Acceptable Bugs for Hedgehogs?
 

Hi all!

My hedgheog does not like mealworms, and I am wondering what bugs are acceptable to give them? She LOVES flies, if she happens to find one, and she ate a moth once too :/ . She ate an ant today too, and I looked it up and hedgehogs eat them in the wild, so it should be okay but I am wondering if there are any bugs that she can't eat. Thanks guys! :)

They can not eat wild insects, or bait insects. Only insects from reptile shops - if you breed them after buying from a reptile shop thats fine too.

Black and brown crickets, locusts, dubia roaches, calciworms, silkworms, isopods(woodlice), earthworms are all good insects.

Mealworms are only treat insects anyway so your hedgehog not liking them doesnt matter.

I assume by a fly, moth and ant they are all wild insects. This may do harm, but with those insects you have no idea what they have or been in contact with. They contain all kinds of parasites which your hog will get from eating them, they could also have come in contact with pesticides, which then means it can kill your hedgehog when eaten the insect.

Okay thank you very much! I will definitely take this into consideration! I wish you could buy flies at the pet store haha, but I will try some other insects too!
Thanks!

Calciworms are black soldier fly larvae, so you could put them into a bigger space with more bedding and let them turn into flies.

Ugh, imagine that. Do they fly? *shivers* how the fluff are you gonna catch them to feed them to the hedgehog? I don’t like flies 😂

They do fly yes! Like every other fly😂
Silkworms also turn into moths - that do fly to
You can use tongs and catch them by the wings it stops them being able to fly - a bit like catching locusts and crickets by their back legs.
You can also slow them down in the fridge like other insects which will make them easier to catch because they won't be flying so much.

Thank you guys for the input.. But I don't think my family would appreciate me starting a fly and worm breeding station in out house. ick XD. ;P

As we are on the topic of good bugs, can they have waxworms? Or would those fall into a treat category?

Okay so you can get flightless fruit flies for reptiles, they dont fly as they have been genetically bred not to.
They are 2-3mm.
They are pretty easy to balance into a diet, and as they are pretty low fat, and not too high in protein, they can also be used a staple insect.


Waxworms are very high in fat, so they make a good treat insects.
So do butterworms, morioworms and mealworms.

Okay, thanks a ton guys!