Feeding qs

Hi Everyone,

I will be getting my hoglet in a few weeks (fingers crossed).

I breed cats which is handy as i have loads of cat food in the house!!

I have dry Royal Canin Babycat34, would that be suitable?

I also have a wide variety of wet foods (all good quality high meat content kinds), would these be ok too?

Babycat34 sounds like kitten food. If it is, no. You could use Royal Canin Light or Indoor though, both of them are suitable Royal Canin foods.

Wet cat food is a treat item. You could offer a teaspoon full once a week instead of fresh. I've heard it makes their poo stink, but haven't experienced it when I used Applaws (then again, that is literally meat and a few % water, nothing else). That said, I much prefer using mince, and Bodhi actually eats the mince (down to no crumbs left), whereas she isn't that bothered with cat food. She does eat insect-eater diet, and I have some american cat foods (they do so much better quality over there, so I bought a few tins to try last time I was out there) that I will eventually try. But yes, as a treat to replace fresh occasionally, you can use quality wet food (I think someone mentioned using Sheba with the yellow/gold top as being a good quality).

No disrespect at all to whoever said that Sheba was good - It's rotten quality and contains less than 10% meat!!!

The foods i feed all contain over 50%, some are 80%.

Royal Canin foods don't differ much when it comes to Analysis, the only difference being in kibble size and shape, and a few calories.

I feed my cats beef mince as a treat, raw, is it fed raw for hedgies too?

No idea who said Sheba was good - I think it was Sheba, but I may have got that wrong. It was a brand I recognise as being 'well known' for being sold everywhere (which suggests poor quality to me, but I don't do cats), and wasn't Go Cat or Whiskers. I'll search later when I'm less exhausted

Kitten foods have more protein and more fat I believe. I remember them being high fat, but more protein makes sense. Either way, the two I suggested have the right protein, right fat, and a fair few people use them with good results.

Mince should be cooked. I have been casseroling, but I think the OH wants to try dry-frying next time. Either way, don't add extra oil. I use lock'n'lock pots (3 of them), fridge one and freeze two, then defrost as required overnight in the fridge. Some people re-heat, but I have never bothered, and it seems to not touch the sides when she eats as it is, so I save the microwaving energy.

Can also feed chicken breast, but I haven't tried that. I figure that 80-90% of my food is chicken flavoured, and cooking chicken breast is more of an issue, I'd have to go out of my way (or rather, my OH would, as the token carnivore, he cooks the mince).

It is Sheba that i have seen a few people recommend. (http://www.pygmyhogsuk.com/t18510-wet-cat-food?highlight=wet+cat+food)

To be honest i wouldn't really bother with the wet cat food. Much better off giving them mince as mentioned, chicken, egg or other supplemental foods instead, and just sticking to dry food for the base diet.

Ok so dry cat food every day yes?

I still don't understand what other foods to feed lol

Do i feed cooked mince AND veggies AND insects (are there any that aren't suitable) each day or is it one or the other?

Lol. Check out this thread: http://www.pygmyhogsuk.com/t6045-advice-for-newbies-please-read-first-hog-diet-101

Has loads of info on hog diet and what foods are hog friendly and which aren't.

What i do is feed my base mix of dry food every day. This should be available at all times for hog to munch. They should get insects every day, or at least every other day. My hogs get from 4-6 meal worms or mealie beetles per night these days, not that many as they can be fattening if fed in excess amounts.

Then every 2-3 days, they are to be fed "supplemental dishes", which can consist of any hog-friendly foods, such as cooked chicken, egg, mince, turkey, etc with fruit and veg if your hog is partial to it lol. This is added along with the base diet & bugs. I find mine turn their noses up at fruit and veg although it depends on the hog itself i guess lol

Every day Bodhi gets:
1 bowl of kibble
1 bowl of fresh (2 or 3 types of fruit/veg and mince mixed in together)
1 bowl of mealworms (~20 per day, although this gets spread between her bowl, hand-feeding, and her treat ball or forage tray, depending on what she has in her cage at the time - sometimes she gets beetles as well).
2-6 roaches (dependant on size and how hungry she is - she gets as many as she wants until she stops being interested in them).

Depends on your hog, and how much it weighs. Bodhi's weight fluctuates up and down by a few grams, but is focused on 350g (normally slightly lower), so I'm happy to give her plenty, and she self regulates. If your hog gorges and eats everything, and gets overweight, then obviously you need to limited it.

wow 20 mealworms per day!!

I'm getting it now, sounds quite easy really!

Is it ok to cook up a batch of mince and freeze it into portions?

For the fruit and veg, are they cooked or raw? I know potato is cooked but what about the others?

I should have specified live mealworms. If you're going dried, 3-4 dried per day. Live...I free feed, which works out about 20.

I cook up mince (it was the smallest fresh beef mince that Tescos had, 180g mebe?), then freeze two pots, and fridge one - some people use ice cube trays.

Fruit and veg, depends. I prefer it raw, same reason I, myself, prefer it raw. It has more nutrients, and takes less time. I like the crunchy! But it is up to you, if you cook for your family, can always cut off the end of a cooked carrot, and then chop it up for the hog. And yes, potato is cooked

I would buy live, i'm in no way squeamish and bugs are widely available where i am as there seems to be loads of reptile owners lol.

That's great, thanks for the info!!

I too prefer raw

Not a problem And live is always better. You can also try roaches, crickets and locusts. Bodhi loooooves roaches.

I know i can get mealworms, waxworms, crickets, and locusts, not sure about roaches, will need to check

I love the idea of feeding as natural a diet as possible, cat food seems so unlikely, may i ask why cat food?

Cat food because while hogs are insectivores, they are also opportunistic carnivores. The cat kibble offers the best range of protein/fat/ingredient requirements. There is a reason why cat food is suggested over dog food, but I can't remember what it is (aside from kibble size, but that wasn't the reason I'm thinking of...or not managing to think of!).

For insects, try Rick. His mealworms and roaches are good, as are his locusts. Far better than the stuff you get in shops (particularly shops like P@H!). Good customer service too. All of his live foods are carefully packed. So far bought two lots of 500g mealworms from him, lots of discoid and dubia roaches, and locusts.
www.rickslivefood.co.uk

I've also bought from LFfG, which is fairly good. They don't do roaches, and their mealworms are a bit on the weedy side compared to Rick's (smaller/less meaty rather than sickly). I do like the charity idea though, so for folks that only want to trial mealworms, or only need a few day, I'd recommend them
www.livefoodsforgood.co.uk

I also used the Roach Hut for a mini colony, but really wasn't impressed. They were loose in the cardboard box, and it took us over an hour to get them all out (there were a large number stuck to the packing tape :( And the smaller ones went into the cardboard flaps at the bottom that made up the box...basically, we had to very very carefully shred the entire box).
www.theroachhut.co.uk

Next time, I'm going to try the Roach Colony, and hope they at least put the roaches in a sack inside the box.
http://www.roachcolony.com/

Thanks for the info, superb

Just been browsing rickslivefood and wow! Urm is there anything unsuitable on there, or is it ok try anything? lol!!