# How much should my hedgehog be eating?



## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

I have no clue how much he should be eating daily and I want to make sure he is eating enough. He is a little over a year old.
I feed him... I forget what it is called, I will check when I get home. but it is one of those special ones and is not cheap, defiantly not that "cat junk food" (I have 2 cats at my mom's so I usually know which foods are healthier even though they eat fatty foods )
I recently added some actual hedgehog food. on there it said that I should give him 1-3 tbsp of food, so i did that and when I looked in the morning it still looked like he had a lot of food left. I'm thinking he might have eaten 1tbsp of food...
I also feed him ~2 meal worms a day and will be adding crickets next Friday when I get paid, then I can buy that cricket thing with the tubes.
Are pears safe to feed him?
Recommended diet?

Oh and he has a toy and I noticed that there is some blood on it, I believe it is from chewing it. I had a dog with weak jaws that bled when he chewed on toys too since he never got to play with toys that often. I bought my hedgehog from someone and I don't think that he ever got toys... he didn't really even have a lot of room to run and I don't think he was taken out often either since they kept him in a tiny tiny little tank, his wheel was even too small for him and I didn't even realize that for a few months since I never saw him run on it. Apparently the little running sounds I heard every night was just him pushing it with his from feet, the rest of him on the ground :lol:


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## alyssinreality (Jan 18, 2012)

In your thread where you post the video of him playing with the soccer ball, Nancy suggests that maybe it is stuck on his teeth? If that is the ball you are talking about then it is quite possible that caused a little bit of blood.


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## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

That is the exact ball I am talking about. is it a big problem or is it ok?


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Stay with the cat food, not hedgehog food. All commercial hedgehog foods are crap, and some of them have things (like raisins or nuts) that are dangerous for hedgehogs to eat. The very best of them are simply full of fillers like corn.

Pretty much everyone here free feeds, which means having enough kibble in the bowl so the hedgehog can have as much as it wants with a little left over. The exact amount will vary by hedgehog, their age, and the food itself. A better quality food is giving better nutrients and sometimes that means they won't eat as much, because they don't need it. 1-2 tablespoons is a good place to start, then just tweak the amount appropriately.


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## Hillybean (Jun 10, 2010)

If you even think that could be the case, then I would take it out. It would be bad if he lost a tooth due to it getting stuck. 

Hedgies eat different amounts. The best thing to do is to count the kibble you give him every night and recount them of a morning. That should eventually tell you, what his normal or average amount of dry kibble intake is for him.

My girl eats a whole 1/4 cup of dry kibble a night with a few left by morning....


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Hillybean said:


> My girl eats a whole 1/4 cup of dry kibble a night with a few left by morning....


Babies in general tend to eat more than adults.


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## Hillybean (Jun 10, 2010)

Yeah, at 287grams and only..well 13wks tomorrow..She seems like a biggen . Like a hog on sticks...


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Hillybean said:


> Yeah, at 287grams and only..well 13wks tomorrow..She seems like a biggen . Like a hog on sticks...


287g is hardly big for that age. :] 250 is typically the low end of the range for a full-grown (healthy) hedgehog, but the range is pretty big. 1000g is usually mentioned as the high end, though from what I've seen, that doesn't seem common. You'll see plenty that are in the high hundreds, though. Hedgehog weight is weird; a certain weight can be overweight for one but 'just right' or even too skinny for another. Another number to help put it in perspective: most breeders won't let a baby go home until it reaches 100-125g or so; the exact number depends on the breeder.

It can be helpful to weigh them on a weekly basis, particularly as babies. If they're gaining, they're doing well - but they also don't necessarily gain every week. Some hedgehogs will plateau for a little while and then resume gaining; some will have large growth spurts and not really gain between the spurts; and some will have a very steady increase. On average, it seems that around 10g (which is about 1/3 of an ounce) per week is what to expect if you're dealing with a steady grower, at least in the beginning. (That's after they've been weaned; they obviously gain quite a bit more in the first weeks of life.) The rain of gain generally seems to slow down pretty noticeably somewhere around 12-16 weeks, and 6 months is around when they'll settle at their adult weight - though like pretty much all age-based expectations for hedgehogs, this is a guideline at best. A very tentative guideline, in some cases, haha.

Ares gets weighed every Friday; he was born on a friday, so it lines up with each week of him getting older. This past Friday he was 245g (11 weeks old). He gained a lot the first week-ish that he was home, almost 40g, and then the next week it was 10g, and then the next week was pretty much none, and then he started gaining again, but it's definitely not a steady increase.


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## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

Thanks for all the replies!
I will be taking the ball out and going to get a new toy tomorrow (I found him cuddling with a little teddy bear when I came home!  ).
Also, this is the ingredients to what I am feeding him since I am not seeing any raisins, nuts, corn ect.; (this might be quite long)

Hedgehog Food (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16627)
Poultry Meal, Blood Meal, Fish Meal, Shrimp Meal, Crab Meal, Tuna Meal, Chitin Powder, Wheat Bran, Dried Beet Pulp, Freeze-Dried Mealworms, Fish Oil, Vegetable Oil, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Yeast Culture, Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Choline Chloride, Full Fat Flax Meal, Dried Kelp Meal, L-Lysine, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Psyllium Seed Husk, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin C3 Supplement, Niacinamide, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Dimethylpyrimidinol Bisulfite (source of Vitamin K activity), Biotin, Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, L-Ascorbyl 2-Polyphosphate (source of Stabilized Vitamin C), Beta Carotene, Yucca schidigera Extract, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium bifidum Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product, Torula Dried Yeast, Cobalt Glucoheptonate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Selenium Yeast, and Sodium Selenite.

Cat Food (Horizon: Legacy Grain Free!  ) http://www.horizonlegacypetfood.com/legacy-cat.html
Chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, peas, pea starch, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, source of vitamin E), salmon, salmon meal, egg product, herring oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, source of vitamin E), fructooligosaccharides, yucca schidigera extract, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, pineapple, dried trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, dried rhizopus oryzae fermentation extract, dried enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried bifidobacterium bifidum fermentation product, dried lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, taurine, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, d-calcium pantothenate, biotin, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), ferrous sulphate, iron proteinate, zinc sulphate, zinc proteinate, manganous oxide, manganese proteinate, copper sulphate, copper proteinate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, magnesium oxide.

I also feed him live meal worms and I am starting him on live crickets (blah) which are eating "Flunker's High Calcium Cricket Diet" and currently a piece of a pear.
How do I make a digging thing that I've seen others have... and how do the crickets not escape?!


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## pearlthehedgie (Feb 15, 2011)

Our Pearl is a year old and is a fairly good sized hedgehog--just under 500 grams. She eats about 6-8 grams of dry kibble each night in addition to her "extras" which include stuff like crickets, mealworms, fruits, chicken, eggs, cottage cheese, baby food, etc.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Sunseed isn't a horrible hedgehog food, and is considered to be one that's okay to feed, as long as it's in a mix with good cat foods. However, I'd change out the cat food you're feeding - the protein is a bit too high. You want to look for something with 35% or less in protein. High protein content can cause issues with the kidneys, including kidney failure, so it's best to go lower.

Digging areas are up to your creative impulses! You just need some sort of pan or container (some people uses cardboard lids, some use metal pans, plastic pans, whatever you want and can find - though something you can wash and re-use would probably be best), and to fill it, you can use medium aquarium stones - just make sure they're not small enough for him to get them in his mouth, and make sure they're smooth. The clear or colored glass stones you can find for aquariums would work great. If you're planning to hide his insects in this, you'll need to freeze the crickets, then thaw them out before you put them in his cage. People generally feed live crickets either by giving them directly to the hedgie (with plastic tongs or something, not your fingers), or letting them hunt in the bathtub.


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## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

so I shouldn't be too concerned about him being over or under weight and he will just eat however much he needs?
 Sounds good to me!
and Yay! his food bowl is half empty!

Everyone in this forum is so helpful, I wish I had learned about this forum sooner!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

For the most part, yes. Just make sure you're still keeping an eye on his weight for sudden huge changes, and watch his body shape - that'll probably give you more of a clue as to whether he needs higher/lower fat than his number weight will. Generally you change the fat percentage though, rather than the amount of food.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

I was also about to comment on the fat/protein content of that cat food. The suggested percentages for most hedgehogs is 25-35% protein (though many people won't go higher than 32-33%) and under 15% fat. Generally a little more fat than that is given to babies, and hedgehogs that end up being extremely active runner-types end up needing more fat, but those ranges are the standard. There's a sticky thread with a list of a ton of cat foods with those percentages and the first ingredients, so you can compare and find something good. Some good brands to consider are Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul (both the light and regular versions are commonly used; I use the former), Innova, Blue Buffalo (though some of them can be too high in protein), Natural Balance, Royal Canin; there are some other ones that are frequently used by people on the forum, but those are the brands I can remember off the top of my head.

If he's eating well and gaining weight (slowly, steadily, or otherwise), those are good signs. Losing weight would mean he's not getting enough fat content or not enough food overall (the latter issue which is easy to avoid with free feeding). A healthy hedgehog will look more or less like | | from directly above; some will be more of a teardrop shape with more of it at the back, and there are other variations in body type. An overweight/obese hedgehog will look more like ( ) and an underweight/skinny hedgehog will look like ) ( - if the sides are sunken in, that's underweight, and signs of obesity are fat legs and the inability to fully roll up. You shouldn't have an obesity problem if you keep the fat content in the appropriate range. Most issues with underweight hedgehogs or weight loss are with hedgehogs that are extremely active. Like Lilysmommy said - for issues of too-fat or too-skinny, the best way to deal with it is to adjust the fat content of the food, not the amount of food.


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## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

moxieberry said:


> I was also about to comment on the fat/protein content of that cat food. The suggested percentages for most hedgehogs is 25-35% protein (though many people won't go higher than 32-33%) and under 15% fat. ...Some good brands to consider are Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul (both the light and regular versions are commonly used; I use the former), Innova, Blue Buffalo (though some of them can be too high in protein), Natural Balance, Royal Canin; there are some other ones that are frequently used by people on the forum, but those are the brands I can remember off the top of my head.
> 
> If he's eating well and gaining weight (slowly, steadily, or otherwise), those are good signs. Losing weight would mean he's not getting enough fat content or not enough food overall (the latter issue which is easy to avoid with free feeding). A healthy hedgehog will look more or less like | | from directly above; some will be more of a teardrop shape with more of it at the back, and there are other variations in body type. An overweight/obese hedgehog will look more like ( ) and an underweight/skinny hedgehog will look like ) ( - if the sides are sunken in, that's underweight, and signs of obesity are fat legs and the inability to fully roll up. You shouldn't have an obesity problem if you keep the fat content in the appropriate range. Most issues with underweight hedgehogs or weight loss are with hedgehogs that are extremely active. Like Lilysmommy said - for issues of too-fat or too-skinny, the best way to deal with it is to adjust the fat content of the food, not the amount of food.


That information is very helpful along with all the others posted, I will have to use this cat food until I get paid in a week, I might just give it to my mom since my 2 babies (cats... already over a year old but they will always be babies to me! :lol: ) live with her.
All of those brands are so expensive =( I have heard of all those brands before specifically looked at royal canin and blue buffalo before since I was going to buy a bengal/savannah (If you are a cat person look those up! cutest things ever if you love energetic cats.. hopefully I have one in 3 years!)
I've heard good things about Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul a lot on this forum but I have no clue where I can find it! the rest I can find though.
I think until I get paid I will feed him less cat food and a bit more of the hedgehog food just to hopefully tone down the fat a little =)


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

He should be fine until you can get a new one, so don't worry too much. It's just not a good idea to feed a higher protein food for a long period of time. If you can get something different and start working it in in the next couple of weeks, that should be just fine.

And keep in mind that while those recommended brands are all expensive...Hedgehogs eat very little compared to cats. People often find that a 5-lb bag of cat food will last for a couple of months with their hedgehog, and if you use two or more cat foods mixed together, they last twice as long. That definitely offsets the cost of them, and you can rest easier knowing your hedgie is getting good, healthy food.  You can always put extra food in gallon plastic freezer bags and keep them in a freezer, if you have one. Just make sure you write down when you put the food in the freezer and what the bag expiration date is. The freezer will keep the food past the expiration date in some cases, but after about 6-7 months, it'll start losing nutrition even in the freezer, so you'll want to replace it even if you have some left. Sometimes hedgies will start eating less or going off their food and it turns out the problem is an old bag of food that's starting to go stale.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

The cost for better brands of cat food does seem high... but when you consider the fact that you're paying about $20 for a 3 pound bag of food that will last you at least the 6 months until possible expiration, it isn't bad at all. $20 divided by 6 comes out to $3.33 a month spent on cat food.  Not to mention the fact that if you're feeding a cruddy food with a bunch of corn fillers in it, hedgie will eat more. Which means more money spent on the food and more poop that you have to clean up.


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## Tina. (Feb 15, 2012)

Oh and for digging area, is a cube cardboard box tipped to the side ok? I was thinking of maybe stapling fleece to the top and having it drape down so it covers the open side and I can fill it with something... I have no clue what, maybe cut up strips os fleece and then put a cricket in there? would the fleece covering the open end hold the cricket in there? I would watch to make sure he eats it of course. And do crickets have to be gut loaded before feeding? I've had them in a container for a few hours now with the cricket diet and a piece of pear.




hanhan27 said:


> The cost for better brands of cat food does seem high... but when you consider the fact that you're paying about $20 for a 3 pound bag of food that will last you at least the 6 months until possible expiration, it isn't bad at all. $20 divided by 6 comes out to $3.33 a month spent on cat food.  Not to mention the fact that if you're feeding a cruddy food with a bunch of corn fillers in it, hedgie will eat more. Which means more money spent on the food and more poop that you have to clean up.


Nicely stated haha. defiantly noticed more poop this morning when I added the cat food back into his diet, the day before there was very little poop and that was with just the hedgehog food.



Lilysmommy said:


> You can always put extra food in gallon plastic freezer bags and keep them in a freezer, if you have one.


My family would be so mad at me if I put non-human food in there :lol: That does sound like a good idea though and if I had my own mini freezer that's where his crickets and meal worms would go too. but then again watching him chase crickets is so much fun! I thought I'd be a lot more squirmy with the crickets


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## Miss Prickles (Apr 12, 2015)

Is Mazuri Insectivore Diet good for my hedgehog? She eats it and it is what my breeder gave me to feed her.


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

It would be better if you started your own thread to ask questions. This thread is a few years old and it can be confusing to people reading it and cause your question to be skipped over.

To answer your question, I checked out Mazuri on recommendation from my vet, and no. It's garbage. There are stickies on the forum talking about hedgehog nutrition and what you should be looking for as well as some recommendations.


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## Ally's_Oliver (Feb 8, 2015)

im not sure if someone else mentioned this (there were alot of very informative responses!), but the better quality of food that you feed, usually the less your hedgehog will eat (and poop!) because he will get satisfied faster and retain the food for longer where as cheap fillers will force the hog to eat more and then get hungry again in a short amount of time. also baby growing hedgehogs will eat more.


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