# Cat Food Issue?/ Diet Questions



## JOliverio (Dec 9, 2013)

So some of you may have followed my other post about my hedgehog Thor and the trouble we were having..

It actually seems to be linked to the cat kibble that is used..It is just one of the name brands I found at Walmart (can't remember the actual name), I did make sure it fell in the recommenced nutritional values. I was just giving him about a small handful of food and that would last a day to two days. But it seems the food left him with the constipation again seeing how he was making noise this morning and having a hard time pooping. As anyone else seen this with any other cat food? 

He seemed to do okay with just boiled chicken with no issues. I tried adding a lettuce mix in with the chicken and he didn't seem to touch that. I also tried blueberries, strawberries, and kiwi and he didn't like those either...

What can I add to the boiled chicken so that he gets extra nutrients(veggies? other fruit? other meat? anything)? Or should I keep with the cat kibble and just lighten the amount he gets..HE was fine for about 1-2 weeks just on the cat kibble...


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Sounds like he probably needs a different cat kibble or possibly a wet cat food and see if more moisture helps with the constipation issues. You should probably stick with trying to find some kind of commercial balanced diet that he doesn't have issues with. Doing a balanced home-prepared diet takes a lot of research and work - if he doesn't get a properly balanced diet, he can end up with all kinds of problems from nutritional deficiencies. So you don't really want to stick with just boiled chicken, since it's missing a ton of nutrients, including calcium, which is essential for a growing animal.

Try & find the name of the food, if you can. It's possible (especially from Walmart) that it has too many fillers or something that are causing his problems. Knowing the name & being able to look up ingredients or something can help people either point out what might be causing the problem or if anyone else has had similar issues with the food.


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## JOliverio (Dec 9, 2013)

So I was able to get a hold of someone at home to send me the info on the cat chow..I am stuck at work from 9am to 5pm Eastern Time with a hour drive bothways. But the food is Purina Cat Chow Natural Plus Vitamins and Minerals...

I am open to other suggestions on cat food, I have tried wet food and he was uninterested. Any Info will definitely help, I would love to get Thor to not have these issues!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Purina Cat Chow has a lot of fillers and not-great ingredients. The same is true of the Naturals brand, the only difference is it has chicken meal as the first ingredient - everything after is fillers. The protein is also a tad high at 38%...35% and under would probably be better. I would try getting a good quality food and see if it helps anything at all. There's a list of popular-on-forum foods here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html or you can get more info on what to avoid in terms of ingredients here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...3034-beginner-s-guide-hedgehog-nutrition.html

To explain a bit further, here's the ingredients for the Purina Naturals food -



> Chicken meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, brewers rice, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), corn meal, chicken, salmon, powdered cellulose, ground whole wheat, soybean hulls, malt extract, brewers dried yeast, phosphoric acid, natural flavor, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, calcium carbonate, salt, choline chloride, dried spinach, parsley flakes, potassium chloride, taurine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.


Chicken meal is good. The next three ingredients are all fillers that don't really offer much nutrition at all. Animal fat is unspecified, which means it can come from dead/dying/diseased animals - not animals specifically slaughtered for consumption. Corn meal, powdered cellulose (most common source? Dried wood), and soybean hulls are all just more fillers. And just about everything else is just vitamins to add the necessary nutrients since the ingredients of the food doesn't really offer anything themselves.


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