# Overweight Hedgehog - Diet Tips?



## Spyke (Dec 26, 2016)

Truffle is 1 year and 3 months old female, and today she weighed in at 640 grams at the vet. In November the poor girl had an enormous tumor taken out of her and weighed 430 grams when I brought her back home. Let's say that a good appetite since the surgery has been a source of joy and not worry. 

She is currently eating a equal mix of Purina Beyond White Chicken and Oatmeal (15% fat), Chicken Soup for the Soul Salmon and Legumes (14% fat), and I and Love and You Naked Essentials with Chicken and Duck (14% fat). I have been giving her 15 grams dry (5 gr of each) and 5 kibble of each crushed up with water (as a very liquid soup) which she does not always eat. All put together, it is about 2.5 tablespoons of cat food.

The vet is pretty insistent that she needs to be switched to Mazuri (not the first vet either) because cat food is too high in fat and something that could cause organ damage. When I tried to get specifics on the danger of cat food, the best I got was "I think it is too high in calcium."

I think Truffle could stand to lose some of her fat, so I would prefer suggestions from people who actually know hedgehogs well. (1) Should I be scaling back on the amount of dry food offer every night? (2) Should i be adding some even lower fat cat food to the mix? (3) Should I be experimenting with vegetables? She has not shown much interest outside of anointing herself with most veggies.

She is running around me like a little spiky rocket as I am typing this, but has not been using her wheel much. I am looking into getting her a larger diameter wheel as well to see if that would up her overnight activity levels.

All thoughts and experiences highly appreciated!


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Mazuri is crap and I really wish vets would stop recommending it. The best way to help your girl lose weight is to lower the fat in her food. I would aim for 9-10% fat total and see how that works. 

You don't mention if she has a wheel or not.


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## Spyke (Dec 26, 2016)

She does have a wheel, but has not been using it much since her surgery in the end of November. I have a camera in her cage now and can tell that she is active (with wheel running during that time) for about an hour a night. Other times she is napping or just walking around the cage and rearranging the furniture.

Last week she stopped using the wheel altogether and pretty much only slept and ate (her food consumptions dropped about 1/3), which was the reason for me driving her 3 hours back to where she had her surgery for a CT and a blood test. All of her tests were fine except for slightly elevated cholesterol levels and her being slightly anemic which they ascribed to a recent (early January) GI issue. So I am looking for ways to adjust her diet and also looking for a bigger wheel just in case she is not running much because it is uncomfortable for some reason.


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## Spyke (Dec 26, 2016)

I just ordered Solid Gold Fit as a Fiddle, which should be here on Friday. I guess the plan will be to mix it in instead of the I and Love and You food, which seems to be the one she eats last anyway, and try to bring it to half of the mix over time to lower the overall fat content.

I also saw a suggestion in other threads that addition of wet cat foods could be a good idea, given lower nutritional density of those. Is that something to explore or should I try adding veggies first?

12" cake cover ordered and should be here today, so that should give her a bigger wheel for running in case the wheel size has anything to do with her running habits. She does run a lot when she is out of the cage and sounds like a herd of tiny ponies with her feet moving really fast on the hardwood floor.


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