# My girl only eating mealworms and cricketts



## Bella'sMom (Feb 19, 2019)

Help! My Bella will only eat live mealworms and crickets. Have tried 2 different dry cat foods, soft cat food, hedgehog food, all approved fruits and veggies, scrambled eggs, baby food. Not sure what to try next. She won't be healthy just eating those, right?


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

What dry cat food did you try ?? What flavours did you try ?? 
Have you tried other insects other than melworms and crickets ??

If you do it right they can be healthy on raw food diets (which is basically insects without the dry biscuit and I believe dog/cat raw meat)
This link is for the stickie about it 
https://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/index.php#/topics/23066

Not all hedgehogs like fruits, vegetables, scrambled egg or wet food


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## Shaymin_Lover (Jan 27, 2019)

Raw food diets aren’t recommended for hedgehogs as we do not know much about them and there hasen’t been any extensive research done on it like there has been on dogs and cats. You could try mixing the insects into their food? Eventually they might get used to the food. Make sure you are giving them dry cat food. The first 3 ingredients should be whole meats. It shouldn’t have poultry, by-products, glucose, corn, wheat, ect. Hedgehog food is also terrible for them.


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## Shaymin_Lover (Jan 27, 2019)

Hasn’t**


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## Aj.t (Jan 29, 2019)

Hey there! You’re correct in saying that a strict diet of insects isn’t going to be beneficial in the long run; though hedgehogs are insectivores, they’re definitey omnivorous and in the wild opportunistic, so even wild species will eat more than just insects. Try the above suggestions, mixing the insects with a dry food (even crushing them up yuck), make sure the dry foods you’re offering provide quality ingredients and ingredient analysis, etc. honestly, if none of that works, personally, I would find a good quality kibble and offer only that to your hedgie. Eventually, they will get hungry enough to eat. Lol ppl gonna be coming at me for suggesting this- I’m not saying to starve them either; if they still haven’t eaten after 36 hours, go ahead and give them what they’d like to eat and try something else! I’ve actually never met a hedgie opposed to dry diet, but each lil guy is different!
Hope this helps 🙂


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

One my friends has this problems. They tried every dry cat and small dog food they could that would be good for the hog and then turned its nose up at all of them, she tried for ages in the end it needed to see a vet because of how little neuitrients it was picking up. She was still feeding her things with the neutrients just not enough because she wanted her to be eating the cat biscuit. 

She now has a raw/home cooked diet because at least she can include more vitamins.
She found a guid for neutrients for hedgehogs, found the percantages of bugs so she can work out the fat and protein % of her diet.
She then feeds her insects differnt things, like potoatoes, carrots kale broccolie she even gave some bananas to boot the nutrients for the hedgehog, with this she also gives raw cat/dog msinly chicken for more protein. Which is all better than supplemnts. Then once a week she will give the hedgie some cooked veg including sweet popato, carrots, brussel sprouts ect sticking to ones the hedgie likes, and are safe for her and will provide more nutrients that will benefit the hog. She also found something for getting omega 3 and stuff in without suppliments - I honestly forgot what it is. Shes also had calci worm pancakes a few times either once a week or every other week I've forgotten. And other little treats. Sometimes she'll get fruits mostly mashed bannana as its good for potassium.

See now she does also have a hedgehog on a dry cat food diet, and does what everyone else does and she compares them both writes it all down, and tells other people. 

Obviously not not much research by others and that has been done for giving out a good guidline and things, but I know so many people who have their hedgehogs on this diet who all have very healthy hogs, and actually a few where the owner has taken the time to look into everything some the hogs are slightly healthier.
Theres littlery no fillers like wheat and other things that arent really too good for the hedgehogs which is what we are all told to try avoid or find ones with it containing as little as possible.


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

I adopted my lovely Coco back in November, and had similar problems to you; she was _insanely_ picky, and trying her to eat any high quality cat kibble was a nightmare. Her previous owner fed her whiskas dry kibble & dried mealies and while I could switch her onto live insects perfectly fine, she refused to eat anything but her whiskas.

What I found was that if I added 2-3 drops of flaxseed oil (which I don't recommend adding daily, but instead every other day - it's great for their skin too!) on her kibble, she devoured it. For whatever reason placing her live mealies in her bowl with her kibble also seemed to entice her to eat it; I have no idea why - if it's the scent the mealworms leave on her kibble, or if she accidentally ate them while going for the mealworms - but it worked. Now, she eats her kibble like a champ without me having to try trick her into eating it, but I still do add the flax oil to her food every other day to help with her coat.

I also do a similar method with her veg; I give her cooked veggies usually once or twice a week, but I add them on top of her wet food (that simmarily, I offer to her one to two times a week) and she eats it without a second thought - when she'd totally turn her nose up at them plain. You could also do the same with dry kibble; by adding a little bit of wet cat food in if other methods don't work.

It could also be that your hog just doesn't like the brand/flavour of food you've been trying. My Coco _hates_ strong-duck flavoured foods with a burning passion, and nothing in the world will get her to eat it unless it's drenched in wet food. I now feed her a mix of AATU chicken recipe, Acana Ranchlands, Acana Wild Prairie, and James Wellbeloved Turkey (grain recipe, to drop the protein levels of the other foods in her mix to make it a more appropriate level) and she loves it. My favourite wet foods are by far from the brand Applaws; they're literally just shredded meat in broth, so are much lower in fat compared to other brands that use gravys.

Hope that helps!


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