The Chicken Smoothie Hedgehog Society ♥

[Boomer]

I know Iams Kitten food isn't the best, but Jack loves it and I've tried weaning him onto a different food with no luck. He also is at a healthy weight, so I'm not too concerned about the kitten chow being a little more fatty.

[Ancunín]

I feed rupert chicken cat food, sticking with the same brand and flavour of kitten food that the breeder used! :3 he often gets scrambles egg whites, baby food, rotisserie chicken, and the occasional fruit slice. :)

Edit; oh! And (when we can get him to eat) his freeze dried mealworms!

[Dia.]

I heard its hard to get them off kitten food, so I decided not to mess with it.
Especially with the timing, my pet sitter would have to handle the weaning... so we're going to avoid that.

Istorii - you said that he's picky about mealworms. Have you tried live or frozen over freeze dried?

[Ancunín]

Dia- not frozen no, when we first got him we tried live but he wanted nothing to do with them, we even tried to give them to him by hand. :/ i'll see about the frozen! That may be a good idea :)

[Dia.]

It's weird that he didn't take them live, usually the movement and the smell gets to them ^^
I read somewhere that if you cut one in half and put some of the juice on their lips they may taste it and realize it's food. Also that it can take lots of tries for them to realize.
-shrug- I really hope mine takes them with no problem. I feel like they're so important to their diet since they're naturally insectivores <3

Superworms scare me o.o I guess they're like mealworms, but huge and strong and they can bite the poor hedgie's mouth/throat if you don't kill them before feeding?

[Boomer]

Jack has also lately began to dig in his food bowl for his kibble, so I put most of it on his platform and some in his bedding so he can dig for it.

What kind of wheel do you guys have? I have a Silent Spinner and I've never had problems with the ridges.

[Ancunín]

I got some pics of rupert! Way down in my gallery rip

v during one of his "mom i'm trying to sleep" visits during the day




Edit; forgot i had a question lol what bedding does all your hedgies like the most? Rupert likes paper! :3

[Dia.]

A bought a Carolina Storm Wheel for my baby. They seem really nice and really durable.

As for bedding, my bedding of choice is carefresh. Less likely to have mites, absorbant, comfy...

[DragonLoverHere]

Insects and bugs are super important to balancing their diets. Even on high protein food some hedgies really need the boost of bugs to maintain weight and fitness. The way my parents told me to deal with the picky hogs is to mix a couple of mealworms into their food dish, it should have slick high enough sides so the worms don't crawl out (ramekins are great). The worms will burrow in the food, and your hedgie is bound to grab one up and taste it or get curious about that wiggly thing!

A cool way to deal with teaching your hog about super worms once it is accustomed to bugs is to get some sharp metal tweezers and grab at the worm on an open surface. Your hog will watch the action of disabling and killing the worm to eat, and they will by that token learn with patience how to nip the worms apart themselves. Its like being the mama teaching them how to hunt really.

[Dia.]

I'm a little skeptical about teaching them how to deal with super worms :/ I don't know that they would learn from tweezers.
I'd rather not risk it xD