hedgehog food not good?

[PrincessPikachu]

hello all
I've been reading lately about hedgehog food not being good for the little guys. I feed my little Pikachu Spike's delight it does have the corn as the second ingredient. Below is the ingredient listing. Can some one tell me about them and suggest anything other? :confused:
Thanks
Tiffany and Princess Pikachu

[FiaSpice]

Hedgehog food are not good (all of them). Corn is a filler and brings noting nutritionous (sp?) try high quality cat food like Royal Canin slim 37, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul light, Bufalo blue, Natural balance etc. You'll find other good food in this forum (there's a thread food dos and don'ts that is usefull)

[Vincent]

Actually, I've heard that Spike's Delite is one of the only hedgehog foods that's good for them. I wouldn't feed it solely to my hedgehogs; I'd try mixing in some other cat foods with it.
However, I think that I would feed Spike's Delite to my boys. The only downside to it is that it's practically impossible to buy out of stores, and shipping is very expensive. :) Here's what I found about the corn in Spike's Delite:

"THE NUMBER TWO INGREDIENT (EXCEPT IN THE PRO-DIET) IS EXTRUDED
YELLOW CORN. CORN HAS HAD SOME BAD PR AS A MAIN INGREDIENT OF ANIMAL FEEDS.
THIS IS DUE PRIMARILY TO SOME OF THE RISKS OF STABILIZATION & STERILIZATION IN
CONVENTIONAL STEAM COOKING. THESE CONCERNS ARE ELIMINATED BY
SPIKE'S DELITE'S UNIQUE EXTRUSION PROCESS. THE USE OF CORN IN ANIMAL
DIETS HAS ALSO GENERATED CRITICISM DUE TO THE INTRINSIC DIFFICULTIES OF
DIGESTING CORN. THE PATENTED EXTRUSION PROCESS USED BY PET-PRO PRODUCTS PARTIALLY PRE-DIGESTS THE CORN. THIS MAKES THE CORN CONTAINED IN SPIKE'S
DELITE TO HAVE A HIGHER DIGESTIBILITY THAN THAT FOUND IN OTHER FEEDS. YOU
CAN FEED THIS EXCELLENT PRODUCT WITH CONFIDENCE."

I don't know how reliable that information is, but judging by the rest of the ingredients, I kind of think that this is an okay food...

[PrincessPikachu]

Thanks for the information, as I totally forgot to put the ingredients in my thread. What other food is good to give my hedgie? :snoopy:

[herbiesmom]

My boys are eating half Spike's Delight and half Royal Canin light 37. They are healthy little things. I bought my Spike's from Hedgehogs by Vickie when I bought Herbie and 5 lbs was 20 or so dollars. Herbie is 6 months old and he and Snow are still working on that original 5 lbs. I mix the Royal Canin in so if I could no longer find Spike's I would have something to feed them.

[Vincent]

The two most recommended foods for hedgehogs are both cat food. :) Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, and Royal Canin 37 are both excellent hedgie foods. I feed my hedgehogs both, as well as Wysong, Wellness and Buffalo Blue.
There's also a thread on this forum about the "Do's and Don'ts" of hedgehog food... I'll see if I can find you a link.

Edit: http://www.chins-n-quills.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93744 There it is.

[Sylverwynde]

I was using one of the Hedgehog foods as part of Sheridan's mix (I don't remember the name of the food off hand, but it wasn't one of the ones listed on this site). Unfortunately, the only part of the food mix he liked were the sunflower seeds, and they didn't even come pre-shelled! He just picked the kibbles out of his bowl, and wouldn't eat them. Needless to say, I gave up, and have a worthless bag of hedgie kibble hanging around my place now........

[freznow]

I have CSFTCLS, Natural balance, Wellness, and Solid Gold in my mix, and Rico does well. Though I think I may have to leave out the Natural balance next time because I can't find any small sizes, while the other three have trial bags and such... But he always leaves the Nb for last, so it won't faze him much.