Antibiotics

That I don't really now but I'd treat would treat like you would chicken - I mean you wouldn't eat a piece of cooked chicken that had been left uncovered all night. Have you tried hand feeding him treats (mealworms etc) he might take some out of the palm of your hand. Once you've got that you could give him cooked chicken from your hand.

Loveisnthere wrote: I was told to give him spikes because he is very underweight and that is meant to help him put on some weight.

Agree with what has been said although i have not read everything. Spikes is not good really as it contains nuts & raisins which i think has been mentioned, both of which are not good for hogs - nuts can get stuck in the roof of the mouth and raisins, like grapes can cause renal failure. As it is for wild hogs too it is only designed to attract them to your garden and is not a "complete" food nutritionally so doesn't contain half the nutrients needed to keep an animal healthy. A good quality complete cat food that is designed as a base diet would be so much better for your hoggle so you should look into that. Good quality dry cat foods are expensive - but worth it in my opinion

As already mentioned too should try mealies, minced meat such as chicken & beef, also as said dinks chicken soup is good for ill hogs. (I would try syringing this thickened up as opposed to baby food).

Not to sure about this but i have also read previously if your hog is still refusing food, that if you get live mealies and decapitate one (lol), then hold the opposite end and put it under hoggles nose the "juices" might encourage the hog to eat it. I have never needed to try this but i would probably try it if i was dealing with an underweight fussy hog

Hope things go well with your hoggie x

Link to the Dink's Chicken Soup Recipe -

http://www.pygmyhogsuk.com/t14719-dinks-chicken-soup?highlight=dinks

Harri is eating alot more now and seems to be well on the road to recovery just not sure what to feed him to help him put on weight hes at the moment eating a mixture of dry spikes food, wiskas chicken and go cat meat varity not sure which as mum buys it for the cat. With that he also gets mealworms and either that chicken soup or a chicken baby food and sometimes so apple banana and mango baby food. Is there anything he shouldnt be having in that or anything else i can add or change to help put on weight?

Jamiioo wrote:Spikes is not good really as it contains nuts & raisins which i think has been mentioned, both of which are not good for hogs - nuts can get stuck in the roof of the mouth and raisins, like grapes can cause renal failure.

Nuts and the roof of the mouth is true (there have been quite a few cases I've read about with hogs choking). Grapes/raisins has zero evidence - they cause renal failure in dogs, and there is anecdotal evidence for cats - no scientific studies in anything other than dogs though, and certainly not in hedgehogs that I can find (feel free to prove me wrong, but I cannot find any peer-reviewed papers on the subject!) - only thing I've found is people going, "Oooh, well it causes renal failure in dogs...best to avoid it in everything", and going by -that- logic, we need to stop eating them ourselves, not to mention not eating citrus fruits, avocado, almonds, aubergine...let us just say there is a long list of foods that have the potential for killing off one species, that doesn't affect others - heck, we all eat potatoes, part of the deadly nightshade family

As for the hog-at-hand, you need to be feeding better quality food. Whiskers and Go Cat is trash - it would be like feeding you chips 3 times a day, every day for the rest of your life. They are BOTH primarily cereals, which is a filler used by cheap companies to keep costs down - a hog eating filler eats more (obesity!) to get the same nutrients as it would from a quality meat-driven product. There is a stickied list of food, however if you PM me with an email address, I can send over my excel file - makes searching for foods much easier - what you are looking for is two to four types of food with 10-15% fat, ~30% protein (28-35% is the ideal range), with meat as the primary ingredient (first one on the list). You can get away with meat-meal in part of your mix, but a named meat is better. A lot of people use a small amount of Go Cat in their mixes as it has some odour control properties - a bit like having fish and chips (or take-away of your choice) once a week, in that it is junk food, but a little won't cause you any major harm.

My first mix, for example, breaks down like this:
2000g Advanced Nutrition Adult Food with Chicken
2000g Purely Adult Complete 40% Chicken (Pets At Home)
2000g Royal Canin Indoor 27
950g Go Cat Complete Indoor Cat With Chicken, Vegetables & Garden Greens
225g James Wellbeloved Adult Turkey & Rice

The three top ones are my primary biscuits, they have the right fat, the right protein, the right first five ingredients. Then Go Cat for the odour control, and I added some James Wellbeloved for a taste other than chicken (it is good to mix it up). Later on, I split my Go Cat up into three, and I have the one with Beef, and the one with Rabbit, as well as the one with Chicken - but still less than 1000g in total between the three (the roaches get the left-overs from the boxes)

Sooo...tbh, you want to stop feeding Spikes, it is for the far bigger, wild european hedgehogs (and even them, most experts suggest offering quality cat kibble, not commercial hedgehog food). You want to look into quality kibble, two to four types - you have a mix because if one type gets discontinued, your hog won't have the stomach ache associated with rapidly changing food - it is best to do such things gradually. But by all means, keep a small portion of your mix as Go Cat (or Whiskers - they are both equally 'junky', Go Cat just has the reputation for odour control).

Mealworms is fab - have you tried other live food? Dubia roaches go down very quickly. Locusts are also tasty. Waxworms (in moderation) can help with weight gain, but they are very fatty, so be careful with them. Crickets are good - I'd go silent over field or house as they can be noisy - they do tend to pong a bit, but Bodhi eats the ones I buy within 3 days, she is a little piglet!

Did you try mince? It is the staple outside of cat kibble. Every day, Bodhi gets fruit/veg (depending on what I have in, but a couple of different types), and some mince. She's had beef, and is now trying turkey - both are good, chicken would also work (if you can get chicken mince - as a veggie, I have no idea ). Pop it in a casserole dish, and oven cook it - think my OH does it on 150 C for about half an hour (might want to check with whoever cooks in your house with that though!). I get the smallest pack, then divide it into tiny lock'n'lock tubs. One in the fridge, two or three in the freezer. Then a spoonfull goes into the bowl every night with the fruit/veg (tablespoon for runner/skinny hogs, teaspoon or half teaspoon for tubsters).

Baby food is okay, but after trying it once, I wouldn't bother with it again. You're better off with meaty things tbh - hogs are insectivores, so more live insects the better. They are secondary carnivores, so in the 'wild' (or at least, their non-hybrid ancestors in the wild) would eat dead animals if they came across them, but probably wouldn't kill anything themselves (they are more defensive than aggressive really), so meat (chicken, beef, turkey, lamb) is good