# Hedgehog eating less, otherwise normal behavior



## apeterson (Jan 8, 2016)

Hey all,

I'm a long time lurker to this forum, but I couldn't find the exact answer I was looking for, so I figured it was time to post! 

I'll explain the whole situation below, but in case you don't want to read it all, here's my question: is it normal for hedgehogs to eat less when they get older/reach maturity, or should I be concerned and take her to the vet? 

My little princess, Charlie, is turning 6 months on the 26th of this month. She is a little thing, only weighing 320g. We have had a hard time with keeping her weight up because she runs a lot at night on her wheel. We also have her out of her tub (She lives in a clear 116qt storage bin) and exploring around our apartment about for 3-4hrs a night.

I weight her weekly, so I know she has been in the 310-320 range for about a 6 weeks now. Even though it is a bit on the low side, I am figuring this is just her normal as she seems healthy otherwise. Being a female, she is allowed to have a slimmer figure if she wants :lol:! 

Over the past 2 weeks I have noticed that she has gradually but consistently been eating less of her kibble. I usually supply her with 2Tbsp of kibble a night when we wake her up and take her out of her tub. The kibble is placed in her tubes (PVC pipes from the hardware store and a ferret crinkle tube) which she prefers (I think she enjoys eating in the safety of her tubes with something overhead so as to not be bothered by "predators" or "parents" :roll. When we place her back in her tub, I collect any uneaten kibble and leave it her bowl to eat overnight. Usually she eats all of the remainder or leaves < 10 pieces for me to throw out in the morning.

However, over the past two weeks I have noticed that she is eating less of the kibble. Her weight went down a bit after week one of this behavior (from 316g to 308g). We attempted to increase her weight by feeding her more mealworms/waxworms. I farm my own mealworms, so we have a bunch of those! I am always worried about her gaining too much weight because I know it can be a problem for hedgies, so I was only giving her 3-5 bugs 2-3 times a week, but I increased this to everyday so that her weight would stay up. She always slurps her bugs right up! By the end of week 2, she was back up to 320g which is what she weighs now.

I also thought maybe she was bored with her kibble (Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul Weight and Mature Care) so I bought her a new food to add in with her old kibble (Nature Balance Limited Ingredients Green Pea and Duck).
While she seems to like the new kibble mixed in with the old, she is still only eating about half of what I give her (1Tbsp instead of 2Tbsp).

The only other things I can get her to eat occasionally are apples and broccoli. I've tried hard boiled eggs, spinach, peaches, bananas, turkey, and pumpkin to no avail. I've been a bit lax with getting her to eat raw foods because she usually eats all her kibble, but now I am concerned that she may need to switch to more raw foods in her diet.

Her health otherwise seems okay:

Her skin is a bit flaky and she loses a few quills a night (5-8), but she has always been like that. She doesn't itch, so I don't feel it is mites. She did have mites around age 2 months, but she was itching like mad then and leaving little skin flakes everywhere. We had her treated with revolution then, and it cleared right up. I also switched her off the aspen wood bedding to the Carefresh paper bedding to reduce mite issues. I use flax seed oil on her skin after a full bath, with bathing her about once a month with water and Aveno baby oatmeal wash. Occasionally she needs foot bathes, but I only use water or baby wipes for those.

She poops and pees every day after her wake-up stretches. The feces is consistently firm, smooth, brown coils with infrequent spots of green. I know she also urinates and defecates every night, because I always have a mess to clean up on her wheel :roll:!

Her behavior is generally friendly. She likes her wake-up and bedtime petting and she enjoys stealing her mom's blanket to make a snuggle cave. She loves scurrying around our apartment and exploring everything. We are always careful to vacuum often so that she doesn't eat anything weird. We pretty much keep her confined to the living room/dining room so we can keep an eye on her as well. 

Whew! Thanks for reading if you got this far! I know I wrote a lot, but I wanted to be thorough.


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## Cocoriggs89 (Dec 6, 2015)

Is charlie drinking the same amount of water a day or has there been a decrease in that as well. I know that if a hedgehog does not have water or the are not drinking they will not eat. I would keep an eye on her but this seams like maybe she is just advantaging out in food and if she is being given a lot of treats she might not eat all her kibble. If she is acting normal other wise I would not worry to much. But if she stops eating or drinking more than what she is then it might be time to see the vet  Hope this helps


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