# Trying to make a mix he won't eat around



## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Long story short, Colin won't eat anything but his Blue Buffalo. I've got two other kinds of cat food sitting around wasting away because he just eats around them and only eats the BB. This has me even more worried now that BB might be lying about their ingredients?

Any suggestions, like foods your hedgehog has never ever turned down? Colin never, ever turns down wet cat food, so I might be looking into that, but how do you make mixes out of that?

Another thing, I don't think he's gaining weight like he should. I know hedgies are different but he doesn't look in proportion to all other hedgies I've seen online. He runs a lot at night, so I was looking into foods with higher fat content, his BB is 15% so I was looking for something higher, even though I know on the sticky it says 15% is the max, but he really does run..a LOT, like all night long.

I didn't end up getting any other foods, I wanted to hear some opinions first.

Oh, and can I somehow mix dry and wet? If I put them in separate bowls, he'll only eat the wet, I think. Would it be odd to put them in the same bowl?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

What other foods are you trying to feed him right now? Castor & Pollux might be one to try, they have higher fat foods and if I remember right, small kibble pieces which might be appealing to him. If you have a Petco near you, try buying food from there. They have a policy where you can returned opened bags of food within a month as long as you have the receipt & there's still half of the food left. Ask at other pet stores near you if they have a policy like that. We did it at the Pet Supplies Plus store I worked at too. You can also see if they have sample bags at all so you can see if he'll eat a couple pieces of kibble from those before buying a bag. You can sometimes contact companies online & see if they can send you sample bags as well.


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

I have Simply Nourish and Wellness Core. He ate them the first day, the few little pieces I put in there, then stopped after a day or two. Just really likes the BB. My closest PetCo is 45 miles away, Petsmart is 15, I think they have a similar policy though, I'll call.

I think I'll go for C&P, I'm looking through their website and I really like it so far, I love finding higher fiber contents, lol, that's another one of my concerns with him only eating one type of food right now.

Can you use puppy food, too? I was looking at kitten foods for higher fat content, but the protein is way up there. Dog foods looks like it tends to have lower protein and higher fat and fiber, just looking at the ones I've compared so far.


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## Melanie G. (May 29, 2014)

I was always told to have high protein and low fat for hedgies (due to their tendency to become obese). I've had hedgehogs for 10 years and have always fed them kitten food.


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Someone once told me they tried giving one of the foods I have to their hedgies, but the higher protein content hurt their tummy and had to be taken off, so I assumed higher protein wasn't great. But by higher I mean some of these go up to 40-42%. I like my BB at 32%.

What I'm trying to do is balance it out with a mix of three. Have one that specially covers his protein, one for fat, and the other for fiber. I like my BB's protein, and the fat's alright, but the fiber is low in my opinion at 4.5%, and I found a food I like with fiber at 8.5%, since I also heard fiber deficiency is also common. But I'm also still looking for a higher fat content and I've found some that go up to 22 percent!

I'm really obsessed with animal nutrition and I feel it's going to be my best subject in school when I start my vet-med classes just because of my hedgehog (and even though it's a long, long way off, I plan on making it an important topic for my patients), lol, so I'm sorry if that was really ranty..


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm glad you're so concerned with it and that you plan on making it a priority! So many vets are completely clueless about it and about pet foods, it's ridiculous.

Yup, you can use dog or puppy food too! The main reason it's not used often is you have to break the kibble up so it's small enough for hedgie to eat, but heck, even some cat food is big enough to need to be broken up, so that's not a big deal. And you're correct, that higher protein isn't great. It depends on the hedgehog, but higher protein in kibble can stress the kidney because kibble doesn't offer any extra moisture to help process the protein. Most people that I've seen recommend keeping it at 35% or below, just to be safe. The "high protein & low fat" thing was started when most cat foods were lower in protein. Now there's cat foods with up to 50% protein and above, which is way too high for hedgies.

Good luck finding some new foods to try, I hope your boy will take to one or two of them! I like C&P too, though I don't think I tried it with Lily. She didn't really need higher fat foods until she started losing weight towards the end, and C&P foods are all pretty high. It's definitely on the list for future hedgies that might need it though!


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

HOKAY! I really like the food I picked out, and hopefully he does too.

So my BB covers my protein at 32%, I found Hills Ideal Balance with 28% protein, 19% fat, and 3.5% fiber, so that covers his fat. Then I found Nature's Recipe with 30% protein, 12% fat, and 7% fiber, so that covers his fiber. I couldn't find C&P, I guess Petsmart maybe doesn't have it? And we don't have a PetCo, so I hope my mix is okay. 

What do you think?

The first and second ingredients are a meat, chicken to be exact..for all of them. I wish I could have found some variety, but these were the nutritional choices I made and hopefully they were good ones..And none of them have corn.

I've seen someone return food before so I think that's a policy. I forgot to ask..


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Also the Hills was very hard to get open, and I didn't have scissors so I had to use the cutting edge of a tape dispenser..it reseals with velcro.

The pieces are the perfect size too so hopefully he goes for them.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

They all look pretty good!  Nature's Recipe still has a couple of "ehhh" ingredients in it, IMO, but I would still call it a pretty decent food. It's a bit high in protein as well, but should be fine in the mix if he does eat all of them okay.

C&P is harder to find, unfortunately. If you do have trouble getting him to try either of these, or if you decide at some point you'd like to try some other foods, there's a list of websites where you can order foods online in this sticky - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html I don't know what the return policies are for any of them though, so it'd be a good idea to check into that first, or see if you can get a small sample bag from the company before you try ordering a bigger bag.

Good luck getting him to try these ones!


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## xanandali (May 19, 2014)

My guy uses his nose to shift through and only get the stuff he wants. Which is cheap kitten show the breeder was feeding him  I only got a baggie full of that when picked him up and don't want to feed him that as more than just a treat. I've already tried several kinds with him too. So I'm in the same boat (my guy won't eat any bugs or worms either!!)


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## lilbare (Jun 13, 2013)

My seem to really love the natural balance duck and peas and chicken soup for the cat lovers soul light. However I can no longer fine it on amazon  so I need to find something else to go with the natural balance.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Xanandali - Cheaper foods are sometimes liked more because the companies add flavoring to the outside to make it more appealing to the animals. That sometimes makes it hard to switch the animal (dogs & cats too) off them to something that's better for them. Good luck trying to find something that your little one will accept!

Lilbare - There's a few other websites that you can use to order food online. This one has Chicken Soup - http://www.petfooddirect.com/brand/chicken-soup . The other websites are at the bottom of this sticky if you want to see if the prices are any different - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Good news, he seems to like the Hills, ate all of it both nights so far, that is, the little bit I put in there to get him started on it, so I'll keep it going. That's the one with the high fat, too, so hopefully he'll put on some weight. I just weighed him as I was writing this, and he weighs 296 grams, and I just looked that up and that seems underweight, and now I'm worried..I'm going to start weighing daily and keep a chart. I feel like a terrible hedge-mom for not weighing him regularly now.

And yeah! He won't eat crickets or mealies. I think it's because the first time he had a cricket he choked on it a little, and scared me half to death while doing it, too.


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## jngy slate (Mar 14, 2009)

im feeding mine Merrick Healthy Senior


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