# Hedgehog not drinking water?



## waudrey

My Hedgehog isn't drinking her water, I've had her since Sunday and she just refuses to drink....I've been giving her just cat food right now JUST because the store near me is out of hedgehog food till tomorrow (thank god)..and just now i ended up watering down her food....any reason why? any suggestions?

BTW i have a water dish and a water bottle...  she's about 2 months old i believe....just need some suggestions or advice i guess

 thank you!


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## Hedgieonboard

Can you tell if she has been peeing? Is it possible she is drinking and its just hard to tell because its a little amount? These are just two things that I can think of off hand. If she is peeing it may be possible she is drinking but its just hard to tell. Since she is still new she may not be willing to drink in front of you. These are just some things to rule out but you may have already have. If she is truly not drinking though you will want to make sure she goes to the vet.


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## Puffers315

Make a mark on the bottle and bowl and fill the water to the mark (using something like a non-toxic marker). This way if they do drink, you'll be able to tell.

Also an abrupt change in her diet such as switching food can cause an upset stomach, which might be why she might not be drinking as much as she would. "Hedgehog Food" is utter crap, I would still pick up a supply but I would slowly start changing her over to a healthier diet. Food branded as Hedgehog Food tends to be crap because its either just repackaged rodent food or its formulated for Euro-Hedgehogs, which have a different diet than our AP Hedgehogs. Everyone here free feeds their hogs a mixture of several 'recommended' cat foods.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15

This is the topic on recommended cat foods. What you do is slowly add the new food to her mix, say if she gets 100 pieces of kibble, you start off with 5 pieces, make sure she eats them, and then slowly add more and more of the new stuff and less and less of the old stuff. This way they can adjust to the change and won't get an upset stomach.

If you haven't checked her poop, green poop is a sign of stress and upset stomachs.

Hogs in a new home can be very shy and timid, even if they were not from the pet store or breeders, its due to the change in home. If she doesn't get 'total darkness' at night, you might try that, some hogs are not fans of having any kind of light, so she might be acting shy due to the new home and it might make her feel better to be under the cover of darkness.

If she isn't drinking and you're able to handle her, if you can pinch her skin, you can tell if she's dehydrated or not. When a hog (and people) are dehyrated, the skin won't 'snap back' as quickly, the skin should snap back and smooth out quickly. If she isn't drinking, you may have to syringe feed her some water.


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## waudrey

UPDATE: i just switched her food yesterday, and it seems to be doing alot better, went from blue buffalo cat food to "pretty pets" hedgehog food, she's drinking her water (i caught her  ) and her poop seems to be brown now and not all mushy and gross :x thanks everyone!


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## LarryT

waudrey said:


> UPDATE: i just switched her food yesterday, and it seems to be doing alot better, went from blue buffalo cat food to "pretty pets" hedgehog food, she's drinking her water (i caught her  ) and her poop seems to be brown now and not all mushy and gross :x thanks everyone!


Pretty Pets hedgehog food is about as bad a food as you can feed.


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## Nancy

Yep, to feed Pretty Pets is as about nutritious as feeding the packaging.


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## jinglesharks

waudrey said:


> UPDATE: i just switched her food yesterday, and it seems to be doing alot better, went from blue buffalo cat food to "pretty pets" hedgehog food, she's drinking her water (i caught her  ) and her poop seems to be brown now and not all mushy and gross :x thanks everyone!


I wouldn't do that... Blue buffalo (as far as I can recall) is a decent food, Pretty Pets is about the worst thing out there. Also, did you just switch it completely? You're probably going to have a sick hedgie on your hands if you don't switch it gradually, they're sensitive. But I really wouldn't advice switching.


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## sarahwynns7

I honestly just got my hedgie a few days ago and my breeder specifically told me not to feed my hedgehog ANY kind of hedgehog food. The kid manufacturers produce is worse for them then just feeding them cat food. If I were you I would gradually switch your hedgie back to a high protein low fat cat food.


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## nikki

Please check the dates on a thread before posting. This one is 5 years old.


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