LexieHeg
I'm a Hedgie kinda girl
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2011
- Messages
- 174
Many people warn about this on the forum, but I have recently had a very bad experience with it and would like to share my information.
When we first got Lexie we were feeding her the hedgehog food that she was being fed previously. It didn't have a lot of the bad stuff in it, but it wasn't good either. We let her adjust for about two weeks before introducing a high protein, low fat cat food into her diet. We added it in small portions, like recommended, so that she wasn't overwhelmed. Around this time she stopped behaving the way she had but we figured it was just her adjusting. She was less social but eating, drinking and pooping normally. She was running on her wheel each night and would run around in her play pen. Again, we thought it was just her adjusting. Then she became grumpy, but conveniently she was also quilling so again, we didn't worry about it.
We weren't counting her kibble but had marked her dish and would check each day to make sure she was eating. She was. We didn't consider the fact that if she pushed the kibble around in her dish they would settle and look like she had eaten. We did the same with her water and she was drinking as well. We continued to increase the portion of cat food vs. hedgie food. As we began to adjust to a gumpy, unsocial hedgehog we began to notice she wasn't pooping. Thinking she was constipated (as she was eating) we started treating her for constipation. She had a vet's visit where everything was well, so we weren't worried. The vet told us to take her off cat food immediately, so we did. She pooped a couple days later, but then we noticed again that she wasn't pooping the next day. We tried some pumpkin and made it a day later, and when we were giving her a bath to see if we could get some poops out she just laid down in the bath (under the water). I immediately scooped her out and we rushed her to the vet.
They weighed her and found she had lost 30 grams in a week (she only weighed 312 to begin with). The doctor immediately gave her a saline shot and a vitamin B shot and sent us home to nurse her to health by feeding and syringe medicating her. We have been doing this since Saturday, and although I am happy to report her appetite has returned with a vengeance...I am still a little stunned at what happened because I thought we were doing everything right. We are still nursing her until I am good and comfortable taking her off the meds and the liquid diet. She's eating between 10 - 15 hedgehog kibble (the cat food is in there but she won't touch it) every day which is a considerable meal considering how little her belly is. She's small, so the vet isn't worried if she puts on a few extra grams. All her tests came back normal. Once we have gotten her healthy again the vet will work with us on a plan to change her food slowly...very slowly.
Once the panic settled, I called the vet to give her an update and asked if she knew what happened. She said she has had a couple hedgies who have had this experience, and as all of Lex's tests came back clear, it is most likely due to food change. She said that some hedgies are more sensitive than others to food change, especially young ones like Lexie. When we added the cat food, she probably didn't recognize the smell and so didn't know it was food. She stopped eating because she didn't think we were feeding her, or ate very little whenever she found a hedgehog pellet. The greater the portion of cat food, the less and less hedgie food she could find and the less she was eating. They longer hedgehogs don't eat, their bodies start to go into survival mode and consume their fat reserves, telling the hedgie that they aren't hungry. Even if she wanted to eat, she wouldn't because her body said she was full. She needed a vitamin B shot and some very stressful force feeding to jumpstart her metabolism and appetite, and once she started eating her body started going back to normal.
The scary part of this is her activity levels were relatively normal, she did not have any major changes and she looked healthy. She didn't look thin and she didn't look sick. The fact that she lost 30 grams in 7 days begs to differ, but their sicknesses can be almost invisible.
We were lucky and caught this before she starved to death :cry3:, but it wouldn't have been too much longer before she did. Even once we caught it, she did not want food....not at all. We had to force feed her the first two times, which was horrible for her, and us.
I wanted to share this to emphasize the importance of changing food SLOWLY and counting kibble! Had we been doing those two things, Lexie wouldn't have gotten sick (and our wallets wouldn't have taken such a beating). We weren't trying to hurt her, we thought we were doing all the right things and she didn't show any obvious symptoms of being sick. It just goes to show how much we don't know about these little animals and how very important it is to have a good vet, and pay close attention to your little one. You may have one hedgie that can change foods no problem, and others that are like Lex. So please, for the sake of your little one, be very careful changing foods and always count their kibbles. It's tedious a the best of times, but if it saves their lives its worth it.
When we first got Lexie we were feeding her the hedgehog food that she was being fed previously. It didn't have a lot of the bad stuff in it, but it wasn't good either. We let her adjust for about two weeks before introducing a high protein, low fat cat food into her diet. We added it in small portions, like recommended, so that she wasn't overwhelmed. Around this time she stopped behaving the way she had but we figured it was just her adjusting. She was less social but eating, drinking and pooping normally. She was running on her wheel each night and would run around in her play pen. Again, we thought it was just her adjusting. Then she became grumpy, but conveniently she was also quilling so again, we didn't worry about it.
We weren't counting her kibble but had marked her dish and would check each day to make sure she was eating. She was. We didn't consider the fact that if she pushed the kibble around in her dish they would settle and look like she had eaten. We did the same with her water and she was drinking as well. We continued to increase the portion of cat food vs. hedgie food. As we began to adjust to a gumpy, unsocial hedgehog we began to notice she wasn't pooping. Thinking she was constipated (as she was eating) we started treating her for constipation. She had a vet's visit where everything was well, so we weren't worried. The vet told us to take her off cat food immediately, so we did. She pooped a couple days later, but then we noticed again that she wasn't pooping the next day. We tried some pumpkin and made it a day later, and when we were giving her a bath to see if we could get some poops out she just laid down in the bath (under the water). I immediately scooped her out and we rushed her to the vet.
They weighed her and found she had lost 30 grams in a week (she only weighed 312 to begin with). The doctor immediately gave her a saline shot and a vitamin B shot and sent us home to nurse her to health by feeding and syringe medicating her. We have been doing this since Saturday, and although I am happy to report her appetite has returned with a vengeance...I am still a little stunned at what happened because I thought we were doing everything right. We are still nursing her until I am good and comfortable taking her off the meds and the liquid diet. She's eating between 10 - 15 hedgehog kibble (the cat food is in there but she won't touch it) every day which is a considerable meal considering how little her belly is. She's small, so the vet isn't worried if she puts on a few extra grams. All her tests came back normal. Once we have gotten her healthy again the vet will work with us on a plan to change her food slowly...very slowly.
Once the panic settled, I called the vet to give her an update and asked if she knew what happened. She said she has had a couple hedgies who have had this experience, and as all of Lex's tests came back clear, it is most likely due to food change. She said that some hedgies are more sensitive than others to food change, especially young ones like Lexie. When we added the cat food, she probably didn't recognize the smell and so didn't know it was food. She stopped eating because she didn't think we were feeding her, or ate very little whenever she found a hedgehog pellet. The greater the portion of cat food, the less and less hedgie food she could find and the less she was eating. They longer hedgehogs don't eat, their bodies start to go into survival mode and consume their fat reserves, telling the hedgie that they aren't hungry. Even if she wanted to eat, she wouldn't because her body said she was full. She needed a vitamin B shot and some very stressful force feeding to jumpstart her metabolism and appetite, and once she started eating her body started going back to normal.
The scary part of this is her activity levels were relatively normal, she did not have any major changes and she looked healthy. She didn't look thin and she didn't look sick. The fact that she lost 30 grams in 7 days begs to differ, but their sicknesses can be almost invisible.
We were lucky and caught this before she starved to death :cry3:, but it wouldn't have been too much longer before she did. Even once we caught it, she did not want food....not at all. We had to force feed her the first two times, which was horrible for her, and us.
I wanted to share this to emphasize the importance of changing food SLOWLY and counting kibble! Had we been doing those two things, Lexie wouldn't have gotten sick (and our wallets wouldn't have taken such a beating). We weren't trying to hurt her, we thought we were doing all the right things and she didn't show any obvious symptoms of being sick. It just goes to show how much we don't know about these little animals and how very important it is to have a good vet, and pay close attention to your little one. You may have one hedgie that can change foods no problem, and others that are like Lex. So please, for the sake of your little one, be very careful changing foods and always count their kibbles. It's tedious a the best of times, but if it saves their lives its worth it.
