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Hey everyone! I am doing a little unofficial study on how hedgie's food intake varies from how the kibble is presented. Please read below what I am looking for, and how you can help. Please only vote when you feel you have a good idea on how your hedgie reacted!
I am hoping for some of our hedgie owners to participate in this study. It should take 2-5 weeks, depending on how familiar you already are with your hedgie's habits. Try to avoid any diet changes or other things that may significantly affect how much your hedgie eats.
First, you must know what is "normal" intake for your hedgie, eating his normal food in the regular whole kibble. If you already count kibble, please keep the average of how many pieces and what food it is on hand. If you don't know how many kibble is normal, I would recommend starting counting each night for two weeks and take the average. I would like specific answers so our method of measuring will be by 'kibble'.
Whatever the average eaten is, get him/her used to having that amount plus 15 offered nightly. This makes it much easier to count than a whole bowl.
Once you know what your hedgie's average nightly intake is and it is fairly stable, you start "cutting" the food.
Cutting the food: I've found that crushing gives you more useless powder than edible bits, so I have started cutting each kibble in half/thirds/quarters depending on the size. I use regular scissors (somewhat nice ones, crappy kids scissors might not work as well because of the space between the blades) to cut each piece. Regular cat kibble usually gets cut once down the middle, larger cat kibble gets cut into thirds, and dog food usually gets fourths. This way they are all pretty much the same size.
That is what I would like you to do. Cut each piece in half or so and offer the food as normal. Then when you are counting, remember about how much of these crumbs made up each kibble to find out how many were eaten. I'd like people to record how much their hedgie is eating CUT food for 2 weeks, then WHOLE food for the last week again. If your hedgie seems to get stressed from this (I wouldn't expect it, but who knows) please don't continue whatever it is that is bothering them, and go back to normal.
Please do not vote on the poll until you have done all of the above. When you vote, also please reply with the kibble averages for whole and cut, as well as what the food is, the weight of your hedgie if you have it, average temperature if you have it, anything you can think of that might be useful for finding patterns. If you noticed anything in specific, please share. If you see that a food that seemed to not be popular whole is readily eaten in pieces, I'd like to hear what food it is and what shape the kibble is in.
I am seeing with Inky that when offered smaller pieces of the same kind of food, he will eat more.
Thank you for any responses! It's always fun to see what kind of results we can get from things like this. I am also curious if the large kibble sizes have anything to do with the frequent oral tumors pet hedgehogs get, but that would be more for vets to look into.
I am hoping for some of our hedgie owners to participate in this study. It should take 2-5 weeks, depending on how familiar you already are with your hedgie's habits. Try to avoid any diet changes or other things that may significantly affect how much your hedgie eats.
First, you must know what is "normal" intake for your hedgie, eating his normal food in the regular whole kibble. If you already count kibble, please keep the average of how many pieces and what food it is on hand. If you don't know how many kibble is normal, I would recommend starting counting each night for two weeks and take the average. I would like specific answers so our method of measuring will be by 'kibble'.
Whatever the average eaten is, get him/her used to having that amount plus 15 offered nightly. This makes it much easier to count than a whole bowl.
Once you know what your hedgie's average nightly intake is and it is fairly stable, you start "cutting" the food.
Cutting the food: I've found that crushing gives you more useless powder than edible bits, so I have started cutting each kibble in half/thirds/quarters depending on the size. I use regular scissors (somewhat nice ones, crappy kids scissors might not work as well because of the space between the blades) to cut each piece. Regular cat kibble usually gets cut once down the middle, larger cat kibble gets cut into thirds, and dog food usually gets fourths. This way they are all pretty much the same size.
That is what I would like you to do. Cut each piece in half or so and offer the food as normal. Then when you are counting, remember about how much of these crumbs made up each kibble to find out how many were eaten. I'd like people to record how much their hedgie is eating CUT food for 2 weeks, then WHOLE food for the last week again. If your hedgie seems to get stressed from this (I wouldn't expect it, but who knows) please don't continue whatever it is that is bothering them, and go back to normal.
Please do not vote on the poll until you have done all of the above. When you vote, also please reply with the kibble averages for whole and cut, as well as what the food is, the weight of your hedgie if you have it, average temperature if you have it, anything you can think of that might be useful for finding patterns. If you noticed anything in specific, please share. If you see that a food that seemed to not be popular whole is readily eaten in pieces, I'd like to hear what food it is and what shape the kibble is in.
I am seeing with Inky that when offered smaller pieces of the same kind of food, he will eat more.
Thank you for any responses! It's always fun to see what kind of results we can get from things like this. I am also curious if the large kibble sizes have anything to do with the frequent oral tumors pet hedgehogs get, but that would be more for vets to look into.
