# Obese Hedgehog



## taylorndean (Mar 18, 2014)

Okay so my male hedgehog Kovu is overweight, and he isn't getting any skinnier. I noticed today he had some yellowing under his armpits. So now I'm really starting to be concerned about his weight and would really like some tips!


I have three hedgehogs currently, my two females, are both a very healthy weight. My vet in fact raves about how "in shape" they are and says they are the "model hedgehogs" :lol: 

My first hedgehog who passed away at the beginning of this year was also super healthy and a perfect weight. 

But now, this male hedgehog I have, Kovu, is SO big. He is well over 400 grams and is only roughly 7 months old. He eats the exact same stuff my other hedgehogs do and he's still this big while they're so small, so it's obviously genetics. He gets his exercise (has a wheel in his cage and is also let out of his cage while I watch him run around) and I even cut back on portions for his food so he's eating less than my small hedgehogs and is still practically more than twice their size! 

Are there any tips any of you have for hedgehogs to help them lose weight?

I feed all my hedgehogs about 14-20 pellets of Purina "True Nature" Cat Food in Chicken flavor (no grains or fish in it) mixed with about 2 tablespoons of Hedgehog Food by Vita Prima **** note that my hedgehogs seem to almost NEVER touch this food. But when I told my new vet (my old one who I loved moved away) I wasn't giving them any hedgehog food he said I needed to keep that in their diet. *** and then some chopped up boiled carrots, 3-4 mealworms every few days, and some other occasional greens and veggies. 



It's been hard finding a good food for them, any food that has fish in it makes them STINK, and since I am highly allergic to wheat/gluten I need their food to also be gluten free to avoid coming in contact with it in any way.


Please leave some tips! I'm worried about his weight and don't want him to have a shortened life due to it in the future.


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## honeywhistle (Mar 29, 2014)

I think what you will probably hear from others is that you can find healthier cat food than the Purina brand if you want. There are some great stickies in the Nutrition forum detailing different foods and their respective Protein/Fat/Fiber components. Check this out for starters:

http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html

As for Hedgehog food, I don't think your vet knows what he is talking about. 'Hedgehog Food', 'Dog Food', 'Cat Food' etc are just labels, denominations. In other words that is simply a name dropped over a collection of different ingredients. Unless there is some crucial ingredient in 'Hedgehog Food' that can't be found in 'Cat Food' say, there's no reason why he would need Hedgehog food in his diet. I mention this because Hedgehog food seems to have a reputation of being composed of a lot of junk. I can't speak from experience, though. They don't sell it where I live.

Greens, veggies, carrots all sound great (if he'll eat them). 3-4 mealworms a day might be something you could cut back on if you're worried about his weight--they're very high in fat.

Above and beyond all this...is 400g fat? I know you mentioned the yellowing in his armpits...do you mean like fat pouches? I'm not saying whether he is or isn't fat, just that I wouldn't make that judgement based on him being 400g at 7 months alone.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I really would change his food, at least, even if you leave the other two on what they're getting. Honestly, I'd recommend changing the food for all of them, or mixing in a lower protein cat food. 40% is considered too high for hedgehogs. The fat content of the food is 15% which is the highest recommended for typical hedgehogs. I would try to find something that's around 10-12% for your boy since he doesn't need the extra fat.

And vets are unfortunately not too knowledgeable about nutrition, which sounds weird! But they don't get a lot of specific training on it in vet school, so unless they take a special interest in it & do more research themselves, they don't know a ton. Hedgehog food isn't necessary, and the ingredients are absolutely awful. Since they don't eat it, you really don't have to give it to them. If you'd prefer to follow your vet's recommendation, it's not going to hurt since they're not eating it anyway, but might as well save your money. 

It might be a good idea to switch insects to lower fat ones. No more mealworms - try crickets and dubia roaches instead. Both are quite low in fat.

As far as weight & size, it can be really hard to make comparisons between hedgies. They're all different and weight & size alone don't determine if they're too big. Some just have bigger frames - it's possible for a hedgehog to weigh 600-800 grams and not be overweight. But what you're mentioning about yellowing spots under his armpits sounds like a symptom of being overweight. Just wanted to mention that him being bigger than your others doesn't automatically mean he is.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

The hedgehog food, is that vita subscription? I didn't recall any hedgehog food on my radar being wheat free. With that food, the FIRST ingredient is wheat bran.


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## taylorndean (Mar 18, 2014)

twobytwopets said:


> The hedgehog food, is that vita subscription? I didn't recall any hedgehog food on my radar being wheat free. With that food, the FIRST ingredient is wheat bran.


nope, it's not. I have to wear gloves and use measuring spoons to put their food in their bowl. The only reason I'm doing this is because the vet insisted. But after reading the replies I'll probably stop since they don't even like it!


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

If they don't eat it, you are literally throwing money away.
Apparently my phone was nice enough to change the name of the company for me. Thank you phone, your awesome at that. 
This was the food I was asking about. http://www.sunseed.com/product/hedgehog/vitaExoticsHedgehog.html
It's not fun dealing with allergies at all, wheat allergy is difficult. As you know depending on the severity of an allergy, contact can cause issues. Let's face it, hedgehogs aren't always the cleanest eaters and will occasionally carry around "sprinkles" of food, in turn possibly sharing wheat with you. But there again, of hr doesn't eat it, he won't miss it. 
Adding of this wasn't mentioned before, highly recommend doing a mix of a few foods. Protects against food strikes due to formulas changing and recalls and such. You have an extra hurdle with feed because of your allergy. There are increasing numbers of wheat/gluten free per foods on the market.


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## Chessie (Feb 20, 2015)

taylorndean said:


> Okay so my male hedgehog Kovu is overweight, and he isn't getting any skinnier. I noticed today he had some yellowing under his armpits. So now I'm really starting to be concerned about his weight and would really like some tips!
> 
> I have three hedgehogs currently, my two females, are both a very healthy weight. My vet in fact raves about how "in shape" they are and says they are the "model hedgehogs" :lol:
> 
> ...


Look into blue buffalo foods. They have a grain free line and so does purina pro plan. Also, dog food is a option. It has a lot of the same ingredients. I go with dog food because my dogs happen to be on the same food that is good for my hedgie. It's just easier for me. It's also easier to find dog foods with higher proteins than cat food. I would not recommend the hedgehog food. My ex-boyfriend's hedgehogs both died within a year of eating that stuff on a regular basis. They also had no wheel and were in too small of a cage. But that's beside the point. We don't like the hedgehog food here and for good reasons.


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## taylorndean (Mar 18, 2014)

Lilysmommy said:


> I really would change his food, at least, even if you leave the other two on what they're getting. Honestly, I'd recommend changing the food for all of them, or mixing in a lower protein cat food. 40% is considered too high for hedgehogs. The fat content of the food is 15% which is the highest recommended for typical hedgehogs. I would try to find something that's around 10-12% for your boy since he doesn't need the extra fat.
> 
> And vets are unfortunately not too knowledgeable about nutrition, which sounds weird! But they don't get a lot of specific training on it in vet school, so unless they take a special interest in it & do more research themselves, they don't know a ton. Hedgehog food isn't necessary, and the ingredients are absolutely awful. Since they don't eat it, you really don't have to give it to them. If you'd prefer to follow your vet's recommendation, it's not going to hurt since they're not eating it anyway, but might as well save your money.
> 
> ...


Thank you (and everyone else) for all the helpful tips! I'll definitely change their food. The only reason I chose purina in the first place was because when I first got Solara from her previous owner who happened to be a hedgehog breeder that's what they were feeding her so I stuck with it assuming they knew what they were doing. But it is high in fat and protein so I'll start looking for a better food for them! Also I'll try switching it up with the insects. Surprisingly it took forever to even get my hedgehogs to eat mealworms (piper, my youngest, still refuses to), but I was always worried of any other insect being capable of crawling out of their cages. I'll give it a go though! I work at Petco so I can easily try out different things. 

The only thing about his weight that concerns me is the yellowing under the armpits and the double chin-like appearance he has. He's capable completely of rolling up into a complete ball unlike some super fat hedgehog's I've seen online. But I tend to worry about every little sign of unhealthiness from them ever since my first hedgehog suddenly developed cancer.

Here's a pic of him for a better idea of his weight!


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