# purina one chicken and rice formula



## Danielle Harrington (Sep 30, 2013)

Hey guys, 

I have been feeding my hedgie purina one chicken and rice formula for nine months now (his whole life) but I have been getting concerned if this is a good food for him or not. He seems perfectly healthy and the protein is high and the fat is low. Any ideas on this brand? It just seems so different from what everyone else uses but the breeder had him on that when I got him.


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## hlsiefken (Jan 23, 2014)

I'm a newbie myself but the breeder I am getting my baby from this weekend has hers on the same food. I will be switching to something else without corn in it. I plan on using Simply Nourish indoor cat food and maybe Wellness CORE, Grain Free adult dog food mixed in later. There's a good list of recommended foods and where to find them on the. Qin page of this section of the forum.


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## Lishuma (Jan 28, 2014)

That is what I feed Hubert and he seems fine.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Purina One is kind of medium quality. It's not terrible, but it still has some ingredients in it that aren't great. The ingredients -



> Chicken, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), whole grain corn, soy protein isolate, fish meal, animal liver flavor, potassium chloride, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, caramel color, choline chloride, salt, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, taurine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite. J-4153


Brewer's rice and corn are both fillers with not much nutrition. Chicken as the first ingredient is good...except ingredients are listed by their weight before cooking. Chicken has a lot of water in it that gives it more weight before it's cooked, but disappears during the cooking so the final product weighs much less. That means it's likely that in the final product, those two fillers make up a great bulk of the food than chicken does. Poultry by-product meal is pretty vague, which also isn't good - that means they can use animals that weren't specifically slaughtered for the food, aka dead, dying, diseased, or disabled animals. You also have no clue what birds are actually included.

Animal fat - same problem, too vague so you don't know where it's actually coming from. Another instance of corn, and soy isn't good in general for a few reasons, including because most soy in the US (and corn for that matter) is genetically modified, grown by Monsanto, which...is pretty much an awful company all around. And lastly, fish meal is also pretty vague and a little more concerning because not only do you not know the source of the fish, but any fish not meant for human consumption is required to be preserved with ethoxyquin, which was developed by Monsanto, and is linked to numerous illnesses, including cancer.

...Sorry for the long rambly ingredients rant. :lol: I enjoy picking apart pet food ingredients too much.

All in all, there's definitely much worse foods to feed. But personally, I'd rather get a higher quality food that has specified ingredients and no corn. It's also a good idea to have a mix of two or more foods, both because we don't know exact nutritional requirements for hedgehogs and in case of a recall or food becoming unavailable, you still have a food your hedgie is used to.


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## Danielle Harrington (Sep 30, 2013)

Thanks guys. =)


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