# Told by vet my hog is overweight



## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

I took my hog to the vet and she told me he was over weight. I free feed my prickle pig. Is it true that a hedgehog doesn't know when to stop eating? I was told to feed him 12 pieces of kibble a day, and bugs are a free food because they are low carb and high in protein. He already looks smaller in size when he only been on a diet for two weeks. Should I never free feed my hog because it's bad for him or does it depend on the hog? He is weird because he eats anything that is in front of his face including goat soap he found under the cabinet yesterday.


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## Dtil (Jun 5, 2016)

bugs are very fattening, either portion control his food, depending on the size of the kibble he should be getting more than 12. I think its 2-3 tablespoons a day or switch to a lower fat food like a senior food or weight loss. Some hedghogs can be pigs and will eat way more than they really need to. Weight loss according to my vet should be pretty slow.


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## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

I thought it was really weird my hog is 7 months old and she told me he was over weight. I feed him a grain free blue buffalo adult cat food. He always finish eating all the food in his bowl and apparently he's eating a unhealthy amount of food; is there a good brand of weight control cat food that anyone could think of? My friend has a hog that is two and he is almost double the size of him already.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

How much food are you giving him? Usually limiting the food intake is normally the last resort.
Think about it in humans. If a person is morbidly obese, completely sedentary, and eat nothing but triple cheeseburgers every day, the first suggestions would be to become more active and make better food choices. 
Maybe your hedgehog is just a bigger hog, maybe he isn't as active, maybe he needs a lower fat food.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

What's the fat percentage on the food? 

Bugs are variable - yes, they're low carb, but some are still high in fat and wouldn't be a good idea. If you're looking for good ones that aren't as high, go for crickets, dubia roaches, mealworm beetles (not the worms), and maggots (can find them on a couple sites as "spikes"). However, you should be careful about making them a large part of the diet or most of the diet over kibble as they're not balanced. 

Can you take some pictures of your hedgie from the top and the side? Try to get ones where he's just standing normally, if possible. Do you know what his actual number weight is in grams? It's something you're going to want to monitor weekly, since it's a good sign of potential illness. And if you're having him lose weight, you want to make sure you're tracking it so you don't go too fast.


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## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

I don't know his actual weight and I have to look at the percentage when I get home.


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## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

He was 3.6 on scale at the vet


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

3.6 what?


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## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

Lilysmommy said:


> What's the fat percentage on the food?
> 
> Bugs are variable - yes, they're low carb, but some are still high in fat and wouldn't be a good idea. If you're looking for good ones that aren't as high, go for crickets, dubia roaches, mealworm beetles (not the worms), and maggots (can find them on a couple sites as "spikes"). However, you should be careful about making them a large part of the diet or most of the diet over kibble as they're not balanced.
> 
> Can you take some pictures of your hedgie from the top and the side? Try to get ones where he's just standing normally, if possible. Do you know what his actual number weight is in grams? It's something you're going to want to monitor weekly, since it's a good sign of potential illness. And if you're having him lose weight, you want to make sure you're tracking it so you don't go too fast.


Will theses photos work?


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## carebear123 (Apr 28, 2016)

twobytwopets said:


> 3.6 what?


I have no idea that what is said on her fancy scale and I know it's not possible for a hedgehog to be 3 pounds


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Unless I'm missing something in the two photos you shared, he doesn't appear to be overweight. 
Did you mention the size comparison between you and your friends hedgehog to the vet? Because assuming the 3.6 was ounces, he isn't overweight at all.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

He does look a bit squishy in the first picture, but not really enough to warrant such a drastic cut in food. Do you know what the fat percentage of his food is? Or what the specific name of the food is? It may just be that he needs a lower fat food to maintain his weight around what it is currently. Or depending on how much you were feeding him before, a set amount that's between that and what the vet is trying to recommend. I do think he needs more than 12 pieces of food, depending on the size of food. I would give at least 1 tablespoon, maybe 2 tablespoons if he was getting more than that before.


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

Yeah. 12 pieces of kibble seems absolutely ridiculous. Especially if you're feeding cat food. Those pieces are really small.

Where you giving a particular amount before or were you just filling up the bowl?


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## Hedgehog Swag (Feb 19, 2016)

Lilysmommy said:


> What's the fat percentage on the food?
> 
> Bugs are variable - yes, they're low carb, but some are still high in fat and wouldn't be a good idea. If you're looking for good ones that aren't as high, go for crickets, dubia roaches, mealworm beetles (not the worms), and maggots (can find them on a couple sites as "spikes"). However, you should be careful about making them a large part of the diet or most of the diet over kibble as they're not balanced.


Always enjoy your insight on diet. Can you help explain the negative of "fat" from insects? Is it a weight issue or overall health issue? For instance in humans it is much more the carbs that cause weight gain than fat. In fact if you do a low carb diet you can eat all the fat and protein you want. My Scrizzie hates veggies, enjoys some fruit like bananas but the vast majority of her diet is live insects. Appreciate your input!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I actually want to do more reading into different forms of fat, how it gets metabolized, & the effects on animals. It's something I don't know as much about, like whether you still have to worry as much about the DMB fat content of a wet food or if it's a little less of a concern than it is with dry food (like protein), and pros/cons of fattier insects & meat and how much of an effect they have. As far as I know with dogs & cats, fat from meats is a good/necessary part of the diet (still carefully monitored, of course) and it is carbs that are the main issue for excessive weight gain. I would expect the same to be true for hedgehogs, especially given that it's pretty common for hedgehogs on poor quality foods (that have tons of grains/carbs) to be overweight. But I would still be careful about the really fat insects, like waxworms, since I think high amounts of fat at once could still potentially cause a problem. But then, there's such limited experience with raw feeding hedgehogs, or even feeding a lot of insects, that it's hard to really know for sure. There are also situations where people have noticed that even feeding mealworms daily have caused a weight gain in a hedgehog. So if you have a hedgehog that you're trying to have lose weight or maintain weight that gains easily, I would still recommend avoiding feeding the higher fat insects daily & keep them to every few days/once a week. But even then I still think that lower fat insects should be a daily addition to the diet (if the hedgehog eats them).

That all said, with my personal experience, I give Bindi waxworms every three days and she probably gets somewhere around 8-10 at a time (a spoonful, more or less). Haven't had any issues with this so far and while I really need to weigh her again, her weight's been stable on the diet thus far. She also gets duck as one of her meats, which is pretty high fat, and she gets 6-8 mealworms daily in her live worm bowl with her phoenix worms. I may have to cut down on some of the fatty bugs once I weigh her - she looks like she's gotten a little squishier than I'd like recently, but need to check the weight number since I don't trust my eyes. I also need to take her in for a one-year wellness exam sometime this month or next, and I'm also hoping to meet with one of the vets at my clinic that specializes in diets and see what she thinks of Bindi's diet. I meant to do it sooner than now, given that Bindi was a growing animal & I wanted to be sure she was getting what she needed, but never got around to it. But at least no health issues that are visible to me, anyway.


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## Hedgehog Swag (Feb 19, 2016)

Thanks for the input. The only thing I can add is what I learned working with a nutritionist a few years back. When going low carb you have to have fat in replacement of the carbs or you will get really run down energy wise. You are dead on with the carbs and it has taken the world of nutrition a long time to catch up with the likes of Dr. Atkins where the really enemy is carbs when it comes to weight. Please update when you have the opportunity to speak with the vet/dietician.


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