voodewlady
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Food change - 2007/08/20 19:40
Right now since I have to wait to get more money Pickles is eating "crap" food. She is eating 8 in 1 hedgehog food which I really hate feeding her. I mixed in some Chicken Soup For The Cat Lover's Soul original which my ferret eats to try and get her liking that. Any suggestions on how I can eliminate the "crap" food completly from her diet?
~Erin~
~Lives in the land of OZ~
Ms. Pickles the hedgehog
Mischa the ferret
Sydney the dapple dachshund
My Myspace link:
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HamorHollow
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/20 21:07
voodewlady wrote:
Any suggestions on how I can eliminate the "crap" food completly from her diet?
Sure! Pick the box up, walk to the trash can, and put it in; Don't buy more. Now it's eliminated. (Sorry, I despise those 'hedgehog foods')
Purina Kitten chow is cheep or Fancy Feast Dry comes in a sample size for about $2.50, or for about $15 you can have a breeder ship you 4-6 months worth of food.
-K
Kelly Sosik-Hamor
Hamor Hollow Hedgehogs - a New Hampshire breeder, serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and any where else hedgehogs are legal. |
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aislinsadia
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/20 22:36
I would highly suggest getting a quality mix from a breeder- I purchased each bag of food individually (smallest bag that was offered) to recreate the mix my breeder had and ended up spending WAY more than I should have on food that if it weren't for the fact that I have two kittens now, would all go bad or get thrown out before it was eaten.
In terms of switching her over to a new food and getting rid of the old hedgehog 8 in 1 completely- you need to be slow about the change. Think of it like if you had to change your dog or cat's diet- slow is best. Ten days is usually an adequate time period in which to switch an animal's diet, unless they are on something special or have special needs. So each day try adding a little more of the mix that you want her to be on, until the tenth day or so she is 100% on the new diet.
Good luck! And remember, green poop is common for diet change and stress  . Hopefully she'll take to the new stuff!
Post edited by: aislinsadia, at: 2007/08/20 22:40
*~*Steph*~*
Cotton, Noodles & Cocoa (hedgehogs), Kuruku & Kimiko (kittens), Sushi & Lily (Ryukin Goldfish), Rosy & Ruby (beagle sisters), Aries & Artemis (fancy guppies), Archie & Rocky (African Dwarf Frogs), and Squiggles (Blue Mystery Snail) |
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HamorHollow
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/20 23:07
If you've been mixing the 8 in 1 with the chicken soup, you can completely pull it from the mix by now without worrying.
-K
Kelly Sosik-Hamor
Hamor Hollow Hedgehogs - a New Hampshire breeder, serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and any where else hedgehogs are legal. |
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clutterbuster
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 03:52
Here I am again, with another fussy hedgie and trying to get them to eat.
I understand the need to do food changes gradually. Both Max and P-k have their favorite brands they came with. This week I bought bags of Adult Lite and mixed them with the regular (Max Iams, P-k chicken soup).
Max gets a half coffee scoop of Iams regular at night for I sprinkle on his medicine and he eats it all. Come early morning I will give him another half scoop of regular and diet, and he does get up during the day to eat and he will eat all the regular and some of the diet. I am pleased.
P-k is not taking well to the lite addition to her CSFCLS. I was giving her half regular and half Lite. She's been in pouty mood since the switch Monday night (it's now Thursday morning). She had her usual get-up treat of watermelon last night, played at the same activity level then she bit John last night (the first time in over a month). She's eating just the regular and leaving the lite.
She gets fed twice a day but different, she gets less than a coffee scoop at night, then in the morning I will dump whatever is left and put out a little more fresh food in case she is hungry during the day.
It's 4:45am and her wheel is too clean, she's been pouting all night. The regular has been picked out of her bowl and the diet left. I hate the thought she is hungry, but I've got to make a change in her diet for she is getting way too fat - she was 440 when she came on April 28th and on Monday was 493 and she is nine months old.
I am not good at practicing "if they are hungry, they will eat it." And I know you don't want them not to eat for fatty liver will set in. She is eating the regular and because of this she is eating less. How long do I keep giving her the half regular / half diet where she is only consuming half rations?
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CThogs
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 04:43
How long do I keep giving her the half regular / half diet where she is only consuming half rations?
Try 25% new/75% old food for awhile
If she is eating that,
Then go to 50/50
Ann
Connecticut Hedgehogs
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aislinsadia
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 08:38
Another suggestion may be to give her the lite, and crush some of the regular and sprinkle it over the rest, even if there is still regular left in the bowl. The tint of the "regular" stuff on the old might be just enough for her to take to it.
*~*Steph*~*
Cotton, Noodles & Cocoa (hedgehogs), Kuruku & Kimiko (kittens), Sushi & Lily (Ryukin Goldfish), Rosy & Ruby (beagle sisters), Aries & Artemis (fancy guppies), Archie & Rocky (African Dwarf Frogs), and Squiggles (Blue Mystery Snail) |
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clutterbuster
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 10:07
I might try the sprinkling, I hate getting back into that for I did it for months with PKC for Pippi.
I'm wondering about the type of Lite, the Agway only had one kind - hairball formula. Are there different CS lites or just the one marked hairball - could that have an additive that P-k doesn't like?
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HamorHollow
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 11:02
clutterbuster wrote:
I am not good at practicing "if they are hungry, they will eat it." And I know you don't want them not to eat for fatty liver will set in. She is eating the regular and because of this she is eating less. How long do I keep giving her the half regular / half diet where she is only consuming half rations?
In talking to my vet I found out that animals do not get fatty liver from not eating. They get it from too many proteins and fat cells building up in their liver. Perhaps the same people who are saying that hedgehogs get FLD from not eating are the same ones that feed really rich mixes?
If you want PK to eat, you need to cut all treats until she starts eating. I will also recommend, again, that you purchase a mix from a breeder. With several different foods in the mix, PK is bound to eat something.
You really need to stop changing the hedgehog's foods. It isn't good for their digestive systems to be bouncing from food to food. What have you found that PK will eat?
-K
Kelly Sosik-Hamor
Hamor Hollow Hedgehogs - a New Hampshire breeder, serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and any where else hedgehogs are legal. |
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CandJ327
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 17:37
I bought food from our breeder for several reasons:
A. Breeders who are professional have been doing this for awhile (longer than me obviously). A good breeder should be in contact with other good breeders so has the bennifit of a lot of shared information about what works and what doesn't.
B. They have seen the effects of the mix they use on their own herd.
C. It is a lot cheaper to buy a bag of mix from my breeder than it is to go out and buy several bags of cat food to mix together.
D. A bag from the breeder will last me several months but a mix I make myself will sit around for a long time and possibly go bad or get stale.
If i had a lot more hedgies, enough to make it more economical to mix myself, I might.
Ava's mom!
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clutterbuster
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 20:36
I really haven't changed a lot of foods in the almost four months she has been here. She came with a big bag of CSFCLS and I've kept her on that. After a month I mixed some blue spa into it and she continues to ignore that. She gets a little bit of Fromm sometimes during the day to snack on. And that's it until this week when I gave her CS Lite.
I will not go back to doing a breeders mix, that increases the different things she is being fed and gives her more she can decide not to eat (remember Pippi, early on she decided to ONLY eat the PKC of Ann's mix and I was tossing everything else every day). I am trying to keep the different cat foods she gets down to a minimum.
I have cut back on treats dramatically. When she arrived her owner said she was getting three crickets A DAY. I cut it back to one and when the can was gone that was it. I switched her to live and dried mealies and roasted waxworms, but those have been rare for the past month for every night her get up treat has been watermelon since its in season.
I'm not giving her a lot of different stuff, but I do want to get her to wean her off CS and replace it with Lite eventually. If I switch to a breeders mix then she'll have all sorts of stuff to pick from and never develop a taste for the lite.
She wants to eat, she eats all the CS regular from her bowl, leaves the Blue Spa i had mixed in previously and now leaves the CS lite. She was pouty the past few days, now she's agitated, pacing a lot - I think she is looking for more of her old favorite.
I asked this before, the CS lite the store had was the hairball formula - was that a bad choice, does it have an additive that perhaps she doesn't like? Is there a regular lite formula that I should go to another store for?
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CThogs
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 20:51
I asked this before, the CS lite the store had was the hairball formula - was that a bad choice, does it have an additive that perhaps she doesn't like? Is there a regular lite formula that I should go to another store for?
Here are all the varieties of Chicken soup:
http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/products/cats/dry_food/ This is adult cat lite formula which is different form the one you have.
Not really sure why Pippi would not eat for you  She was eating the same mix when she was here.
Ann
Connecticut Hedgehogs
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clutterbuster
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/23 21:08
I know, that is why I ordered it from you. Pippi became very fussy after a few weeks, the coccidia may have been starting to evolve in her at that time, we'll never know. When I used up the bag you sent me a month later, it just didn't make sense to keep her on it for she was only eating PKC and I was tossing everything else every day.
First thing she started tossing was CS, so no need for me to buy that. You recommended Blue Spa and I bought that and she ignored that (and now P-k ignores it). I couldn't find Royal Canin. So I just gave her PKC, and then about SIX WEEKS before she crossed over I found Fromm and she was willing to eat little bits of that but by that time she was having difficulty eating and I didn't realize it (that the pressure of food was uncomfortable for her with the fluid pressing against her organs).
I have no problem spending money on food, I just hate throwing most of it every day. I have a whole shelf in my freezer that is just cat kibble and hedgehog food, it's not sitting out going stale.
If she is in a snit over being given a new food this week, I don't want to imagine how'd she be with breeder mix with several new foods. I am trying to wean her off CS adult and onto Lite for she's at 493 and needs to lose weight.
thanks for the link again, I'll check it out.
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voodewlady
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/24 18:34
Today at Petco I bought a small bag of Fancy Feast Gourmet Gold cat food. It is the savory chicken and turkey. Is this ok to mix with the CSFCLS?
~Erin~
~Lives in the land of OZ~
Ms. Pickles the hedgehog
Mischa the ferret
Sydney the dapple dachshund
My Myspace link:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=120500732
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HamorHollow
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 01:00
clutterbuster wrote:
I know, that is why I ordered it from you. Pippi became very fussy after a few weeks, the coccidia may have been starting to evolve in her at that time, we'll never know. When I used up the bag you sent me a month later, it just didn't make sense to keep her on it for she was only eating PKC and I was tossing everything else every day.
Stop tossing the rest of the mix. Put it in the cage and leave it there, and if the hedgehog is hungry it will eat. You have to leave a food there for several days and take away the other options, and the hedgehogs will eat it. Trust me. I have over 70 currently and numerous others that have come and gone. I've never had a hedgehog refuse my mix because frankly the options are to eat the mix or starve to death. If you keep switching the food, you are giving the hedgehog the option to be picky. Stop it. Seriously, you really need to stop because this is extremely unhealthy for your hedgehogs.
I don't have any picky eaters, you have 2 out of 2 being picky. I don't think it's just a coincidence.
-K
Kelly Sosik-Hamor
Hamor Hollow Hedgehogs - a New Hampshire breeder, serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and any where else hedgehogs are legal. |
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voodewlady
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 02:05
I have not actually switched her food completly yet. I just bought the Purina Fancy Feast today and was gonna mix it in with the CSFCLS and her existing food so I can begin to break her off the 8 in 1. I was not going to mix in the FF until I got the all clear on here saying it was fine.
~Erin~
~Lives in the land of OZ~
Ms. Pickles the hedgehog
Mischa the ferret
Sydney the dapple dachshund
My Myspace link:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=120500732
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Stasi
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 07:48
voodewlady wrote:
I have not actually switched her food completly yet. I just bought the Purina Fancy Feast today and was gonna mix it in with the CSFCLS and her existing food so I can begin to break her off the 8 in 1. I was not going to mix in the FF until I got the all clear on here saying it was fine.
Sorry this thread went off on a tangent. The FF is fine to add to your mix, you should be completely fine in getting rid of the 8 in 1 food now.
That being said, I personally don't have an issue with the 8 in 1 hedgehog food in a mix...Other than cost. 
Stasi
Terrapin Hedgehogs
Joppa, MD
www.terrapinhedgehogs.com
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CThogs
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 07:50
I have not actually switched her food completly yet. I just bought the Purina Fancy Feast today and was gonna mix it in with the CSFCLS and her existing food so I can begin to break her off the 8 in 1. I was not going to mix in the FF until I got the all clear on here saying it was fine.
Sorry voodew lady-nobody answered your question. Don't stick pins in me
I have not used the Fancy feast gourmet gold. Is this the one?
http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/product_detail.asp?pf%5Fid=30135930&dept%5Fid=5&brand%5Fid=168&Page=
Edited to add: If Stasi says shes used it and likes it then go ahead. We were posting at the same time.
Post edited by: CThogs, at: 2007/08/25 08:04
Ann
Connecticut Hedgehogs
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luvshedgies
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 09:32
I also use the Fancy Feast Gourmet Gold in my mix. My hogs love it,as do my cats-Seuss(cat) and Gadget(hh) like to eat together
~Blessed Be~
Alison and a house full of hogs. Love my hoggies: Clementine, Supernova, Ravina, Bathsheba, Gideon, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Ziggy Stardust, Monochrome, iPod, EggNoodle, A-La-Mode,Pixel,Chloris,Gadget, Caviar Dreams,Pepper, Barbie, & Ansii. Bodha Lei the pooch and cats: Persephone & Seuss
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voodewlady
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Re:Food change - 2007/08/25 13:50
Thanks so much for the replies. I will add it to the mix today. 
~Erin~
~Lives in the land of OZ~
Ms. Pickles the hedgehog
Mischa the ferret
Sydney the dapple dachshund
My Myspace link:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=120500732
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