My hedgehog is a picky eater! What to do?

[Claire]

My hedgehog is just the pickiest eater- and I'm not quite sure how to proceed. I don't want to malnourish the cutie, but I don't know how to make her eat her fruits and veggies. I got her from another owner when she was 16 weeks old. They had only fed her kitten food, so I gave her kitten food for a few weeks, then tried to wean her off of it and get her on a "commercial" hedgehog food supplemented with fresh fruits and veggies. She wouldn't touch it. I tried mixing in kitten food with her normal food, but the little sticker just flips the bowl and picked out all of the kitten food pieces, leaving the normal food! I tried leaving just the fruits and veggies and new food in her cage, but she won't eat any of it. I put a plate of a ton of different fruits and veggies in her cage to eat, only to find it not touched, and the kitten food gone. The only thing she consistently likes is a little bit of cottage cheese (which really isn't doing any good for her) and that darn kitten food.

Any advice? Sorry for the jumbled paragraph- let me know if you need clarification.

[Immortalia]

Instead of "commercial" hedgehog food, I'd suggest taking a look at Reaper's list of cat food, and go buy a bag of good quality cat food off his list and wean your hedgie onto that.

Commercial hedgehog food is not always the tastiest to our hedgie's tastebuds, so you might have more luck with a cat food that is lower in fat.

[Claire]

But a hedgehog would still need fruits and vegetables and mealworms in addition to cat food, correct? How would I get my hedgie to eat those?

[nikki]

if you feed a mix of 2-3 of the recommended cat foods it won't matter if your hedgie doesn't want to eat anything else. Alot of hedgies are picky and that's why we feed a mixture of 2-3 different foods. Your lil guy will be fine with just that if he stays picky.

[LizardGirl]

Many hedgies won't eat fruits/veggies. As long as you have a good cat food mix, you shouldn't need to supplement it with those. Insects are good to feed, though, if he will eat them.

Almost all commercial hedgehog foods are junk and I wouldn't recommend feeding any as a main part of a diet except maybe Spike's Delight.

[dorasdaddy]

Dora usually has 3 different foods in her bowl any give night and those are from a selection of 7. she gets bored with her food so we have to constantly switch between those to keep her eating.