part goes well, you can moderate the extent of the diet change with small portiions.

Sophie had to be taken off of dry kibble due to health issues. We moved to wet foods with great success. She is now on a 100% wet food diet and I am experimenting with whole foods and raw foods as well now.

Yeah, I got fooled by the protein and fat percentages on the canned food labels and was introduced (right here) to 'Dry Matter Basis', which is a calculation that accounts for the water in wet foods and provides the true percentages. And yeah, they are as high and higher than dry foods. The quantity eaten makes a difference, but once Sophie got a taste of better foods, she started eating like a pig and that settled that. She's always ate okay before, but wow!



> I was unaware that wet food would make him gain weight!


It's way more complicated than that. When you start making diet changes, keep daily notes of everything.

Sophie absolutely refused 'moistened' kibble. Those experiments were a complete failure. She would go hungry and I wouldn't try to force the issue too much, so changed tactics.

For some animals, the benefit to hydration from a wet-food diet cannot be overstated.

In order to allow Sophie to free-feed, I increase the volume of her food with high quality, but low energy density, vegetables. She gets some ground kibble. She gets some meat, but she's got to eat the veggies also. This fills her up, but restricts the amount of high energy food. (Note: Most veggies are very low-cal, but not all. Watch out for that.)

Her 'entree dishes' are blends made with Gerber and Beechnut baby foods (chicken, turkey); canned cat foods (a selection of Natural Balance, Merrick, Blue); and a selection of Gerber and Beechnut baby food vegetables. (Some ground kibble also.)

She didn't take to the veggies very well. No surprise there, so shifted to just giving small amounts - like 2 grams veggies to 6 grams meat. She did well with this and then I was able to slowly adjust from there.

She was gaining weight - not too much - so used the veggies to manipulate how much fuel she gets. She is steady right now getting three entree dishes per night with 1 1/2 grams ground kibble, 4 grams meat, 8 grams veggies, thinned with water. She won't eat wet food that starts to dry out, so I thin pretty well (short of soupy, though).

She's getting mealies, crickets, and pinky mice in moderation. Though we are moving more toward whole and raw foods, starting only with wet foods and not complicating with these other items would be prudent. Take your time with things.

I started her on just the meats for a wet food, which I think made adding veggies even harder. With another animal I would be inclined to start a taste for veggies early on by doing some sort of blend from the start.

This is one of our wet food videos.
(11:12)





As far as exercise, if wheel time is down a lot, she simply may be slowing down from age. Sophie quit liking her 'play area'. She does have a very large cage, but her wheel is 95%+ of her exercise. I have no Plan B.

.


----------



## sklock65 (Jan 9, 2013)

One more thing to consider with wet food is that you can't really free feed the way you can with dry food. By this I mean I leave food in Henry's bowl always...and the wet food will spoil so you just need to be careful!

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Erizo (Jul 25, 2012)

There are, of course, tons of interesting videos out there, but I think this one gives a pretty good overview of 'optimal diet choices'. Pay close attention to the last and very worst diet possible, #13. So hard to know, to make correct adjustments. I wish that I could just put a probe up her butt to check nutrient levels. Ha!






.....................................................

Good point by sklock65 about the time constraints of free-feeding wet food. Sophie gets early-night and late-night feedings, which works very well. The larger share she gets early, and then I make an assessment about how much more to put out. I always aim for her to have some left over, but if I'm wrong it isn't that big a deal. At worst, she eats well and I keep it in mind for the next night.

I was leaving a few pieces of quartered dry kibble out during the day, but stopped because she never, ever comes out during the day. Also, it won't hurt her to not have food during the day even if she did come out. When she gets older, if her behavior changes, which is very possible, I would reassess the choices.

Once in a rare while I have to leave her alone for up to 36 hours. I will leave four of her wet-food entree dishes in her cage. Each will have a slightly larger portion than usual and be maximally hydrated with extra water to defend against drying out. This works very well for her.

I tried freezing her servings, but that seemed a waste of time. It is still a pretty small amount of food and fully thaws in no more than an hour.

With the time frames that I work with, spoilage is not a concern for me.

If I ever need to be gone for a period that would require a second night's food, that would be a problem. (For which I do not yet have a good solution.) (Or even a bad solution. Ha!)

.


----------

