New Hedgie Owner

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toxxxic.kitten

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
317
Location
Ekron. KY
It's been quite some time since I've been on the forum since re-homing my chinchillas. I've recently bought a 6 week old male snowflake hedgehog. I've done some basic research on their care, but came here in search of a proper diet for my new addition (I still haven't thought of the perfect name for him, yet). The breeder feeds Spike's Delite Premium Diet from Pet-Pro.com.

This food exactly: http://www.pet-pro.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=2&zenid=lne4t99kl9ks1m0k461u6t08i0

I have about a week and a half's worth of food they gave me when I adopted him. They told me high quality cat food was the worst thing I could feed him, though through all my research it seems to actually be the best thing to feed them if I did my research correctly. Is it bad for them to eat cat food? I would keep him on his same food, but the only way it's available is to order it online and I rather be able to get food that is easily accessible. What are the best food(s) I can feed him? Price is not a problem as far as food goes. I want to make sure he gets the best possible diet I can provide him. Is canned food better then dry food? What kind of treats can I feed him?
 
Spike's Delight can be part of a good hedgie diet, but it would not be the only food I would feed. I've used it before - I liked the size and shape of the kibble. I liked that the first ingredient was a meat. I liked that the protein and fat %'s were all in a good range. What I didn't like so much was that the next three ingredients weren't meat... that the second is just a filler rather than a "real" food.

I believe that you did your research correctly if you're coming to the conclusion that high quality cat kibble is the way to go. Dry kibble will form the staple of his diet, but you can certainly treat him with wet cat food, mealies, crickets, waxworms, and babyfood (veggie and meat varieties). Stay away from the freeze dried mealies and other bugs, they can block up his system.

I think if I were in your shoes right now, I'd go ahead and pick up a second kibble - probably a small-sized one like anything in the Fromm line or Blue Buffalo Freedom. Little kibbles for little mouths makes sense to me... last thing you want to have to do is sit around and break up big kibbles into parts every evening instead of snuggling with him.

After you get the new kibble home, put in a ratio of ~1/4 new to 3/4 old (ie, don't just start off half-and-half between the Spikes and newkibble). I'd probably go ahead and keep feeding the Spikes until it ran out since you already have it... With adding in the new food, it should help extend it beyond 1.5 weeks... As it's running out, I'd debate between adding in a second new kibble at that time to replace the dwindling supply of the Spikes vs just letting him eat the one new kibble all on it's own for a week or two before adding in a second.

The goal is to have him on 2 (or more) types of kibbles. That way, if a problem crops up with one of them, you always have the other to fall back on while you search for something to replace the one that became problematic. Hedgie bellies can be pretty darn sensitive, so you want to introduce changes gradually... not just have a 100% changeover in their staple diet.

Getting back to the "then I'd debate" thing... I'd let his poop tell me the story. If the transition between Spike's alone vs Spike's + new is tough on his belly (you'll know if you're seeing green poopies), then let him just stay on the one for awhile before adding in another new type. Or even go ahead and order one bag of the Spike's and let him stay on Spike's + newkibble until the new bag of Spike's is within a couple weeks of running out on its own... at which point I'd replace the Spike's with a high quality cat kibble. He'll likely be bigger then and you'll probably feel increasingly comfortable considering both the little kibble like Fromm's Duck a la Veg or Mature Gold and bigger kibble for him - like Halo, Innova, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken, etc...

I currently feed a mix of three different types of kibble. At one point, with two hedgies, I kept it around four or five. As long as you add each gradually, you don't have to limit the number.
 
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I went on the website and read the ingredients and noticed the second ingredient was corn. I didn't like that much. I don't feed any of my dogs or cats anything with grain in it - not because any of them have allergies, but because grain is just bad in general, IMHO. So, I would want to do the same with my hedgie. My next question is, then...what percentage(s) of protein and fat are good? Is there a thread on here that lists other cat/dog food that are acceptable staples? I'd like to know what is good so I can pick from a few that are readily available near me. I wanted to avoid the hassle of ordering food online, if at all possible.
 
Grain free - seem to be more and more choices every day if you go that way. You'll want to aim for the cat kibbles instead of the dog kibbles. The cat ones are smaller and seem to come apart more easily for hedgie consumption compared to the dog versions.

Check out:
Fromm Surf & Turf (38% protein; 19% fat)
Halo Grain free (33% protein; 18 % fat)
Now! Senior (30% protein; 14 % fat)
Natural Balance Green Pea & Chicken (30% protein; 12% fat) or Green Pea & Duck or Green Pea & Salmon (also 30 & 12)
Blue Freedom (32% protein; 13% fat)
 
I don't think there's any one "best" - it's really a combination of several factors. There's no one food that seems to cover all the bases a hedgie needs, so we try to provide them a range of foods - where one brand might lack, another one takes the lead. And then there's hedgie preference -- You can always attempt to chose the "best" nutritionally (like one that's poultry and the other balances with seafood), only to find that hedgie would sooner starve than eat it.

Since he's a little fellow, I might tend toward the Fromm or Blue or Now since they're a smaller size/easier shape for small mouths than the larger puck shape that Natural Balance and Halo come in. Then it'll be up to him to tell you "yum" or "ugh... what are you doing to me with this... this... *thing* in my food dish?!?!"
 
Okay, so I picked up a small bag of the Blue Freedom. I looked online and PetSmart was also suppose to have the Halo Grain Free, but I didn't see it in the store. So, I looked at the cat food list sticky on here and picked up a small bag of the Royal Canin Indoor 27 instead.
 
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