# Appropriate feeding amount for baby???



## JazzJunkie (Mar 6, 2013)

I know that you are supposed to give hedgies enough food to eat through the night so that they aren't leaving any behind, but also so that they have enough to munch on. My little one is 7 weeks old today and she eats like CRAZY which I assume is normal for a growing (quilling) little one. We do give her treats in the form of meal worms when she's out of the cage but only 2 or 3 a day maximum. I know that with some animals you are supposed to free feed them as babies (which is what we have been doing thus far) since they are growing and slow it down as they get older. But I want to make sure that this is even true for hedgehogs as I don't want to overfeed her. What has been your experience with this? Feel like a paranoid mom but I just want what is best for her


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## SammieStyles (Jan 18, 2013)

Usually, you feed them 1-3 tablespoons per night. Some eat more, some eat less. Bamboo eats about 1 tbsp every night. If your hedgie eats more, try increasing her food by half a tablespoon, and keep going up. Make sure your hedgie has a good wheel to burn off all that food, so she won't become overweight :3 Hope I helped!


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## SpikeMoose (Dec 9, 2012)

How much is she wheeling per night? Are you measuring the food that you give her to keep track of how much she eats?
My hedgies eat between 1-3 tbs per night.
I give Penny 2 tbs per night, and no more. She is at her maximum healthy weight right now.
Milton gets his food refilled up to twice a night and eats up to 2.5 tbs per night, I give him as much as he will eat. He has a thin runner body. 
The way to describe body types is usually I I = runner type ( ) = typical healthy ( ) = overweight 
other signs of being overweight are inability to ball up fully, or when you hold them in your hand you can feel their fat hanging over the sides of your hands.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I would definitely recommend free-feeding. Most people recommend it for most hedgehogs, since they don't usually tend to overeat. Babies do eat a lot, since they're growing, and usually slow down and eat less somewhere between 6 months and 1 year. If you start noticing she's getting on the pudgy side, the first thing to do is lower the fat content of her diet with a food change and see if that helps. It's best to use food limitation as a last resort.


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## SpikeMoose (Dec 9, 2012)

Oops Lilysmommy, good point about food limiting being a last resort! Penny has her own light mix of food, and I am working with our vet to figure out why she is such a chubby girl, and to keep her healthy. I talked to the vet and tried other options before limiting her to 2 tbs a day.
Milton has always thrived on free feeding. He gets a high fat mix!


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## JazzJunkie (Mar 6, 2013)

Thanks guys, this was really helpful! She wheels A LOT. That was one of the first things my breeder told us about her, wheeling is by far her favorite pass time  She's pretty lean, her body isn't really round at all and she can definitely ball up completely (as she likes to prove regularly  ). We loosely measure it just so we know that she's eating well but we don't have it right down to the tablespoon amount. She's on a pretty high fat diet now that I was planning to change later, once she got settled in and wasn't growing quite so rapidly. I think we'll just keep free feeding and just keep an eye on her weight wise  I just wanted to make sure in the midst of focusing on getting her adjusted to her new home and starting to get her used to handling and playing in the pen, we weren't overlooking the overfeeding issue.


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## JulieAnne (Sep 3, 2012)

Free feeding is absolutely recommended but you still need to make sure you are measuring the food you give her and how much is left over. Ivy has recently stopped eating as much (she has been eating .5 a tablespoon where she usually eats 1.5-1.75 tablespoons) so it's always a good idea to be able to monitor that information so you can give it to the vet if need be. Also be sure to measure water!


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Sophie ate and drank vastly more at 6, 7, 8 weeks old than she does now at 16 1/2 months. Growth was explosive. Her first weekly weight gains were 24.7%, 20.9%, 10%. She got good quality food from the start; weighed, counted, or measured; and consumption was logged daily.

She routinely drank 60 ml of water. Now she rarely makes 30 ml. Food consumption is not half of what it was then, but it is notably less.

I think most people find that a healthy food takes overeating out of the picture. Like people, it is the high-fat and empty calorie foods that cause so much trouble.


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