# When to be concerned about weight loss?



## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

I know weight loss is often the first sign of illness for our little hedgies, but at what point should you be concerned?

My Puff was at 380g when we visited the vet about a month ago and we were told she was starting to get fat pockets so I cut all the > 30% protien, higher fat "junk" foods out of her mix so that she is strictly on good food. See thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2707

The past few weeks she has been slowly dropping weight however, and even snuck down to 349g one night. I know they can lose up to 30g from one poop though so I've been weighing her twice a day, without much difference beteween the weighings. Unfortunately the only time I can weight her is when I take her out for play time at night when I get home from work (around 10pm), and right away in the morning, so if she's already gone poop by the time I take her out, then her weight is the same in the morning and I can never tell if the poop did it or not.

She's back up to 360g now, and I've added the royal canin indoor light 40 back into her mix as well as increased her bug intake a bit to try get some of the weight back on, but should I be concerned?

Everything else about her is 100% great, poop looks great, food intake is great, water intake is normal. Running on her wheel like crazy. So even if I did take her to the vet....what could they really check to see if everything is alright besides bloodwork or something else invasive like that?

Should I try getting the weight back on by feeding something with more fat like Halo Spot's Stew? Or should I just monitor and see what happens?

Any Advice is appreciated!


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## HedgeMom (Nov 7, 2008)

In your other post you said she was 11 weeks. Which was one week ago. So now she's 12 weeks. A month ago would be 8 weeks. So your vet diagnosed your hedgehog as "fat" at 8 weeks? 

I'm sorry, this doesn't connect for me. Your last post at 11 weeks never mentioned the vet saying she's fat. 

12 week old hedgehogs shouldn't be dieting. It's not healthy, it can cause growth issues. Accept that she's a large, healthy hedgehog and please don't compare her to tiny little girls. It's unfair. 

My personal philosophy is better a few grams too much than a few grams too little. When they get sick that extra weight could save their life.


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## dorasdaddy (Dec 23, 2008)

Let me get this straight, You were concerned about your hedgies weight (which sounded normal to me), then you put her on a diet, and now you are concerned that she LOST weight? Is that not the point of a diet? and i agree with Hedgemom, why is she even dieting in the first place? I would look into changing vets and getting a second opinion before stressing my little one out with unnecessary diet changes.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

It's not Puff that is 12 weeks old. She has two hedgehogs. Puff is older.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Personally, I think she would benefit from a diet that is not constantly changing monthly. The subtracting and adding of kibble and the withholding and increasing of insects and kibble might end up stressing her out, or even causing an upset tummy. 

What is her normal kibble intake when you allow her to eat as much as she wants? 
Even in the previous thread, everyone suggested you free-feed her. Once you took out the fattier kibble, have you been free feeding? Or have you been withholding? With the lesser fat content, she should be allowed to eat more, by choice. 

What did you change last month other than to take out the royal canin and give her less insects?

When she weighed around 380g, did she stay in that range at every weighing?

I can't see how all this fluctuating in weights can be healthy for a hedgie... I, like HedgeMom, prefer my animals a bit "rounder" than underweight. Previously, my dog was lucky that he was a bit overweight when he got pancreatitis, otherwise, he would've been much too weak when he lost almost 20lbs.


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

First off Puff is almost 7 months, if not older. Chloe is my little one and she's growing like crazy so I'm obviously not worried about her. 

Secondly.. I never "dieted" puff. The title of that other forum was a little misleading I apologize. What the vet wanted was for me to remove the artificially protein boosted foods such as the royal canin from her diet because she has little fat pockets under her armpits and the vet was concerned about them getting bigger and wanted me to put her on lower protein foods (and by "lower" I mean in the proper range) to prevent obesity/fatty liver disease/ etc. So I removed the royal canin, which was one of Puff's favourites and have had her on CSFTCLS Light, NB Green Pea & Duck, Wellness Healthy Weight, Blue Spa Weight Control, By Nature Organics Chicken Formula and had replaced the Royal Canin with Techni-cal (a lower protein alternative) as the "junk" food, although technically it could qualify as a healthy food too cause it meets all requirements.

I also cut back her mealie intake (she was getting 3-4 a day which some say is too much, and some say is normal so who knows) and since then she has been dropping the weight.

I never wanted her to lose weight, only wanted to prevent more fatty pockets which is why I took out the royal canin and cut back on the mealies. Now she is losing weight, which is why I added them back.

Her tummy has not gotten upset in the slighest throughout this whole process because I have done it very gradually. I never suddenly removed and then suddenly added food. Honestly, she hasn't even really noticed the changes.

Her normal kibble intake is 20-40 kibble, never more and not usually less. This has not changed at all throughout changing the foods. Keep in mind I feed her close to 100 kibble per night so she definitely has the option to eat more.

When she weighed 180g it would fluctuate between 170 and 180, mostly staying at 175g.

I'm sorry everyone got confused, but it would be nice if people got their facts straight before jumping into the criticism that is far too common on this site. That being said, thank you for the advice, I appreciate the concern and enthusiasm, it' would just be nice if we could all take a step back and stop being so radical.


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## HedgeMom (Nov 7, 2008)

I apologdgize. Reading is fundamental and I got confused between the two. 

I've never dieted a hedgehog; I've provided plenty of activity and a healthy diet and it's never been an issue.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

By the sounds of things, it just seems like she's losing weight because she's eating the same amount, but it's all lower fat. And you decreased the mealies. 

The key here right now is to maintain her weight, so that it nicely plateaus and stays in the same range. And so, you need to find the proper quantity of her foods. 

Since you say that the RC is artificially enhanced, I'm partial to just leaving that out. And then just go back to giving her 3-4 mealies/day. Something else you can do, is switch Wellness Healthy Weight with Wellness Indoor Health once this current bag is done. That gives a 4% fat increase, while sticking to healthy foods. 

I think that would give a more "even" amount of food, and hopefully, she'll remain at the 360-380 range. (I'm also assuming all your "1" are actually "3" :lol: ) 

Other than that, I wouldn't change much else. Personally, I'd just monitor and keep weighing twice like you've been doing, and see how her weight is.

*edit*
Oh ya, kinda random thought while looking through your food list, which is a great one btw. I noticed that 4 out of 5 are all chicken based, it might be an idea to switch one out for Solid Gold, which is lamb(or another brand that is not chicken). It might give her more options and a new flavour for her to indulge on. ^_^ But that would be after your get her weight constant again.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Is she running on her new wheel? If so, perhaps it is the increased exercise that caused the weight loss. 

The only time I've tried to help a hedgehog loose weight, I've changed their eating habits, rather than actual dieting. They have been fed the same amount but I've offered veggies in the evening during playtime so they would fill up a bit. I've also rearranged the cage nightly so the food dish had to be searched for, as well as scattering kibble around the cage to have to be looked for, all which encouraged more activity rather than decreased food.


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

No worries hedgemom, it's definitely easy to get confused on here.

Immortalia, I am actually planning to add Solid Gold to her mix once I get everything else constant, as well as some Fromm to make her poop a little less hard, cause I've heard it's good for constipation and she's not a big drinker so I find she definitely has that problem sometimes. I just have to drive a little farther to a pet health food store first cause unfortunately most pet stores here don't carry it. Thanks for the advice though, I hadn't realized I got so many chicken foods, I guess I figured if she likes it why not kinda thing, but she's probably bored out of her mind with them. 

I actually had the wellness indoor initially when I first added wellness to her mix but unfortunately the pet store had sold me an expired bag :roll: and the only thing they had unexpired was the wellness healthy weight so they let me do a switch but not a refund. I am running low on wellness though so I will get the indoor one next time I think. My poor hedgies, I keep messing around with their food.

That's a good point Nancy. She sure does love to run on her new wheel, and with the slight inward tilt she actually doesn't fall off.... :lol: actually that makes a lot of sense. Before she could only run for 30 seconds - a few minutes before falling off, wandering around a bit, then getting back on and repeating. Now she's probably running straight through the night. Thanks for pointing that out!

Thanks everyone for the advice. Maybe I will try adding the slightly higher fat foods / different flavour foods cause she is definitely a lot less enthusiastic about the foods I'm feeding her now than she used to be, so maybe she just needs some new / tastier choices. Especially if she's more active, the fat will probably do her some good.


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