# Which would you pick for a senior hedgie?



## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

It is a really odd feeling to decide to hold on to buying a new bag of food because you're not sure you're going to need it. :S

Now that I know my Quinn is going to live (just had her fixed, she has a uterine tumor), I can finally go buy her new food. And I figured I should work into improving her diet, given that she's a cancer survivor now, and a grumpy old lady 

Right now she was eating Pro-Plan Turkey and Rice http://www.proplan.com/dry-cat-food/ind ... fault.aspx which might not be the best option ingredient wise.

Fishing around and looking at what I can get around here I'm now looking at three different foods:

Royal Canin Indoor Mature http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/eng/ ... -Mature-27

Wellness Healthy Weight http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/product- ... ngredients

And something I never heard mentionned here, Oven-Baked http://www.ovenbakedtradition.com/en/ca ... -cats-food

Quinn isn't overweight but she isn't on the skinny side either. I'd like to give her a diet that'll keep her from getting overweight if she slows down in her wheeling, that'll keep her from having bad joint problems, and that would boost her immune system and possibly give her a better chance against cancer. She also gets dry skin often (which I handle by putting oil in her bath), maybe some foods are better for that.

Wellness looks good, and it has a pretty low fat rating. But oven baked caught my attention because of the ingredients list. It's got a higher fat rating, but it looks like it uses less grain and more veggies and fruit as filler. Quinn has refused any non-meat treats I offered her, but in chicken kibble form she might not notice!! And maybe it'd give her move vitamins this way?

What would you pick? I also have been suggested I add IP6 to her food, I'll look into that too.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Personally, I'd avoid Wellness. It is known for causing tummy upset in some hedgehogs. You don't want to risk her tummy being upset. 

I'd stick to the ProPlan for another month or so, at least until she is fully recovered from her spay. You can give her vitamins for now. Your vet will sell them. I can't remember the name of what I've used in the past but ask her vet. 

For now, it's best not to change anything and risk a tummy upset that you wouldn't know if it's caused by the different food or if there is something else going on with her.


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## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

The thing is, I'm running out of pro-plan. I'm not sure how long I have left of it, but I don't think I want to buy a new bag, considering they last me 6 months... But I was planning to use it all before I switched for those reasons!

That's too bad about Wellness, it looked like a nice option. And my friend who worked in pet food stores for a while vetoed Ovenbaked because their meat is imported.

Seems my store also holds Holistics http://holisticselect.com/product.aspx? ... d-analysis how would that be?


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

That Holistic Select food looks good! I know you've outed the Wellness and Oven Baked, I'd also not recommend feeding Royal Canin as a primary diet, they are one of those "high quality" foods that's actually complete crap, like Science Diet and Iams.


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## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

Rmmm, well it seems the store has every Holistic select products except the weight control one. All of the other ones have 20% fat.

If Wellness is vetoed (again, healthy weight wasn't in there, but Indoor health has 12% fat), all I can find in there that looks like it might be good is this, but then it's mainly fish instead of chicken, can you even feed that to hedgies?

http://www.pronature.ca/en/cat-products ... anguage=en

There's another store I need ot go check, but from their website it doesn't look like it's holding Holistic Select at all.

I'm wondering if Quinn's Pro-plan food hasn't gone stale too (it's the last of the batch and I've had it a while, had to freeze it), she hasn't been eating a lot, but she jumps eagerly on mealworms so I don't think her appetite is too affected, I'm wondering if she's not just getting uninterested in the kibbles. I think I'll try softening them up for her to see if that makes them more atractive, since I don't want to change her diet right now.

But I need to find some new, improved food for her quick before I run out of pro-plan. I don't want to end up buying another big bag, and they don't sell sample bags.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Fish is totally fine, the only reason some people say it's "bad" is that it has a fishy smell. There's nothing wrong with it, and many hedgies like seafood flavors.


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## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

Then I think I'll try it after she's had time to recover from her operation. The list of ingredients seems good, though I think Holistic select looked better...


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## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

There are several herbs listed in the ingredients of that pronature mix, would that be a problem? There's a thread here about why feeding Hedgehog herbs is a bad idea because of how small the dosage would have to be, can I assume as it's only a little part of the ingredients of the kibbles it wouldn't be dangerous?


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

The herbs in a dog or cat food are nothing to worry about. When people start feeding whole leaves of an herb to a hedgie is when there could be a problem.


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