Huge breakthrough!

[PygmyUpLove]

Warning; this is just a happy message, yet it may help others, who knows 
So I posted a couple days ago that my male hedgehog is such a skinny boy, not interested in food at all, his biggest love is his wheel. He only weighed about 280 grams and I was having the hardest time getting him to eat a variety of food. He would not have fruit or vedgies, no boiled eggs, no mix of the previous, not anything, just his cat food. Oh and if I got lucky he’d have some dried mealies, but life ones; he’d run away, haha!

One of my friend suggested canned insects. These are not life anymore, but well preserved, so they still contain most of the nutrients and fats that life insects would.

I bought some cans with mealies, grasshoppers, etc and I took all of my hedgies out to give it a try. And guess what. He ate it out of my hand (which is also a rare thing). I started off with some mealies and he seemed to genuinely like them! Then I figured; why not try a grasshopper and sure enough, he ate it all…
Now I’m not planning on upsetting his tummy and over feeding him with insects for this first time. But my day was made. I’m hoping that this will help him get to 350 grams eventually.

I also discovered that he doesn’t like to eat food out of his bowl. When I wake up in the morning I notice it’s quite full still. Yet, when I scatter the food around his viv and check again in the morning, mostly all of it will be gone!

If you have a hedgie that’s a difficult eater, the above might be some things you could try as well.

xx

[Yukidama's mama]

Yay, brilliant news! ^^
Lol, to him running away to live mealies!
I'm planning to order in live wax worms and currently morphing superworms to beetles so hope my boy doesn't do the same, I can imagine he will though! >< haha

I've been tempted before to buy canned insects but was put off that they need to be kept in the fridge. I guess keeping them in an air tight container would stop them stinking out the rest of the fridge perhaps?

Hope he reaches his weight goal soon! ♡

[aegonziv]

I'm glad your hedgehog is eating more and, I don't know about your setup, but I have a C&C cage that has a bin cage inside as the feeding station and, every time I put the food in, they tend to turn over the plate and eat it from the aspen bedding. I think they prefer it that way. Maybe you can get a small bin cage to put aspen bedding in and put his food there. Also, as I have a male and a female, I've noticed males tend to be more skinny.


And, in reference to the mealworms, I'd advice you and Yukidama's mama to try Fluker's Gourmet Style Mealworms/Crickets/Grasshopers, which are obviously better than freezedried and I've noticed my hedgehogs like them, and they tend to be a little picky, as they don't like eating fruits or veggies. But, with this brand, I've had success and they truly enjoy their insects. These canned insects are obviously supposed to be kept in the freezer, as Yukidama's mama has stated and I was very concerner about this, but, after trying it, I've noticed there is no odor in the freezer or anything. Just for precaution, even though the cans are resealable, I put them inside a Ziploc bag, just to be safe.

*Please make sure to tell everyone not to touch those insects and keep them away from the reach of children*

[Yukidama's mama]

Hey Aegonziv, thanks for the canned insect brand recommendation! I'm based in Japan so I'll see if I'm able to order some on the Internet. Definitely, I prefer live and never give dried but willing to try canned as an alternative . Ah ok, so you keep them in the freezer and not refridgerator? Does it take long for them to thaw out before you can give them? That's good there is no odor, would put me off completely if made our food smell! Using ziploc bags is a good idea just in case! ^^

Ah that's reassuring to hear that you tend to find male hedgies skinnier than females. That's funny that you say yours turn their bowl upside and forage for their food, I never thought of it like that! ^^ But my boy always did this from the start, he'd grab the bowl with his paw and tip it over (he didn't really eat the pile of tipped over food though but I use fleece so maybe it wasn't that exciting for him to forage?!). I've seen many other hedgies in Japan use this same bowl and none of them seem to tip it over so it must be something he likes to do... I did buy a heavier ceramic bowl though and now what he does is pulls it under his sleeping slack during he night and sleeps right next to it all day lol. Sometimes he doesn't get it all the way there so I'll move it for him every morning now and he'll eat from it straightaway, as otherwise he won't eat all day as won't come out in the daylight anymore. I'm not sure if this is abnormal behaviour (he used to come out and then just stopped)? Anyways by doing this I hear him several times during the day eating under his bed so I'm happy with that . Maybe it's something Pygmyuplove you can try to help increase your boy's appetite, if he doesn't eat much during the day?