# overweight hedgehog



## luna (Apr 13, 2014)

I got my hedgie a few months ago and I am assume since her last home was a small fish tank with no wheel or much room to move around she had gained a lot of weight.

she now has a 4 foot enclosure and saucer she runs on every night. I also feed her Ultra-Blend Select Hedgehog food that I get at the pet store. I also let her roam around tho shes does not go far just finds a cozy spot and falls asleep.

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions to how to get her to a healthy weight?


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## Teddi4211 (Apr 30, 2014)

She does look large to me. And hedgehog food is about as healthy as cardboard, so i would invest in a quality cat food. A good cat food would be one that has real meat as the first ingredient, such as chicken, turkey, etc., but chicken meal, turkey meal, meat meal, etc does not count.

Here is the link for a recommended foods list: http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html
Also, the food should be between around 30-35% protein, while fat should be lower, I believe around 10-15%. However, since your hedgie is overweight, you would feed her a food lower in fat.


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## AlexLovesOlive (Jul 7, 2014)

I would get her food switched immediately, that is really bad food for them. They won't even release the ingredients or fat contents. I would try to get her switched ASAP. 2 good foods are Chicken soup for the cat lovers soul mature and weight, as well as Blue Buffalo Basics limited ingredient grain free food. I feed Olive a mix of both. Also do not feed more than a couple meal worms every other night. Try to get her up moving more. A good way to get them moving around is to do some enrichment exercises like hiding a couple dried wax worms in different places under different things and making her search for them.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Try switching her to a good quality food that's around 10-12% food. With that and access to plenty of exercise, just wait a couple weeks and see how she does. Often just having a better food and something to run on helps them start to lose some weight. While mealworms would be okay with only one or two a day, don't feed any waxworms. They're very high in fat. Crickets and dubia roaches are good options for lower-fat insect treats,as well as butterworms. You can also introduce her to veggies & see if she likes them. They can help fill her up. Just make sure you introduce one new thing at a time, whether it's a new kibble, new insect, or veggie/fruit.


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

That's a big hog lol. Do you know how much she weights? I'm courious  if not you should get a scale so you can keep track.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

How many kibble per day does she eat? Do you have a good, accurate scale. You will want to chart her weight at the same time preferable daily, but every day or two would be fine also. 

The key to successful weight loss is do it slowly. Don't bombard her with a bunch of changes all at once. Slowly switch her to a different food and once she is used to it see how her weight is doing and then proceed to another step. 

One way to help promote walking in the cage is to put her kibble in various locations around the cage. A few here, a few there so she has to walk to it. 

Some hedgehogs are okay with their cage being rearranged which makes them walk more as things aren't where they are used to. If she's agreeable and doesn't get stressed or upset by a change, try moving her wheel to the opposite end of her cage each day or two. 

You can also offer her some cooked or baby food veggies as a "treat" when she is up and out in the evening. The veggies which she will hopefully eat will help fill her up so she won't want as much kibble. 

Remember, introduce changes slowly and one at a time. You don't want her stressed out as that is not healthy for her.


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## Amanda:) (Dec 9, 2013)

Agreed with what's already been said, with one alteration: specific meals (chicken meal, turkey meal, etc.) are even better than specific meats, as a meal is the meat already cooked down. Having a meat as the first ingredient means it's still retaining all of it's natural water, and once the final product is cooked together it may or may not still be the primary ingredient. Having a meal as the first ingredient means you can count on that absolutely being the heaviest ingredient. What you don't want is something unspecified, such as poultry or fish (that holds true for both meats AND meals.) Just for the record.


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## Teddi4211 (Apr 30, 2014)

That would be my mistake. I read that meals were ground up animal bones and other undesirable parts of the animal.


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## Amanda:) (Dec 9, 2013)

I think that's the case with the unspecified ones, and when I read that sticky the first time I understood what you did. But then I read that meals WERE desirable, so I had to go back and reread.  Here's what Lillysmommy said in the Beginner's Guide to Hedgehog Nutrition:

- NO: corn, unnamed meats (poultry), meat meals (poultry meal), fats (animal fat, poultry fat), or by-products (poultry by-products), BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, food dyes. Keep in mind corn can be in multiple different forms – corn, corn gluten, corn gluten meal, and is sometimes called “maize” instead.

- YES: named meats (such as chicken, beef, turkey, etc.), meat meals (chicken meal, duck meal, etc.), and fats (chicken fat, turkey fat), a meat or meat meal as the FIRST ingredient (first ingredient makes up the bulk of the food), a minimum of grains (only one or two – for example, you don’t want to see rice, then wheat, then oats, or all of those grains end up making up more of the food than meat), and fruits/vegetables added. Fish or flaxseed oil can be good for skin as well. Cranberries are good for urinary health.


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## Melanie G. (May 29, 2014)

She is cute!
I agree with much of the above. Now that she has a bigger cage to move around in and a wheel to run on you will likely notice some changes in her weight due to that. And getting her on a good cat food.


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## Teddi4211 (Apr 30, 2014)

Amanda:) said:


> I think that's the case with the unspecified ones, and when I read that sticky the first time I understood what you did. But then I read that meals WERE desirable, so I had to go back and reread.  Here's what Lillysmommy said in the Beginner's Guide to Hedgehog Nutrition:
> 
> - NO: corn, unnamed meats (poultry), meat meals (poultry meal), fats (animal fat, poultry fat), or by-products (poultry by-products), BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, food dyes. Keep in mind corn can be in multiple different forms - corn, corn gluten, corn gluten meal, and is sometimes called "maize" instead.
> 
> - YES: named meats (such as chicken, beef, turkey, etc.), meat meals (chicken meal, duck meal, etc.), and fats (chicken fat, turkey fat), a meat or meat meal as the FIRST ingredient (first ingredient makes up the bulk of the food), a minimum of grains (only one or two - for example, you don't want to see rice, then wheat, then oats, or all of those grains end up making up more of the food than meat), and fruits/vegetables added. Fish or flaxseed oil can be good for skin as well. Cranberries are good for urinary health.


That's good to know. I was avoiding many cat foods because of this


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