[twobytwopets]

While looking up ingredients for my hedgehog project, I leaned something I already knew.

EVERY INGREDIENT IS IMPORTANT​

That is obvious, we all know that. Would you feed a food with rat poison as an ingredient? No way, we love our pets. Who would do that?
What if it had parentheses with a vitamin in it right next to it, then would you feed it to your beloved pet? No. If it said "rat poison (vitamin D3)" would you feed it? Nope, still rat poison.

Would you feed it if it wasn't called rat poison? Probably not... Wait a minute.
What if it the ingredient sounds all science stuff-ish. Does that make it better?

Cholecalciferol is the active ingredient in many rodenticides. It also is a listed ingredient in Mazuri insectivore diet. It also has caused health issues up to death in dogs, cats, possums. Those aren't in the rodent family, so it can affect a small animal like a hedgehog.

 

[Lilysmommy]

Okay, so my first thought was "Why on earth???". But I started doing more checking - I agree that this sounds rather alarming at first. However, I think this is just a case of using different names in the ingredient list.

Cholecalciferol is Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is cholecalciferol. I looked up Natural Balance, Solid Gold, and Orijen. All of them have "Vitamin D3 supplement" listed in their ingredients. They all have the same thing as Mazuri does. I still definitely dislike Mazuri & think they have other problematic ingredients (including what they use for Vitamin K), but IMO, I don't think this ingredient is a major concern. I don't think there have been any studies on how hedgehogs get Vitamin D, but I'd be willing to be that they need it in their diet since they're nocturnal and wouldn't really be exposed to the sunlight in order to manufacture it like humans do. And while an overdose is more likely than a deficiency (especially since it's fat-soluble, so it's more likely to build up in the body), I have yet to hear of a hedgehog being diagnosed with this issue. That doesn't mean it may not happen or have happened, but if they were susceptible to overdosing on it, I have to believe it would be much more common, given the usage in many (likely most or all) cat/dog foods.

Edit: I meant to add, there is a Vitamin D2, which (if I read right) is produced by plants (alfalfa & some mushrooms, according to Wikipedia), whereas D3 is produced by animals (it's the same thing we manufacture when exposed to sun). I'm guessing D3 is used in the pet foods because it would be considered a more natural source of the vitamin for carnivores & omnivores.

 

[Draenog]

That's just vitamin D3, like Lilysmommy said. This is just scaremongering. I'd be careful with these kind of things, btw what is your hedgehog project? (just curious!)

 

[twobytwopets]

Breaking down commercial hedgehog foods.

 

[twobytwopets]

Alright, after a good nights sleep I was able to look at this backwards in a way.
Instead of looking up cholecalciferol I looked up vitamin D3. Cholecalciferol is simply the technical scientific term for vitamin D3.

Yesterday, I was under the impression that it was a form of vitamin D3, and not simply the vitamin itself. I was wrong. I will pass this one off as poor sleep, and being on the last ingredient in a very long list.

Yes an animal overdose on vitamins and minerals. This is how this compound works as a rodenticide. It puts their calciumhosphorus balance out of wack.
I still stand by my original statement, even if it's just my standard of making a choice in diet, every ingredient counts.

 

[Lilysmommy]

Agreed! And I was going to edit a comment in my previous post, then figured I'd just amend it here - doing more reading, it's still more likely to have a deficiency of VitD3 (and other vitamins) than an overdose, even though it is fat-soluble. So it's still more important to worry about vitamins getting into the animal than about them getting an overdose since it's most likely to happen with extreme conditions or a major error, etc.

 

[twobytwopets]

Something I read the other day, no clue where, really applies here.

The most important vitamin is the one that's missing.