# Hedgehog Treats?



## HermitHog (Sep 20, 2015)

Does anyone know how and what I can give my hedgehog treats? She doesn't like cricket or mealworms, and she won't take baby food or the cat treats I gave her from my hand. She will only eat them if I don't hand feed them to her, of course I've only tried once so far with each treat so it might take a while longer to be comfortable with hand feeding. The regular diet I feed her is the Ultra-Blend Select hedgehog diet. Feeding her a treat that she has never had before wouldn't upset her stomach would it? All of her "buisness" looked fine on the wheel to me. I was just wanting to know if anyone has any ideas how I can hand feed her treats to her? Also how often would I feed them to her?  thanks for any help!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

It's pretty normal for hedgehogs to only try new treats at night when it's in their cage rather than in front of you or from your hand. Due to how picky they can be, it can also take multiple introductions of the same food before they'll try it. I would keep trying the insects, she's most likely to decide she likes those. You can freeze, then thaw crickets so you can leave them in her cage. With mealworms, you can try cutting them in half, then rub the cut end on her mouth so she gets a taste. That has helped some hedgehogs realize "hey, this is good food!" before.

Meat, insects, & eggs tend to be more popular than fruits & veggies. Fruits & veggies tend to be hit-or-miss & highly depend on the hedgehog. Some really like carrots, my hedgehog hated them. She really liked peas, though. Fruit, some hedgehogs really like berries, some really like melons.

These two stickies might help out with the treat thing - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/17725-treat-list-safe-fruits-veggies.html and http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23058-offering-fresh-foods-treats.html

Feeding new treats can upset her stomach, especially if it's a lot at once. Offer small amounts at first, and only introduce one new treat at a time. That's partly to avoid upsetting her stomach and partly to watch for any negative reaction such as allergies.

And while this isn't related to your question, I would really recommend checking out other food options for her main diet. Hedgehog foods are not good quality at all. The one you're feeding isn't one of the foods that's actually harmful, but it's still not great. High quality cat & dog foods are much more recommended, and it's best to do a mix of two or more foods to cover all of the bases & in case one gets recalled or becomes unavailable. There's more information about what to look for in a food & such here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/foru...3034-beginner-s-guide-hedgehog-nutrition.html and some recommended brands here - http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/12-diet-nutrition/23042-recommended-foods-list.html It's mostly geared towards people in the United States, but many of the brands can still be found in Canada.


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## HermitHog (Sep 20, 2015)

Okay, thanks for that last part especially, Lilysmommy! I will look into getting a good quality cat food. Is Purina One smartblend a good enough quality? that is Purina One smart blend weight control adult cat food? Phew that's a long name!!!:lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Purina products aren't great in general, and that applies to Purina One too, unfortunately. The only Purina One foods I would recommend are the Purina One Beyond. I couldn't find a food that was specifically Healthy Weight, but found these two - https://www.purinaone.com/cats/products/smartblend-healthy-metabolism and https://www.purinaone.com/cats/products/smartblend-indoor-advantage if one of those was what you meant. I still wouldn't use either, though. They're both too high in protein & the ingredients really aren't good. I can expand on that if you want, but I think the Beginner's Guide sticky covers several of the ingredients & why they aren't good.


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## HermitHog (Sep 20, 2015)

Okay, thanks for all the info! Could you or someone else give me a list of all the safe cat foods, or a link to one if it's already on HHC?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

There isn't a list of every food that would be good to feed (I'd like to do something like that eventually, but don't have time at the moment, unfortunately), but there is a list of recommended brands to check out in my first post.  Not every food within the brand is good, so you'll need to double check things like protein percentage, fat percentage, and ingredients. The Beginner's Guide will help you with that part. And that list isn't every good brand either, so check what's available in the stores around you! You may have access to something that isn't on the list, but would be great to have in a mix.


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## HermitHog (Sep 20, 2015)

Is the Blue Buffalo cat food good enough quality? It has 32 percent protein and 15 percent fat, and the first 4 ingredients are meat.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yup, that would be a good choice!  Once you have him introduced & switched over to it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to look for another good food with a lower fat (between 10-12%) to mix with it. Then you'll be covered if there's any kind of recall or if you can't get one of the foods for some reason. And if he gains too much weight or anything, you can adjust the amounts of each food so that he gets more of the lower fat food, etc. Lots of benefits to mixing more than one food!


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