# Quick Question about Baby Food



## Katis228 (Aug 19, 2012)

I've been trying my best to get Mal to eat some veggies. So far she has anointed with broccoli (she looked like she was moldy, LOL), and she anointed with pumpkin (that was hard to get off her quills). She finally has gotten to the point where she will actually eat applesauce without anointing (halle-frickin-lujeah :lol: ). 

Today at the store I picked up some 'Earth's Best Organic Chunky Blend: Zucchini Broccoli Medley'. The zucchini and the broccoli I know are okay, but there are two other ingredients I wanted to make sure of:

Organic Peas and Whole Wheat Couscous. I know peas are a bit high in sugar, but are there any restrictions/reservations that anyone has about giving a wheat product to hedgies?

Any help/opinions are most welcome!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Peas are just fine, they were Lily's favorite veggie. I'm not positive about the whole wheat couscous, but I think it should be okay? Especially if she's only getting it small amounts. But wouldn't hurt to see if anyone knows more about that ingredient, or any reservations. And if you do go ahead and try it, as usual with new foods, just give a small amount and watch her afterwards for any signs of allergies/problems!


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## Katis228 (Aug 19, 2012)

Thanks Kelsey  

oh good! I couldn't remember if peas were up there with carrots in sugar content or not.  peas are something I'd like to give her. Are the skins a problem? or would baby food peas be better? 

I keep seeing (in searching the forum) that wheat ingredients in cat food are not desirable (right up there with corn gluten), but I wasn't sure if it was because wheat itself was bad or if its presence was just a sign of a not so good cat food. 

I'm not in a hurry to have her try it (well I am, but I'm not :lol: ) so I can do a bit more research. It just sounded like a good way to get more veggies into her.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm not 100% sure on whole peas - Lily wouldn't eat fresh ones, so I stuck with baby food (and it was easier anyway). I don't think the skins would be much of a problem, I don't recall anyone ever commenting on them posing one.

It's mainly that wheat tends to be present in foods that have not-great other ingredients, same with corn. I do know that cats and dogs can develop allergies to wheat, but I haven't read that that's a problem in hedgehogs.

Another thing you could try to get her to try more veggies - cook the veggies with meat, or mix veggie baby foods with meat baby food. Other people have had luck with cooking meat and veggies together (kind of like a stir-fry), to give the veggies some of the meat flavor, and I found that as long as I had meat baby food mixed in there, Lily would eat literally any combination of fruits & veggies baby food. I ended up doing big batches of baby food mixes with 1 meat, 3-4 veggies, and a fruit or two and froze the mix in ice cube trays and would give her a cube a night to supplement her main kibble. She loved it!


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Along with cooking them with meat, you can try cooking vegetables in low sodium/no sodium chicken or beef stock.


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## Katis228 (Aug 19, 2012)

Thanks moxieberry and Lilysmommy! 

I decided the first time around freezing portions I would mix baby foods together. 

I mixed peas, sweet potato, turkey and chicken (double meat, because I wanted to make double certain she would nom it! :lol: )

The Malvina verdict: Delicious!! At least that's what I assume sticking your face in your food bowl and barely coming up for air means. :mrgreen: 

Thank you so much for the tips ladies!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: That's great, I'm glad she enjoyed it so much!


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