# Super picky hedgehog?



## Anxious_Walnut (Nov 5, 2015)

My Hedgehog Oogie Boogie will only eat his hedgehog food, and his freeze dried meal worms. 
I've tried giving him other treats but he won't even give them a 2nd sniff. 
He's never anointed a thing, and I was wondering if there's anything I can do to get him to try new things? Or if this behavior is normal.


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## nicole92 (Dec 21, 2015)

My hedgehog is a bit picky too. He won't eat apples, bananas, any fruit really. He won't eat crickets either. But he will eat meal worms. I tried freeze dried first and he didn't eat it but then I decided to try live and he LOVES them. So maybe try some live ones?


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## nuttylover (Jun 5, 2015)

Hedgehog food? His staple diet is not cat food? If it is hedgehog food then I would switch to cat food slowly. Hedgehog food is considered junk and is full of fillers with little to no nutrition. Keep on trying giving him treats - some hedgehogs are really picky. I would know because mine is LOL. Try wet cat food. Most of them would go crazy over that one


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## Anxious_Walnut (Nov 5, 2015)

nuttylover said:


> Hedgehog food? His staple diet is not cat food? If it is hedgehog food then I would switch to cat food slowly. Hedgehog food is considered junk and is full of fillers with little to no nutrition. Keep on trying giving him treats - some hedgehogs are really picky. I would know because mine is LOL. Try wet cat food. Most of them would go crazy over that one


I feed him Spike's Ultra Hedgehog Food, which is sold online and recommended by a lot of breeders.

It contains

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein -Not less than- 35% 
Crude Fat -Not less than- 12%
Crude Fiber -Not more than- 8% 
Moisture -Not more than- 12%

Ingredients
Whole dried chicken meat, whole brown rice flour, oatmeal, Chicken meal, chicken fat, whole dried egg, blood meal, whole flax meal, animal plasma, rice bran, kelp meal, beet pulp, brewers yeast, fish meal, potassium chloride, yucca extract, salt, choline chloride, calcium carbonate, ferrous sulfate, maganous sulfate, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, maganous oxide, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, niacin supplement, zinc oxide, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin A supplement, sodium selenite, calcium pantothenate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex, vitamin D3 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, calcium iodate, folic acid, silicon dioxide, amorphous silicon dioxide, phosphoric acid, citric acid (a preservative), zinc amino acid chelate, manganese amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate, iron amino acid chelate, cobalt amino acid chelate, selenium amino acid chelate, edd iodine

Are you sure this is bad for him?


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## octopushedge (Apr 26, 2015)

Spike's is the best hedgehog food, which is still worse than a quality cat food, unfortunately. It's not hurting him, but it could certainly be better.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Still not great.. Sit down and eat your daily dose of animal plasma!! I'm a meatatarian and that doesn't sound good to me. 
Just food for thought... Has there been a breeder that recommended spikes that didn't sell it themselves? Let that sink in for a moment.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Spike's isn't terrible, but isn't great. To be honest, my main problem with it is the price - it's more expensive than a bag of most cat foods of the same or better quality. It also has a couple of iffy ingredients in it, which I can discuss if you're interested. It's not likely to kill your hedgie or make him sick if you feed in a mix, but I would definitely do a mix of at least one other food with the Spike's. Mixes are recommended in case you can't get one food, you'll still have one hedgie is familiar with. They don't do well with sudden food changes, since they're so picky (as you've found!).

About the mealworms, I'd also recommend offering live ones if you can at all. Freeze dried have been known to cause constipation and impactions.

A couple other notes on treats -

- Have you tried other insects & cooked meat? Hedgies tend to like insects & meat more than fruit & veggies, for the most part. You can get canned crickets, grasshoppers, and snails. There are also a wide variety of feeder insects available online such as phoenix worms, silkworms, hornworms, dubia roaches, etc.

- How have you offered the treats? By hand or while you have him out? Or in his cage overnight? A lot of hedgies won't try something new in front of you, but may be more willing to check them out if left in the cage overnight for them.

- And another thought on how you're offering them - what form are you offering? This sticky discusses some different ways to present foods to see if it tempts a picky eater - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23058-offering-fresh-foods-treats.html

Last thing - don't worry too much if you can't get him to eat a lot of treats. If he's on a mix of 2+ good quality foods, he'll be getting what he needs to be healthy. It's just a good idea to offer fresh/cooked foods in addition if they'll eat them both for enrichment & to give them some fresher nutrients. And while a lot of people consider insects a treat, I lean more towards having them be a requirement if hedgie will accept any. So those are always good to offer! But don't stress yourself too much if he just won't try them.


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