[AliHedgieDad]

My hog, Ali, is almost 4 years old and has had quite a few problems that have affected both his diet and health since July of last year. It started off with a slight sneeze and cloudy lung (pneumonia) then dehydration and extreme lethargy and jaw issues. His appetite and desire to consume food on his own has been all over the place in spite of mealtime creativity and following a transition to soft food w/ recommendations from other owners (e.g.: turkey baby sticks, blue chicken cat food, sweet potato, carnivore critical care mixed w/ mealworms etc.).

After all of the troubleshooting over the last 7 months, I feel like I had tried everything to get him to eat and get his stool/urine back on track (was having small/nonexistent green tarry poo for a long time and he was straining to pee).

Finally this past week, I found a winning simple combination for him and wanted to post it in case it helps other struggling owners that don't receive that much help from their vets if the vet isn't an exotic specialist.

My boy, Ali, has had issues with his jaw (we're waiting on the results of cytology this week to find out what it is) and maybe his bladder area (waiting on results of an ultrasound next week). This is the diet that's been working for him over the last week and should be until his pain chewing goes away.
--

• soaked Mazuri kibble (small pellets)
• water
• Oxbow Omnivore Critical Care (VERY important to use this instead of Carnivore Critical Care, as their hedgie nutrition won't be complete w/ Carnivore care I found out - the difference w/ Ali's energy and appetite between this minor difference was night and day)

And that's it. I had tried giving him worms etc. but his jaw issue just made it too painful for him to chew. I hope this troubleshooting quest helps someone else who experiences similar issues. I couldn't find many online vendors that carried the Oxbow Omnivore Critical Care (and only exotic vets will probably have it in stock, so maybe call ahead), but there are a few. Good luck!

 

[AliHedgieDad]

My hog, Ali, is almost 4 years old and has had quite a few problems that have affected both his diet and health since July of last year. It started off with a slight sneeze and cloudy lung (pneumonia) then dehydration and extreme lethargy and jaw issues. His appetite and desire to consume food on his own has been all over the place in spite of mealtime creativity and following a transition to soft food w/ recommendations from other owners (e.g.: turkey baby sticks, blue chicken cat food, sweet potato, carnivore critical care mixed w/ mealworms etc.).

After all of the troubleshooting over the last 7 months, I feel like I had tried everything to get him to eat and get his stool/urine back on track (was having small/nonexistent green tarry poo for a long time and he was straining to pee).

Finally this past week, I found a winning simple combination for him and wanted to post it in case it helps other struggling owners that don't receive that much help from their vets if the vet isn't an exotic specialist.

My boy, Ali, has had issues with his jaw (we're waiting on the results of cytology this week to find out what it is) and maybe his bladder area (waiting on results of an ultrasound next week). This is the diet that's been working for him over the last week and should be until his pain chewing goes away.
--

• soaked Mazuri kibble (small pellets)
• water
• Oxbow Omnivore Critical Care (VERY important to use this instead of Carnivore Critical Care, as their hedgie nutrition won't be complete w/ Carnivore care I found out - the difference w/ Ali's energy and appetite between this minor difference was night and day)

And that's it. I had tried giving him worms etc. but his jaw issue just made it too painful for him to chew. I hope this troubleshooting quest helps someone else who experiences similar issues. I couldn't find many online vendors that carried the Oxbow Omnivore Critical Care (and only exotic vets will probably have it in stock, so maybe call ahead), but there are a few. Good luck!

To also add to the original post, as his jaw condition further deteriorated he still managed to maintain his appetite up until his last week or so when he passed away. I transitioned the soaked pellets to the Mazuri ground up into fine particles and mixed that with the Critical Care Omnivore + water.

I would start his evenings off with a little treat of some Gerber Chicken baby food to give him some variety in there (also helped when I needed to sneak some pain meds onto the spoon without him knowing). I also ground up Fluker's crickets/grasshoppers and soldier worms into fine powder and would sprinkle that onto his food as well so he still got enough chitin etc. There's not a lot of info out there about hedgie soft food diets, so I hope that helps!