# New boy won't eat cat food



## Lolastar (Jun 22, 2016)

I got my new hedgehog a week ago today. He's 9 months old, and has been living in a pet shop for around a month. While he's been there I'm pretty sure they've fed him exclusively on dried mealworms, and now that's all he'll eat - he won't touch dry cat food (good quality brand, chicken flavour) or even wet cat food. How do I persuade him to start eating it? I don't just want him eating mealworms but I'm worried he's going to end up ill if I don't give him any!


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## nuttylover (Jun 5, 2015)

Have you tried counting his kibbles to check if he is really eating or not? What brand of cat food did you give him? Usually by now if he is still not eating he should be syringe fed already. Hedgies become sick fast if they go by for long periods without eating/drinking. You can try crushing his kibbles and mixing the mealworms there to entice him.


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## GsMom (Mar 12, 2016)

It's possible the strong smell of the cat food is putting him off, if he's just been eating mealworms. I've had the smell issue come up more times than I can count, in the opposite manner, while converting cats from a kibble/canned food diet to a raw diet. The raw food doesn't have the strong smell intended to convince cats that it's food, so many of the life-long kibbleheads have to learn what real food smells like (or doesn't smell like).

You could try using a freeze-dried raw diet for cats, that's intended to be reconstituted before feeding. Nature's Variety is one brand that I use frequently, but there are others. Since the reconstituted raw diets don't smell as strongly, you could start by coating mealworms lightly in raw "sauce." He'd be able to smell the mealworms better, and be more likely to eat the cat food on them, which would get him accustom to the taste of the cat food. If that works to start, you can slowly shift the balance, until he's eating mostly reconstituted raw, with less worms/insects. 

The reconstituted raw alone wouldn't be an appropriate, long-term diet for a hedgehog, because the protein and fat values are off, but if it works to make the transition from worms, you can continue that path to an appropriate kibble mix. Start by grinding kibble into a powder, and "salt" the raw, and then continue slowly increasing the size and amount of kibble pieces until you get to the right balance of kibble and worms/insects.


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