blakheartedbella89 said:
kinda off topic but can poor nutrition cause quill and fur loss and excesive skin flaking?
Well first of all, in respone to to your other comment on another thread - yes poor nutrition can cause skin problems and the food you are feeding - pretty pets - is absolutely horrible!!!!
In fact, hedgehogs have died from malnutrition being on pretty pets!! Nothing against you, I'm sure you just got your information from a bad source and I'm also sure your vet reccommended it as I've heard many people say theirs have :roll: but please take your hedgie off of it right away.
What did your vet use to treat for the external parasites? Just because a skin scraping is negative doesn't mean they don't have mites (skin scrapings are usually negative even when they have mites, as detecting mites using a skin scraping can be quite tricky). Unless your hedgie was treated specifically for mites (ie with revolution) she could still have mites. But she could very well be quilling too.
All that being said, my guess is that it's the food!!!
Check out this list to find your hedgehog a healthier food:
http://hedgehogcentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15
Wellness is a healthy food, but the kitten formula has too much fat, and too much protein. Try Wellness Indoor Health, or Healthy Weight instead.

Also many hedgehogs find wellness is too rich on their tummies, same with wet cat food, which may be why your little girl has the diarrhea. To avoid diarrhea, new food should very slowly be added into the diet. Mind you, you may find that when you add a better food, your hedgehog stops eating the pretty pets right away, which is fine. Hedgehogs are smart, they know when they have a better food than pretty pets and usually switch off of it right away.
Hedgehogs should be fed a mix of at least 3 high quality organic cat foods (and usually no hedgehog food at all, although there are some okay brands ie. spike's delight, 8in1 ultra that can be fed as "junk food" only). Protein should be between 30-35% and fat should usually been under 15%. The first five ingredients should include high quality meats (ie meat meals), no "by-products" (this means beaks and feet and feathers!!) and no corn (hedgehogs cannot digest corn). Also no harmful perservatives like BHA, BHT or ethoxyquin (these cause cancer).
Also what kind of newspaper bedding is it? If it's actual newspaper that is bad. newspaper contains harmful toxins and is very cold too. Most people on here use fabric liners (ie fleece). Carefresh is by far safer than newspaper though so I would switch back to that if you don't want to switch to fabric liners.
As for the drop in wheeling...what kind of wheel are you using? does it have a solid running surface with no crossbars? Wheels without solid running surfaces are dangerous and so are silent spinners. Has your hedgie's nails been trimmed lately? long nails = less running.
Also do you have a heating system set up? Hedgehogs need to be kept at a constant 76-78F, some even need warmer. They also need 12-14 hours of light (but not direct sunlight on their cages) in order to prevent hibernation. The reduced activity could be because she is cold / close to attempting hibernation which is not safe.
Check out this thread for all about heating:
http://hedgehogcentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4579
Also freeze dried mealies arent usually reccommend or shouldnt be fed in high quantities at the very least. I feed freezed dried crickets and have never had any issues but I've heard of hedgies dying from eating too many freeze dried mealies because they compact in their intestines. Live mealies are more nutritional anyways
Sorry to throw all this info at you!! I hope I didn't come across as harsh at all! Unfortunately there's a lot of very bad info out there on hedgehogs and even most vets give their clients wrong info. I was doing lots of things wrong when I joined HHC, that's why this site is so great, the info is correct and people are always willing to help out
Congratulations on your new girl and I hope she gets better
