New hog feeding issues

Angell on July 26th 2010, 11:31 am

Hi

We have only had our hog since Friday and i have followed as much advice as I can read on here. I mixed up 3 brands of cat biscuits and that is her main feed (iams, go cat indoor and tescos - all chicken flavour). I have given her a small bowl of it each evening, but every day it looks untouched. I know she must have had a little bit as there are crumbs around the bowl, but it doesn't look like its very much.

I also gave her some scrambled egg yesterday which remained untouched too. The only thing I have witnessed her hoover up greedily is mealworms - I give her a couple a day (she had a few last night as it was our first handling sesh since she has been here).

Should I be worried? Is it just the new surrounding and I need to let her settle a bit first?

Any advice welcome please Smile

Many thanks

animal addict on July 26th 2010, 11:36 am

were you given any of the food she was originally eaten?

she might be eating more than you think - if yu are really worried either weigh the bowl before and after or count out the number of biscuits before and after and see how much she has eaten - mine eat between 80-120 biccies per night

if she hasnt been introduced to many new foods then she might be a bit wary - spinkle some mealies on top so she realises its food and also she might get a taste of it whilst grabbing a mealie too and think oooh thats nice and gobble the rest up

Angell on July 26th 2010, 11:47 am

Unfortunately no. Her previos owner just abandoned her at the reptile shop, and when I asked the guy there what she was eating he said "oh some hedgehog food but you can feed her cat food". So all the info about feeding I have got off here really.

I did weigh the bowl and it only went down about 2g last night - which we worked out to be about 10 biccies :(

I will put some mealies on top and see what happens thanks.

I don't think she's had much of a life so far, her previous owner seemed to get bored with her very quickly and was very vague about how she was cared for. She's been living in the back room of the reptile shop for weeks, which is how we found out about her as we are often up there for food for our snakes.

She shakes whenever I go near her and huffs a lot, although she did let her guard down a little when I got her out last night and she let me stroke her back without balling up....good enough for the first handling day I thought! I guess I need to let her get used to the fact she's loved and spoiled now Smile

animal addict on July 26th 2010, 11:50 am

bless her - its all new to her - she will settle and get better in time x

Angell on July 26th 2010, 3:51 pm

Thanks I hope so! I just wanna get everything right and really get worried when my pets don't eat - they're like children in that respect! I know she's fairly happy as she wanders around her viv and adores her wheel - the first day we had her she slept in it and woke up periodically for a run before going back to sleep!

LeeBee on July 26th 2010, 4:28 pm

Aww Bless her.... Poor little thing! She's lucky you took her in.

beauty_dragon on July 26th 2010, 8:05 pm

I didn't realise they ate so much a night! Acorn eats only about 20 biscuits max a night I think! sad

**tiggy** on July 26th 2010, 8:36 pm

glad shes got a new loving home. im sure she will settle in time big smile

have you tried some mince? mine all prefer it to chicken but they still eat anything i give them lol!

dexnos on July 26th 2010, 8:37 pm

poor little sod, do u have any idea of the age?

Ditto to AA's post. With regards to introducing new foods don't give up it make take months before he will try egg, chicken etc but just keep trying. If you need a rough ideas of a diet sheet pm me your email address and I'll send u a section of my care pack.

The chances are a lot of the none setting is due to stress so hopefully with a few days you will start to see changes. Be sure to check her weight.

You also need to consider the possibility of her being pregnant if you have no background :cross fingers: she hasn't been with a male but sadly u wont know until u count to day 50.

Try and weigh her tonight if u haven't already done so and again in a day or two.

Keep us updated
dink bye

Angell on July 27th 2010, 10:39 am

dexnos wrote:poor little sod, do u have any idea of the age?

Ditto to AA's post. With regards to introducing new foods don't give up it make take months before he will try egg, chicken etc but just keep trying. If you need a rough ideas of a diet sheet pm me your email address and I'll send u a section of my care pack.

The chances are a lot of the none setting is due to stress so hopefully with a few days you will start to see changes. Be sure to check her weight.

You also need to consider the possibility of her being pregnant if you have no background :cross fingers: she hasn't been with a male but sadly u wont know until u count to day 50.

Try and weigh her tonight if u haven't already done so and again in a day or two.

Keep us updated

Hi! Thanks for your advice. I had planned to boil up a little mince for her today. She didn't touch her biscuits at all last night - just ate the mealworms off the top :(

Obviously she has fresh water every day but I have no idea if she has been near it.

I really don't think she has been near a male - she has spent a long time in the rep shop and only had turtles for company. We guess her age to be about 10 months ish (the reptile shop said the previous owner bought her at xmas and they don't release them til they are 12 weeks old). I will weigh her tonight - she let me hold her last night without balling up too much so hope she will let me weigh her - what sort of weight should she be?

I have PM'ed you for a diet sheet thanks hun

animal addict on July 27th 2010, 11:31 am

beauty_dragon wrote:I didn't realise they ate so much a night! Acorn eats only about 20 biscuits max a night I think!

hes a good size though!!

Angell - weight can be deceiving - its good to weigh her regularly to keep track of her weight but you also need to look at her shape also - should look teardrop when viewed from above and no sunken sides - can you take piccies?

Angell on July 27th 2010, 11:47 am

Hi thanks for that. She is def teardrop shape - will take piccies prob tomorrw as OH is out tonight and he's better with the camera Smile

gems312 on July 27th 2010, 1:51 pm

A lot of people mention this, I understand what is mean't by teardrop shaped but what do sunken sides look like? Do you have any pictures to clarify?

animal addict on July 27th 2010, 2:47 pm

teardrop means their bum end looks like ( ) and narrows to a point at their head - if they are all (inc head) ( ) then that tends to be overweight and check for rolls of fat around their neck, underweight is ) ( at the bum end and a pointy spine and l l is ok too which is what runner hogs generally tend to look like - dont know if that makes sence really

**emdools** on July 27th 2010, 2:57 pm

It is true about hogs regulating their intake.

Sugar doesn't eat much in way of biscuits as one bowl can last a week no problems but she also doesn't use her wheel every night.

She is a nice tear drop shape and her weight is constant.

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