Suitable Hedgehog Diet

[Laura]

I posted quite a few months ago now in the hopes that I'd have a hedgie by now, but it looks like my plans are postponed yet again. In the meantime, though, I'd still like to get all my facts straight.

I feed my kitten Iams Eukanuba food, and I was wondering if this was suitable for hedgies to eat as well. This brings me to another question, which is why is hedgehog food two or three different brands of cat food mixed together? Why isn't one sufficient?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me :)

[Luvin_Hedgies]

Iams and Eukanuba are not good foods to be feeing your hedgehog (or your cat). They have less than high grade ingredients (the first ingredient in one of the eukanuba foods is chicken-by-product meal).

This thread gives a great list of recommended foods such as Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, Royal Canin, Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Blue Buffalo, etc:
http://www.chins-n-quills.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125129

[Laura]

Thank you :) I feed my kitten Eukanuba because I work in a vet office, and although it isn't number one on our vets' list of greatest foods, it's on the top 10. I knew it wasn't the greatest for hedgies, just was wondering if it was an option. It's crossed off my list now, of course. I'd still like someone to explain to me the mixing of the foods, though.

[Laura]

Well I've looked around on here for the last half hour and decided to feed my hopefully soon hedgie at least Royal Canin. Is Nutro good to mix that with? (Don't worry, I'm taking notes :) ) I'm assuming we mix the food to get the full benefits of both foods? In any case, any advice you can give me on anything is welcome. I'd like to know a lot more about hedgehogs before I actually get one.

[mmartinez1987]

No ONE food offers everything a hedgie needs to be healthy. There are different nutrients in some cat food thats others dont have. So in order to get all the right balance of nutients for YOU hog(each needs something different) you need to look at the nutrients and percentages and find the right balance for your hog's needs.

[Laura]

Okay, that makes sense. I guess I assumed we fed them cat food because it had the nutrients they needed, it never really occurred to me that maybe it didn't have all of them. Looks like another half an hour of research on here would do me some good lol.

[Cimredopyh]

Heres a link on how to rate pet food that might help you to further understand the vast nutritional and quality difference between Hollistic brands and brands like Iams, it also gives you a breakdown on why the undesirable ingredients are bad.
http://www.acreaturecomfort.com/ratingpetfood.htm

This is meant for dog food but cat food is essentially the same thing

Basically

Low quality, cheap supermarket brands (Friskies etc) = like eating chicken flavoured flour snacks

Average quality, non holistic (Royal Canin etc) = like eating chicken nuggets, fried chicken etc.

High quality, holistic ( Solid Gold etc) = like eating grandmas farm raised, home roasted chicken.

However no matter how good that home roasted chicken is, eating only that everyday is not nutritionally complete, and that is why you should mix brands. For the hedgie and the kitten both :)

[bogieseven]

i would definitely get a couple different foods to mix. if you are looking for a brand that will be easy to find, i would try royal canin, blue buffalo, and/or chicken soup for the cat lover's soul. they can all be found at chain pet stores. also, petco just started selling wellness, which is a really good brand.

[Laura]

Thank you all. I understand now :)
I found a list of recommended nutrients for hedgies on hedgehogcentral.com and for my next research "project" I'm going to compare the foods to that to figure out what I'll use to mix.