# Has anyone ever heard of this?!?!



## Mjskates (May 14, 2017)

So I was browsing hedgehog videos on YouTube and somebody commented on a video that this girl was not feeding her hedgehog right.....the person in the video was feeding cat food.....the commenter said that a hedgehogs diet should consist of non citrus fruits and unseasoned cooked chicken....the commenter also said that improper feeding like in the video can cause blindness....has anyone ever heard of anything like this?....I honestly kinda find it a little funny....I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a hedgehog going blind because of food


----------



## Yukidama's mama (Apr 4, 2017)

It's correct that they shouldn't have any citrus fruits, and of course chicken should be unseasoned(!) but fruits and chicken shouldn't just make up their main diet. Fruits is the least type of food they should eat as they wouldn't really eat much of it in the wild, plus it's naturally high in sugar. I'm guessing the commentor is trying to say to feed a raw diet but doesn't sound so knowledgeable about it ><. I don't feed it so can't really comment much but know there's a lot more to it than feeding chicken and fruit! A lot of research should be done if attempting to do a raw diet so that's why most people stick to giving a mix of high quality, suitable cat foods with a variety of insects, and keep veg/fruits as treats, since hedgehogs can't digest them well either. It's funny that she didnt even mention anything about feeding insects which serve a greater purpose than fruits! I believe hedgehogs in the wild get the majority of their plant matter intake by eating insects which would have eaten these types of foods and get the nutritional values from them this way. Haha not sure about the blindness part! :lol:


----------



## Mjskates (May 14, 2017)

Ya me too lol.....later on In our conversation she started getting really rude and defensive so I don’t know....the whole situation was kinda funny to me....I tried googling “diet causing blindness” and not one site came up lol.....that does make sence though what you said about her that she’s probably attempting a raw diet


----------



## Yukidama's mama (Apr 4, 2017)

Lol. Do you have a link to the YouTube video? I'm curious what this girl is preaching about :roll: and also watch the video!  ~ I rarely find many active YouTube channels about hedgehog care ^^


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

In my many years of owning many hedgehogs I only ever had one blind hedgehog. It was a female rescue that was suffering from severe malnutrition due to having lost all of her teeth and no longer being able to eat a hard food. The malnutrition was so severe it caused retinal damage which lead to blindness. 

I'm pretty sure that if feeding cat food really caused blindness I would have had many blind hedgehogs.


----------



## Mjskates (May 14, 2017)

I was thinking that too (that pretty much all hedgies would be blind) ....I can’t figure out how to put the link in and show comments while also putting the video in .I’m not sure if the channel is still active...I just randomly stumbled across it while looking at hedgie videos...there really aren’t that many hedgehog you tubers....all I really watch is pugpibblehedgie....have you seen her channel it’s pretty good


----------



## Mjskates (May 14, 2017)

If you wanna try to find it....the channel name is Megan’s World ......and the video is called My daily routine for my pet hedgehog......it’s the second video that pops up if you search “My daily routine for my pet hedgehog”


----------

