# Crunchy Kibbles



## Avarris (Dec 3, 2012)

More of a Curious Question. Pippin is on what I now affectionally term the Volcano View Diet. Basically, I order my food from VVH. So she eats what Moxies herd is eating. I feel confident in the Volcano View brand and its nutritional value for my Pippin. (Yeah I said it Moxie! Brand that mix girl!  ) The kibble is great. Pippin truly enjoys it over what she was eating. The kibble isn't too big for her to munch on, in fact the pieces are smaller than her old diet. What I was wondering was how can I soften it up a bit? In watching her eat, it seems like she has a bit of trouble chewing it. Or would it just be better to crush the kibble bits down to a smaller size, like with a pill crusher?


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## SouthernSweet (Jul 25, 2012)

I'm not sure the crunching actually bothers them. Clark always went for the whole pieces of kibble that I missed when I ground his food into small pieces, so I stopped wasting my time with it haha.

I think it can just be softened by being soaked with water, anyhow, but shouldn't be left out terribly long as it will become a bacteria reproductive factory.


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## Avarris (Dec 3, 2012)

The only thing I can equate it to is: Its like watching her eat Capt'n Crunch cereal. After a few bites of that the roof of MY mouth hurts. She eats it just fine, it's probably me just overhthinking it. :lol: It just looks like she works really hard breaking it down. Whatever she doesn't eat I toss. That's usually about 10-15 pieces of kibble each evening, then I refill her bowl with fresh food for the night.I still leave what she hasn't eaten overnight during the day if she decides to have a mid-day snack, and change it out when I spot clean her living quarters. Although she never has that daytime snack that I can tell. She's what I call a nibbler. She doesn't eat a whole lot at once. Pippin usually eats about 4 times in an evening before she settles in for the daylight hours. Eat, cuddle time, eat, explore and play, eat, nap, eat, wheel, sleep. Thats about Pippins schedule so far as I can tell. I toss out more water than I do food everyday.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

I know exactly how you feel, that's why we grind our food mix. There are a few foods in it that have a small enough kibble that we leave alone (mainly my favorite, the Fromm brand) but the others are big and hard and yeah, a hedgie can eat them, but it takes a lot of effort and can cause some serious premature dental wear, and we all know how common oral issues are in hedgehogs. I like to equate them eating large kibble pieces to us trying to eat our meals in the form of large ice cubes - not fun. You can try getting an old-fashioned mill grinder, which is what we use, if you want to spend money up front but save time later. Make sure you don't get one that's too cheap, they SUCK. :lol: A better priced one will be a thousand times higher quality. Otherwise, for just one hedgie I'd say just use some sharp scissors and cut the kibble you're worried about in half/thirds/quarters. This is what I did for the last few years of Inky's life and it wasn't hard at all, and if you just cut each night's food up before feeding it doesn't take much time.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Cause I just have one hedgie, for the cylinder shape kibble(because they are a pain to cut), I use a cheap cutting board, and a small hammer. I just tap them lightly and they split down the middle.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Yup, just break up the ones she has trouble with. The Fromm (smallest kibble) should be fine, and the 4health and Chicken Soup senior are bigger but have never been an issue for any of mine. The CS light is the biggest and some of mine need it broken. The non-circle kibble (Solid Gold and Simply Nourish) is easy to just break with your fingers.


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