# What do YOU feed your hedgehog?



## MeowHype (Jan 29, 2014)

I am getting lots of great advice here but I am wondering what you guys do yourselves at home.

So what do you feed your hedgehog daily?


Skullmageddon: I recently adopted him less than a week ago, he was raised on 9 lives and freeze dried mealworms mixed into the kibble. He was unfortunately only given dried fruits as treats in the past.

His daily food:
My new diet plan has me mixing small amounts of Merrick Purrifect Bistro (chicken) with his current food. Also I pick out all the freeze dried mealworms in his old food I can see. I am also closing in on a second cat food to mix with the Merrick later on, but I don't want to introduce two new kibbles at once.

I would like to include vegetables to his daily diet, but I am introducing new foods slowly,I don't want to startle his system.

Treats:
He is very happy to get live mealworms as treats. Tonight I am going to see how he feels about crickets, and later in the week possibly a thawed pinky mouse. The crickets are the cheap non-gut loaded kind, however I am feeding them some kale and apples. With a block of watermelon to keep them hydrated. He ate a small piece of apple last night, but has refused banana. He did nibble on a banana pancake. (Banana Pancake Recipe: mash up one banana, mix in one egg, mix thoroughly, cook on stove top like pancake. No added sugar, but sweet and delicious, I eat this all the time. May not cook neatly into a pancake shape every time, sometimes you get a mash, but its yummy) 

Later findings concluded that he only nibbled and did not eat his piece of the banana pancake. I think he just doesn't like banana but wanted the egg.


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Daily: Right now it's just the Blue Buffalo indoor adult chicken and brown rice recipe. Within the next few weeks I'm mixing in Simply Nourish indoor turkey and oatmeal recipe, and Wellness indoor for adults.

Treats: Mine won't even take bugs as a treat. He just sniffs right past them. He will eat wet cat food and cat treats no matter what mood hes in, though.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

Pig gets a mix of Blue Buffalo Basics Duck & Potato, Natural Balance Rabbit & Salmon, and Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Adult light.

I used to use Wellness Core, but it was too rich and hurt his tummy so I switched to Natural Balance. But the NB has a high fat content (14%) and he started to gain weight so I added the Chicken Soup Light formula (9% fat) to even it out. Both the NB and Chicken Soup have 9% fiber, which evens out the lower 3.5% fiber in the Blue Buffalo.

It can be quite a process finding the right mix of foods, but this link is a big help:
http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...3034-beginner-s-guide-hedgehog-nutrition.html

And this website has a good list of quality foods as well: http://www.volcanoviewhedgehogs.com/kibble--produce.html


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## Lady (Dec 30, 2013)

Yeah, the Wellness is a bit high in protein in my opinion, but I was desperate for something with a higher-ish fiber content to balance out my BB's 4.5%, and WC was the highest I could find at the store with 8%.


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## Aether (Nov 18, 2013)

Daily: Basch gets Spike's Ultra mixed with some Hill's Science Diet Grain Free cat food.

Treats: Meal worms, crickets, chicken and gravy baby food. I tried giving him some sweet potato baby food and pea baby food, but he just gave me a look like "woman, you trying to poison me?!" and walked away.  I guess he's not a veggie type of hedgie. I also tried to give him bannana, but much like Skullmageddon, he did not care about it. He sort of liked the strawberry I let him try though.


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## ceopet (Sep 20, 2013)

For a while I was feeding Blue Buffalo wilderness kitten, with Caster and pollux organix kitten, Wellness healthy weight, and Royal Canin babycat. 

I had to switch it up though because dumb Royal Canin stopped making the baby cat then right after Wellness changed their formula and my hedgie stopped eating it. It took me forever to find a third food she liked which turned out to be Nutro healthy weight. (which has 11% fiber if you guys are looking for more fiber in your hedgies diet) 

But I was getting annoyed with trying to fuss with the food, then hearing about cats getting sick on BB so I have been feeding her a semi raw diet now for a couple of weeks I think now. 

I got Natures Varity bites, both the Chicken and duck. The way I feed it is Put a spoon full of the NV into an Ice cube tray and mix with two kinds of baby food (Turkey and veggie, sweet potato, mixed veggie, apples and chicken are all ones that seem to go over well) and fill it to the top so it freezes well. Stick them in freezer till the feeze toegether and then transfer to freezer bag I grab a cube for her every night, I break it up in to smaller peices while it's still really hard and put it in her cage not directly under her CHE, she always eats that in less than two hours. 

Some nights I also give her a beef meat ball, which I sneak veggie baby food and finely chopped spinich into and she gobbles these down also. Some nights she will get some scrambled egg with veggies mixed in it, she likes the egg but if she doesn't like the type of veg she'll only nibble around them, green beans go over well served this way. 

I still leave kibble in her cage in case she is still hungry when she is done with her raw food but she'll only eat a few peices if any. 

I also give her six meal worms nightly, which I will skip a day if I notice her poop looking too hard and dark.


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