# Food advice inconstancies.



## Axxie (Feb 26, 2009)

Hello all! 

Got my first hedgie two days ago, thing's are going really well - she's already stopped "huffing" when we pick her up, relaxes incredibly quickly, let's us stroke her too. She's also not scared when strangers come to coo over her, so that's rather pleasing.

The only thing I'm worried about for now is constant conflicting advice on what we should be feeding her, what we're giving her now seems to be working well as she's lively and happy, gets lots of exercise on her wheel and around the house, but obviously, I don't want her getting overweight.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3658/photo61q.jpg

This is her food bowl, it's about the size of an average human palm. I put in a vegetable, some hedgehog dry food and some wet cat food in it each night. Fruit is used only as a treat or once / twice a week. The vegetables are either carrot or parsnip, the cat food is one we were recommended by the vet, in either Chicken, Tuna, Tuna & Prawn mix, low in fat and high in protein obviously, the hedgehog dry food is just standard dry biscuit food made for them.

Is this too much? Too little? Right? Wrong?

I'm probably just being silly, but I'd rather ask and look a fool than compromise her in any way.

Thanks for any / all advice


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Most hedgehog food isn't that suitable for African Pygmies. It's considered better by most people to have a mix of two or more cat foods. You can use SOME hedgehog foods in your mix, but they're not that great to feed alone. Also, when feeding carrots, you'll want to make sure you cook them, so they're soft. Hard pieces can get caught in the top of a hedgie's mouth if you feed the raw. Other good treats are baby foods, as long as they don't have onion powder in them. There's a list of good cat foods, made by Reaper, that you can find here- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15
I'm not completely sure about this, but unless your hedgie has problems eating hard kibble, I think wet cat food need only be offered as a treat. But like I said, not sure, so maybe someone else could confirm or negate that.
Glad your little one's already adjusting well to her new home.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Welcome to HHC! I'm glad to see you want to give your new little girl the best possible care. 

The first thing I would recommend is reading through the stickies under Diet and Nutrition. There is a LOT of good information there, and they should answer a lot of your questions.

These two should be especially helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45

For our pet African hedgies, the best diet we know of is dry cat food. Several high-quality, low fat foods are best as a staple. Most people will mix at least two good foods. This is usually supplemented with insects (mealworms, crickets), high-quality wet cat food, scrambled eggs, fruit/veggies, etc. The above "supplements" are usually only given as a treat about twice a week or so. More often, for some of the foods, can cause upset stomachs and runny poop.

Feel free to ask any questions not covered in the above threads.


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