# Pinky Mice?



## SugarCoatedSam (Sep 24, 2013)

I was talking to a friend of mine that has a hedgehog and snakes that he sometimes feeds pinky mice to my hedgehog. 
I was just wondering if this was normal practice? Or even whether it's safe to do?

I don't know if they're called pinky mice in America, basically they're small baby (already dead) mice, no fur or anything.


----------



## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

Someone feeding a raw diet feeds pinky mice and chicken vertebrates.


----------



## SugarCoatedSam (Sep 24, 2013)

Thanks that actually helps alot :-D


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yeah, people not doing raw diets have fed pinky mice as a treat before as well.  I think one person even had a video of their hedgehog eating one...pretty messy!


----------



## ceopet (Sep 20, 2013)

I am glad it's not nessisary though. As a person who has pet rats and a pet mouse as well even doing a f/'t one would be hard.


----------



## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

I was looking around for pinkies, thinking maybe I should look into adding them as a part of Sophie's food selections. She is liking the crickets more and more every day.

Is Rodent Pro good? Their website seems pretty decent. They have a ton of choices, though. Which pinkies are the ones that I should think about using?

http://rodentpro.com/catalog.asp?prod=3&label=frozen_mice

The prices for the mice look fine, but it will cost $50 for shipping, so I don't know if Sophie will be getting any. I could get a lot and keep them frozen I suppose. How long can they be kept that way? Though it sounds as though acceptance is high, my holdup will be not knowing for sure if she will eat them.


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Do you have a pet store around nearby where you could get just one or two to see if she will definitely eat them? I'm not sure how long they'd stay frozen...if you make sure the bag is airtight, maybe a month or two? Hopefully some reptile-experienced people will come along and offer some input. You could also try checking on a reptile/snake site, as far as good sources to buy online, and length of time for keeping.


----------



## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

This is a small town, but we did get a Petsmart some months ago. Turns out that they do have feeder mice. They've got them in a display freezer in retail boxes, with each mouse individually packaged. They have four or five different sizes. "Arctic Mice" brand, by Reptile Industries.

I got one box of the smallest size, what they call "Pinkies". 6 for $14. Yeeeoooww. Right quick the shipping cost from Rodent Pro is looking like a bargain.

The box is marked:

Guaranteed analysis
As a percentage of dry matter
Crude Protein (min) 44%
Crude Fat (min) 17%
Crude Fiber (max) 2%
Moisture (max) 80%
Ash (max) 11.8%

Sophie was offered one thawed pinkie (1.7 grams by my scale). She wasn't cooperative at all so no video. When she gets wound up, there's no stopping her so I let her run in her hedgie sack.

I held open her sack and offered her the pinkie -- and she attacked it, leaving not a trace that it ever existed.

I hope some of the pinkie pros come along with more thoughts on quantity, frequency, and such. I'm especially interested at the moment in whether to get a selection of sizes from Rodent Pro (or someplace else). How big / old can I go in the offerings. They have a long list of selections. Can I give a couple of teeny ones one time and one medium one another time - a bigger one yet once in a while?

That pinkie lasted about two seconds. I'll give her another tomorrow and see if she'll give me some video. She's so private. She wants to live 99% of her life hidden away. Which is fine, though sometimes disappointing.


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Jeeze, that's a ridiculous price. :roll: I'd still check out some reptile forums if you can, and see if anyone knows of cheaper suppliers besides Rodent Pro that are still reputable, etc. Even theirs seems a bit high to me, compared to what the pet store I used to work at charged for mice.

That's great that she loved it!  If you don't get any responses regarding your other questions of frequency, size, etc. you could try PMing Kitty (or if any of the other raw feeders with threads on the sticky feed pinkies, I can't recall) and see if you can get an answer from them. I don't remember who else used to feed pinkies, but I don't think it's anyone who's still terribly active (at least from the people who I know fed them). Good luck!


----------



## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

i feed small geckos, baby quails and frogs to some of my 'wilder' hedgehogs but never
tried pinky mice. kinda scared that it might be too bloody >__<


----------



## Erizo (Jul 25, 2012)

She was skittish today - knew the video was going - but cooperated just enough. She got her mealies, which led into the pinky - only the second time she has ever seen one - and attacked it

(2:42)


----------



## Brittany (Sep 15, 2013)

YUCK! lol. @Erizo - Great video though, she seemed to really enjoy that! What a cute hedgie girl you have!


----------



## SiouxzieKinz (Oct 10, 2013)

dlonelyboy, it appears as if you have an entire zoo (reading your signature line)! I too wondered about the "mess" with the mice. Although I am all for engaging in natural behavior, I wonder if the hedgehog really eats these in Africa? Since most of the ones that are in the pet trade here in the U.S. are usually the smaller African Pygmy hedgehogs I think that a mouse would be too big?

Plus, aren't hedgies insectivores not carnivores? I've never owned a hedgehog before and I certainly don't want to get it wrong with my first guy. I have been researching the heck out of hedgie mommy hood but I know that there is still much to learn in the short week before I bring mine home. 

Any other input would be greatly appreciated. I will go and buy the mice, crickets, worms . . . whatever Dakarai needs. 

Thanks for your direction.


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Hedgehogs are incorrectly classified as insectivores - they do eat a lot of insects, but they're more omnivorous than previously thought. From what I recall, natural diet includes things like beetles, worms, centipedes, spiders, snails, slugs, mushrooms, berries, eggs, and likely unguarded small nestlings/babies of small mammals like mice, as well as possibly scavenging occasionally from carcasses. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things too. Also, I think hedgehogs in the wild are likely bigger than our guys - ours are a crossbreed of Four-Toed hedgehogs and Algerian hedgehogs. The range of sizes can be up to 1000 grams, which is pretty darn big! But because people think smaller animals are cuter, breeders are mostly breeding smaller hedgehogs - so that's much more common than the big ones now.

As far as the variety of foods sometimes offered by people wanting to give more natural foods, insects is one of the most common - mealworms being the most common of those. Crickets are a close second, and feeder roaches are a great option too. There's more listed in the Insect sticky at the top of this forum. You can also get things like canned grasshoppers (Fluker's brand has those, as well as canned mealworms & crickets), and I remember seeing canned, de-shelled snails available from a brand...possibly Fluker's. I remember one person on this forum feeding those, but she hasn't been on for quite a while, I think. I know someone with an Egyptian long-eared hedgehog included quail eggs as part of his diet and he loved them. I think she gave them raw - I remember seeing a picture she got of him with mouth wide open, about to chomp down. :lol:


----------



## SiouxzieKinz (Oct 10, 2013)

Oh thank you so much for the suggestion on the variety of food options. I really did want to keep with a more "natural" diet for my first hedgie and this forum certainly has many resources for me to be able to do that. 

Gosh, I just love learning about these fantastic little guys (or in your case BIG guys  )

I just wish there would be more research on them with regards to disease and whatnot. I am grateful for the wealth of owner experience here. This is making me a little more comfortable in the preceding days before the arrival of my very first hedgie.


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Glad to help, especially with diets!  Forums are one of my favorite things to look at for animal information after finding this one...especially for animals where there's not a lot of actual research done. Normally people get a bit iffy on internet advice/research for animals, since it can be hard to tell who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't...but with hedgehogs, who else are you going to ask? Not all breeders give out great information...and many vets don't have a clue what they're talking about either. It can be so hard to find good sources of information.  Then again, even with cat/dog diets, vets still don't always know what they're talking about. :roll: And there's just something I find awesome about having a whole bunch of owners sharing their experiences and what they learn. Totally beats just asking someone who's only read scientific articles, etc. rather than actually owning one!


----------



## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

the trick about feeding them is knowing what they want the most. offer it anything that is safe or non-toxic to hedgies then supplement it what it eats the least to get a balanced meal. some hedgies are picky-eaters and some are just gluttons


----------

