# Exotic Nutrition Hedgehog complete



## k.kariah (Jan 23, 2019)

After reading over a few of the other posts I've realized I've made a pretty newbie mistake. 

I'm a first time Hedgie owner. I rescued a sweet girl named Norma. She was eating a low grade dollar store cat food so I wanted to do something good and bought Hedgehog complete from exotic nutrition. You'd think something that has a hedgehog on it would be good for hedgehogs but surprise! It's not. Sadly I only realized this after my Norma refused to eat it and came here for guidance.

I wrote to the company itself and they replied. My reason for writing all of this is to ask you if one of their suggestions is in fact better. It sounds better but I am new and can easily be swayed. 

Here were their suggestions:



Premium Insectivore Diet
Ingredients: poultry by-product meal, rice flour, wheat, wheat middlings, fish meal, fructose, coconut oil, soy lecithin, limestone ground, oats, flax seed meal, algae meal, egg product (dehydrated), vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate (vitamin e supplement), niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, taurine,vitamin A acetate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin k activity), biotin, riboflavin-5-phosphate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, l-lysine, dlmethionine, calcium propionate (preservative), l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), ferrous sulfate, manganese oxide, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate.


OR


Berries and Bugs diet
Ingredients: wheat flour, meat & bone meal, soybean meal, pork by-products meal, corn oil, corn gluten meal, dextrose, tomato pomace, blueberries, adult insects, insect larva gut-loaded with spirulina and canthaxanthin, salt, brewers yeast, rosemary, bee pollen, choline chloride, dl-alpha, tocopheryl acetate, zinc oxide, niacin, natural mixed tocopherols, vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, vitamin A acetate, ascorbic acid, iron sulfate, manganese oxide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, folic acid supplement ethylenediamine dihydriodide, D-biotin supplement, D-activated animal sterol (source of vitamin D3).


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## BadgerTheHedgie (Sep 5, 2018)

Unfortunately, almost all hedgehog foods/insectivore diets out there do not provide accurate nutrition for hedgehogs. Most of them are just guesses on hedgehog nutrition because hedgehogs have not been domesticated long enough for extensive research. Hedgehog food companies make poor food with cheap ingredients and sell them for high prices. They put labels such as "Exotic" and "Hedgehog" on the bags to make people want to buy them. These foods that you listed will not kill your hedgehog by eating them, but your hedgehog might not be getting all the nutrition that it needs. If you really want to feed a hedgehog food, there is one exception called Spike's Delite Ultra (the ultra diet specifically) that many breeders are now feeding. It is expensive and you can only order it online through Pet-Pro Products website so many people decide to stick with cat food. By looking at the ingredients of the Exotic Nutrition foods that you listed, you can see that these foods contain crap ingredients such as by-products, wheat, meat & bone meal, corn, etc. which are all cheap unhealthy ingredients that you do not want to see in your hedgehog's food. Also, if you go to the Exotic Nutrition website, the Berries and Bugs diet that you were looking at does not contain enough protein or fat for hedgehogs. The protein is 18% and the fat is 9% which are way too low for hedgehogs. When looking for a cat food, you want a food with 30-35% protein and around 10-15% fat. You also want to make sure that the food that you chose to feed has a healthy protein such as chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, etc. as your first ingredient. None of the foods by Exotic Nutrition meet these requirements and the same with most other hedgehog/insectivore diets. I suggest and I am sure most other people would suggest a cat food. The food can have healthy grains like brown rice and oats, but you want to avoid grains like wheat and corn as hedgehogs cannot properly digest these. Popular cat food brands for hedgies are Chicken Soup for the Soul, Blue Buffalo, Innova, Natural Balance, Wellness, and many more. You may want to look at the stickies on the forum to find more information about acceptable cat foods. Here is another helpful source: http://www.volcanoviewhedgehogs.com/kibble-list.html I am by far no expert, but I have gotten my information from this forum and experienced breeders. Sorry for the long post but I thought that you would find this helpful!:grin:


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## Mecki (Nov 4, 2017)

k.kariah said:


> Sadly I only realized this after my Norma refused to eat it and came here for guidance.


Nutrition factors aside, it is my understanding that whenever one switches food types or brands there is a potential that the hedgie will refuse the new, unfamiliar food. For this reason it is recommended to_ transition_ new pellets by mixing the old (former) with the new.

Mixing 3 parts old to 1 part new for a number of days. Then equal parts of each for a number of days. Then 1 part old to 3 parts new - same thing. This way the hedgie can get used to the new food gradually, and hopefully without stomach upset.


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## k.kariah (Jan 23, 2019)

Thank you BadgerTheHedgie, and Mecki! I've decided to look into Blue Buffalo and Natural balance and forget about Exotic Nutrition completely! I feel a little more confidant about what *not* to get. I'll read through the stickies and see what one will be best for us. Thank you again


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