# Weaning off of Purina ONE - best strategy?



## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Okay, so I got Sophie on Monday, the 27th (February), her six week birthday. The first night she had just her Purina ONE and on the second night I split her food into thirds, adding Natural Balance and Solid Gold, but plenty of all three.

She's been doing great, running ~1 1/2 hours a night, eating 6 - 12 grams of food and drinking 3 - 8 teaspoons of water. She was on the low side of those numbers the first few nights, and has been on the high side of those numbers these last few nights. She was 146 grams on the 27th and was 182 grams yesterday.

She's been eating a mix of the three foods pretty well, a few grams of each, sometimes skipping one or another completely for a night.

The last couple of nights, she's been eating the Purina ONE at a much higher rate, and only a small amount of the the others. Last night I left her only 6 grams of the Purina ONE (the first time that there was a limit of any food) and she ate every bit, plus two grams each of the other two foods.

What is the best way to take away the Purina ONE? If she loves it, do I want to take it away completely or will she learn to love the new foods? Do I give her a limited amount, like 4 or 6 grams, so that she can have some, but has to eat more of the others also? My plan is to replace the Purina ONE with Chicken Soup (Light), but I don't want to rush it. I'm happy to give her at least some Purina ONE for as long as needed, but I'm concerned that if she likes it too much that she'll stop eating the other two, which she had taken to at a pretty good percentage. until this move back towards Purina ONE.

She seems to be doing great all around. Poops look good, though there is less than I have been expecting.

What is 'best practice' for limiting or stopping the Purina and then easing in the Chicken Soup?


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Have you tried offering the Chicken Soup to her at all yet? My personal experience was that Archimedes took to it right away, and while he had some of the breeder's mix in with it for a few weeks, he wouldn't pay that much attention and has pretty much inhaled the Chicken Soup from day one. A lot of hedgehogs really like it.

If she's eating the other kinds, not refusing them, just continue to reduce how much of the Purina One is available, and then remove it. The only problem would be if she were to refuse to eat anything else, but that doesn't seem to be an issue here. You can try to introduce the Chicken Soup before getting rid of the Purina One completely, and see how well she takes to that one. Really the only reason food switches are supposed to be gradual is so their bodies can adjust to it, so if she's eating the other two kinds already - even if those aren't her first choice - I don't see any harm in just getting rid of the Purina One completely at this point, or however soon you want to.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

No, I haven't offered the Chicken Soup yet. I'm in no rush to change her over, and she's only been here not quite two weeks. It seemed like a good idea to try to offer her a couple of the three foods that I selected right off. She had plenty of the Purina that if she was too stressed coming to her new home she had the option of not eating the others at all (at least for a while). But she was, in fact, eating a pretty good balance of the three and showing no signs of stress that I could see.

The last couple of days she has swung hard to the Purina, which is why I wonder if I should try to push the switch because she started so well with it.

I hadn't planned to do it so soon, but I think that I may go ahead and add the Chicken Soup and 'ration' the Purina. If she really loves the Purina there will be some there, but if she hits it hard then she will need to make up the difference from the others. If her consumption stays up (that is, if she doesn't just stop eating when the Purina runs out), then I'll dial down the Purina as she takes to the others.

Last night she wiped out 6 grams of the Purina (the first night that she was 'limited') and had 2 grams of each of the other two. I did up the Purina tonight to free feed, pending recommendations here, but I think that tomorrow I will go ahead with adding the Chicken Soup and ration the Purina to about half of what I expect her total consumption to be.
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On a related note:
I sent an email to Chicken Soup explaining the situation and they promptly sent me two 5 ounce sample bags. If I had been further along with my mix selections before I got Sophie I would have done the same with the others instead of gambling the $30 that the other two cost for 4 and 5 pound bags. It looks like I will take no loss there, but would definitely have asked those companies for samples as well. In my defense, I was dizzy from reading all of the options and opinions. Ha.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2012)

Are you offering them all seperatly? I was under the impression your just supposed to slowly mix them together and slowly adding more of the new food and less of the old stuff every week?


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

I haven't mixed them together, assuming that she can tell what's what and eat just what she wants. That way I can pretty easily sort out and weigh what is left. I started by free feeding the Purina ONE that she was started with and also free feeding Natural Balance and Solid Gold, i.e., enough of each that she could eat all she wanted of any one.

She started to eat a pretty good mix of the offerings, a few grams of each. But then she started swinging back to eating a lot of the Purina and not much of the others. So I started to 'ration' the Purina to where she got to eat some, but would have to eat some of the new foods to have her fill. That was successful. She was wiping out the Purina, but going ahead and eating a few grams of the others and eating a total amount of about what I expected.

As moxieberry suggested, I did add in the third food, the Chicken Soup. That was a lot quicker than I was planning on, but she had shown good response to the other offerings, so if she was willing to be weaned away from the Purina it seemed a good idea to get it done.

I continued the ration of Purina at 6 grams and added the Chicken Soup at free feed level two nights ago. I put the CS in a second dish, next to the main dish. It looks so similar to the NB that I can't tell them apart. She went wild for it.

Night one:
2 grams Natural Balance
2 grams Solid Gold
All 10 grams of Chicken Soup
2 grams Purina
16 total grams
(Her eating has been moving up the last few days. This is the most that she has eaten in a night. The first days that I had her, she was eating a total of 6 grams a night.)

Night two:
0 grams Natural Balance	
2 grams Solid Gold (x)
All 10 grams of Chicken Soup
0 grams Purina
12 total grams

What I'm planning on tonight is to take away the Purina completely. I never planned to take it away so quickly, but now it is in the way of getting her to eat a good mix. I'm thinking about rationing the CS to keep her eating the others. My thought is to offer 6 or 8 grams of CS and then she should eat 4 or 6 grams of the other two. Is anybody else rationing a favorite food in order to keep their hedgie eating a reasonable amount of the others?


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

The addition of the third food in the mix (Chicken Soup) and taking away the Purina was a huge success. I'm glad that the CS just happened to be last added, or introducing the others would have been a problem. She's wild for the CS. She eats it first, and she eats it all. I have rationed the CS so that she will eat the other foods. She is eating ~12 grams a night, so I have rationed the CS to 6 grams. Solid Gold seems to be choice number two, at about 4 grams a night. She makes a token effort with the Natural Balance, at about 2 grams a night.

Is rationing her first choice the thing to do? It's the 'Light', so only 9% fat (the others are higher), but if I free feed it, she probably won't touch the others. She will 'make up the difference' with the others if I ration the CS as kind of a 'treat entree'.

(She hasn't taken to treats yet. I've offered banana a few times and sweet potato baby food a few times. She's taken a few licks and a few bites, but mostly disinterested. I only offer treats during 'together time', so that may be a factor. She's very nice, but very shy. She is running ~1 hour, 15 minutes a night on the wheel, but will not let me watch at all. She'll just look at me like, 'Get out.')


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

CS light is a fantastic food, and yeah, a lot of hedgehogs love it. I see no reason to ration it. Archimedes eats only that (we haven't found another food for his mix that he likes) and occasional RC kitten 36 as treats. I'd like to add another for the sake of variety, because he won't eat any cooked meat or produce, but the CS is such a good quality food, it doesn't bother me that he just eats that. 

Do you mix all the kibble together or offer them in separate bowls? If you mix them, are they mixed in a bag prior to being put in her bowl, or do you measure them out into the bowl from their different containers? She might not show such a preference toward the CS if they all pretty much smell alike from being stored together.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

I wouldn't mind just feeding her CS. (She loved the Purina ONE too.) But I've read so many times that they should 'absolutely' have a mix that I've made sure to do that. She ate the first two foods of the new mix in reasonable amounts, but when she swung back to eating mostly the Purina, then I had to ration it to make her continue to eat the others as a reasonable percentage.

I took out the Purina completely and added her third food, the CS, which she is crazy for. If a mix is a priority, then I'm going to have to ration the amount of CS and free feed the other two. If a mix isn't that big a deal (even though I have read about it a bajillion times) then I could free feed the CS and abandon the Solid Gold and Natural Balance.

I just don't know what is best. She's only eight weeks old, so she's in growing mode. Obviously, I want to help that. And I want to give her healthy food that she likes. There doesn't seem to be a clear 'right thing to do'.

I was putting all of the foods in one dish, but kind of in separate areas so that I could easily separate and weigh. I have been putting the CS in its own dish because it looks so very much like the Natural Balance. Maybe I should switch that up a bit. I could completely mix the CS and the Solid Gold together with no problem. (The Solid Gold is shaped like little Xs.) Then I would have to put the Natural Balance in its own dish. She does eat it, but it seems to be her least favorite. She might quit it completely if its kind of away from the others.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Most people will decide on a combination with ratios that put the fat and protein percentages where they want them to be. (For instance, if food A is 10% fat and food B is 12% fat, using a half-and-half combination will put the overall mix at 11% fat.) Then you free-feed all of it together, which really means getting an idea of the average amount the hedgehog eats, and putting that much plus an extra half-tablespoon or so - enough so she can eat her fill with some left over.

The purpose of having a mix is primarily to have variety in the diet. It's also a good idea to have them on more than one food because very picky hedgehogs can be a problem if for some reason they're on only one food and it's no longer available (recall, or a change in the food they decide they don't like, etc.) - if there's not another option of something they're willing to eat, occasionally they just won't eat.

For your situation, if she likes the CS so much, it would make the most sense to have that be the main part of your mix (50% or more) and the other two not as much. That's how I'd go about it, anyway.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Well, it looks like the food mix for Sophie has settled out. The Purina ONE was discontinued without issue, and quite quickly, though I was in no rush.

She really liked the Purina, but did sample and eat the Solid Gold and the Natural Balance. However, her strong preference for the Purina led me to rationing, and then removing, while adding her third food, the Chicken Soup.

She went wild for the Chicken Soup, eating it first, and eating it only. I rationed the CS and free fed the other two. Though she did show a willingness to eat the Natural Balance, it fell to 'last choice'.

She is eating about 16 grams per night, and I am giving her 8 grams of CS and free feeding the other two. The Solid Gold is her solid second choice. For several days now, she is eating all available CS, and then finishing with 6 or 8 grams of Solid Gold. The Natural Balance has been untouched for several days now, even after replacing with fresh. I suppose that I could also ration the SG and then she would need to eat the NB, but things would be getting a bit complicated.

So, the plan is to remove the NB and just stay with the other two, offering her a ration of ~50% CS and free feeding SG.

I have read tons about how hedgies should have a mix of three foods. I've also read about how picky they are, which is one reason that they should have a food mix. However, nothing I've read has prepared me for the need to 'rationing' favorites in order to get them to eat the others. It has been manageable, but was certainly unexpected. I'd never have got her off the Purina without cutting availability. She will eat the other foods, but I'd never know that if I allowed her to free feed on Chicken Soup. I could 'make' her eat the Natural Balance if I also limited the Solid Gold, but it doesn't feel necessary.?
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She's finally taking to treats. She only gets them during together time; none in the cage. She doesn't eat much, but has come to enjoy digging into a chunk of banana.


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