# How many mealworms?



## I Love Hedgy (Jan 3, 2019)

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Just found this post where they give their hedgehogs mealworms every day???

I thought you are supposed to give them only 2 times a week!? Thats what the vet said...

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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Generally people say only give 5 to 10 a week. Some say 2/3 daily as they so fatty. Some people say only 2/3 every other day. And others will just give them 5 twice a week and some will give them 5 once a week.

More active hedgehogs that need the extra fat will generally be given more to try keep their weight up at a better weight so they arent underweight.
So really I think it very much depends on how active the hog is. Also a lot of people have their own opinions.


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

I've honestly never understood the incredibly limited live mealworm recommendations. 5-10 weekly sounds nuts to me, theyre insectivores and eat a huge amount of insects in the wild. My girl gets like 5-10 per _night_ (we give other insects too, but mealies are her fav by far!). I've yet to come across one convincing argument for why to limit them so drastically; i don't see anything wrong with feeding them nightly at all. It depends on the hedgehog, some are more lazy and prone to gaining weight easier than others, so keep an eye on their weight (it's a good habit to get into weighing them weekly for health check ups anyway), but you can absolutely feed them nightly if you wish.


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

To be honest I think its there to stop people only feeding mealworms, as only feeding mealworms due to the fat isnt the best thing. Even if one is only about 13% fat but if you take like 10 mealworms that is a fair bit of fat.
When feeding with other insects it would lower the overal fat intake of all the insects. - Like with the cat biscuit. 

Also starting with a limit of 5-10 per week gives you the chance to get an idea first of how much weight they gain, to then lower or up it to fit it more to the hedgehog.

If you take Holly for example shes active for at least 4 hours a night (not including the 1 hour and a half out of cage play time) but she still gains a lot of weight always has. If I gave her 5-10 mealworms daily she'd be overweight. So 5-10 a week would suit her better. 
Although she doesnt actually like mealworms but thats not really the point.

I'm not saying this as an argument to argue for limiting mealworms, please dont take it as.


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## Emc (Nov 18, 2018)

i honestly dont know the cause, because even though mealworms are more fatty than crickets, live mealworms still only have ~12% fat content. Double that of crickets yes, but nothing thats going to spike a mix into unsafe levels.

Like, even if live mealworms made up 10% of your hedgehogs diet. If we consider the maximum recommended guidelines for kibble as 35% protein and 15% fat, and take the average GA for live mealworms as being 20% protein and 12% fat, the total GA for a diet composing of 10% live mealworms and 90% kibble would be 33.5% protein & 14.7% fat. < the live mealworms would actually _lower_ (albeit slightly haha) the fat content, not increase it.

I'm not viewing your response as an argument haha, dont worry - i've always just been genuinely curious as to where the advice for limiting mealworms so drastically came from, or if it was just something that just kept being passed along the vine and nobody ever questioned it, which explains why it's still tossed around.

Some hedgehogs, like you said, gain weight easily so I can see advice for lower fat diets and limiting mealies in that regard. But generally speaking, for any average, active hedgehog; i don't see reason to limit worms to a weekly treat instead of a daily inclusion of the diet at all (personally anyways). Within reason, of course.


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

I think the biggest reason is probably to stop new owners giving their hog too many at first when they arent sure how active, or how fast they gain weight to be fair.
Also as most hedgehogs still need to get the hang of using a wheel for the first few weeks they arent getting as much exercise, and mealworms tend to be the first insect they are given - not always though of course.

This is only my take on it though because I've seen more expiernced owners feeding like 10 a night (depending on the hog) and then telling the new owners to only give 5-10 a week😂


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## belties (Oct 2, 2018)

The thing to remember is that the percent of protein is only part of the equation. A small insect with a high protein percent may not contain as much total protein as a large insect with a lower percent of protein. That is why when we calculate livestock feed rations we use total digestable nutrients instead of just protein contents. These little guys are designed to eat a lot of different things of which insects are a good thing to include as they are consumed in the wild as are any thing else tasty that they come across. In all reality a broad mixed diet is as good for them as for us. As for our little one she gets 2 mealies ,baked chicken at bonding time and free choice dry cat kibble in her pen ,and we moniter her weight and exercise .


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## Aj.t (Jan 29, 2019)

From my understanding, it has to do with hibernation. Since captive bred APH don’t hibernate, they don’t need to build up fat. Many species of wild hedgehogs will hibernate, at least for a short time, and the abundance of insects with fat will aid them in the nutrient process. There’s just not a need for APH to require a high insect diet, and it can be costly for people without easy access to captive bred insects to facilitate this.


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

APH do need a lot of insects, it should make at least half their diet. Actually the more insects make up of their diet the less their poo smells. 

But APH dont have the abilty to store the fat, like other hedgehogs that do hibernate. So the APH will just gain weight, and become overweight where as a wild hedgehog will store it ready for when they hibernate in winter. 

If we take how much each should weigh an APH should weigh 300g-600g to be healthy. Where as a wild hedgehog should be at least 600g especially before hibernation otherwise they die in hibernation. 

So ideally hedgehogs need more low fat insects in their diet. The cat biscuit is mainly there to pick up neutrients they need to stop them becoming neutrient deficient.


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## I Love Hedgy (Jan 3, 2019)

I have have giant mealworms, like GIANT 3 times the size of a normal mealworm. Does that make any difference? Plus, my dubia roaches are also super big, like the size of my thumbs nail. 

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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Size of the insects can have more or less, but it can also depend on how much and what they eat too. If your mealwrom eats loads (which from what I heard they tend to) then its potenitly going to be a bit more fatty but its hard to tell really

The dubia roach sounds a normal size though. They tend to be very big


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## I Love Hedgy (Jan 3, 2019)

Ria said:


> Size of the insects can have more or less, but it can also depend on how much and what they eat too. If your mealwrom eats loads (which from what I heard they tend to) then its potenitly going to be a bit more fatty but its hard to tell really
> 
> The dubia roach sounds a normal size though. They tend to be very big


So how many should I give per week?

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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Do it by how much your hedgehog weighs, how active they are, and easily they put on weight.

If I took Holly for example.
Shes always put weight on very easily, shes active for at least 4 hours a night (not including her hour and a half playtime outside her cage) so per week I'd only give 10

A differnt example of my friends hedgehog
He does put weight very easily, hes active for about 5 and half hours a night (not including the 2 hours free roam) per week he gets about 25.

I left out weights because I dont know how much my friends hedgehog weighs, and I cant find where I wrote Holly's weight


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## Hedgielover411 (Jan 5, 2019)

Hey! It’s not a good idea to give meal worms everyday, as some hedgehogs will refuse to eat their regular food and only want worms, and it’s probably not very good for them. I’d avoid everyday, since they’re supposed to be a treat and not a meal. 
Hope this helps!

Good luck!!!


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Hedgielover411 said:


> Hey! It's not a good idea to give meal worms everyday, as some hedgehogs will refuse to eat their regular food and only want worms, and it's probably not very good for them. I'd avoid everyday, since they're supposed to be a treat and not a meal.


Hedgehogs can have mealworms everyday. They should have a wide verity of insects, and they dont need to eat loads of the cat food. They do need the cat food yes, but at least half their diet should be insects, and mealworms are included in this, the amount and how often they get the mealworms is dependant hedgehog, and how active and how much weight they gain. Hedgehogs are insectivores, cat food is like processed food for them, but its main reason for being there is to make sure the hedgehogs get all the right nutrients, and stop them for having a nutrition deficiency.


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